Vegan Lagana Bread / Greek Shrove Monday Bread

Shrove Monday or Clean Monday (Kathari Deftera) is a Greek public Holiday, usually celebrated by going out for a picnic and also by the custom of kite flying. As with most holidays in Greece, this one also revolves around food. As it is the first day of the Orthodox Lent, no meat, fish  or dairy products are consumed. This means that it’s the day of  the year to make all these traditional Greek recipes, like taramasalata, dolmades, semolina halva and of course the one thing that holds everything together is the traditional Lagana bread. Lagana bread is a Greek flat bread which is quite similar to Focaccia and this bread is traditionally baked only on Shrove Monday, the first day of Great lent before Easter. Since the fasting calls for no dairy products, this bread is completely vegan. An authentic touch is given to this bread by pressing the dough with fingertips all along the surface of the Lagana, with sesame seeds which is most common topping of this bread.

Do you know traditionally baked Lagana bread calls for tahini and white wine, however my today's bread goes for Olive oil which is not used traditionally for this bread. But trust me the addition of Olive oil make this bread more crusty and flavourful. Seriously this bread tastes simply awesome even without any spread. Dunno why this bread is baked just once a year by Greeks, however nothing will stop you to bake this fantastic bread if you are looking for a simple bread to serve along with your bowl of soup. Am running this week's blogging marathon with 'Flavors of Greece' as theme, after a gluten free and vegan friendly chickpeas soup, my today's post goes to this interesting and easy breezy Lagana Bread.

Recipe Source: Here
3cups Bread flour/All purpose flour
1tbsp Instant yeast
1/2tsp Sugar
1/2tsp Salt
1/4cup Olive oil
Sesame seed for topping

Take the flour, olive oil, salt in a large bowl, add the instant yeast and gradually add luke warm water to knead everything.

Knead well until the dough turns soft and smooth. Coat a bowl with olive oil, place the soft dough, wrap it and let it sit in a warm place for an hour.

Once the dough gets doubled, punch the dough and knead for few minutes.

Gently stretch the dough to make a rectangular shaped disc.

Place it on a baking sheet lined over a baking tray. With your fingertips, press down all over the surface of the dough.

Cover the lagana with a towel and let it rise again for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400F and brush the top of the bread with olive oil sprinkle the sesame seeds.

Bake for 20-25minutes until the crust turns golden brown.

Enjoy warm.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#76.