Kümöch
Our unleavened feast bread of flour, water and salt, baked over embers or in a skillet.
Kümöch is the bread our church uses at the altar, and every home bakes it too, unconsecrated, for weddings and feasts. When I was twelve my grandmother took me on the pilgrimage to Iyık Janyl for the Feast of St. Janyl. They gave us a blessed loaf, and she wrapped a piece in her white headscarf and kept it in the chest all winter for luck. I still have that scarf.
It is only flour, water and salt, so it is the gentlest bread to learn first. Traditionally it is buried in the embers, but a cast-iron pan gives you the same blistered crust.
What you'll need
Kümöch
Our unleavened feast bread of flour, water and salt, baked over embers or in a skillet.
Ingredients
servingsInstructions
Method
- Mix the flour and salt, add the water (and oil if using), and knead 8 minutes into a smooth dough. Rest 20 minutes covered.
- Divide into two. Pat each into a round about 1.5 cm thick. Press a pattern into the top with a fork or a bread stamp.
- Heat a dry cast-iron pan over medium-low heat. Cook one round with the lid on for 7–8 minutes, until browned underneath.
- Turn and cook another 7–8 minutes. Tap the bottom: it should sound hollow. Wrap in a cloth while you cook the second.
- Break by hand at the table, never cut.
With love from my kitchen in Talas,Jibek