Mini Barbari Style Bread

This popular Persian flat bread can be eaten for breakfast or can accompany many dinner dishes!

Barbari, also known as Nan Barbari or Noon Barbari, is a traditional Persian flat bread. Nan or noon means bread in Farsi. Its origins can be traced to Iran. Barbari is light in texture and has a crisp crust. The crust is achieved by a special glaze called “roomal” that is brushed onto the dough before baking. Barbari can be baked plain or adorned with poppy seeds, sesame seeds, or nigella.

I got the inspiration to make mini barbari bread from a lovely farmer’s market back east. This one stand sold beautiful small loaves of barbari. The 4 x 8 inch flat breads were wrapped in paper and came with fun oily dipping sauces. Traditionally barbari is a much longer (in most recipes I found the barbari is around 6 x 14 inches). This vendor wanted to make the breads smaller to make it easier for customers to eat as they shopped. We found it very convenient to eat the golden flatbread and taste the lovely combination of salt and seeds that covered the surface, while we perused stands filled with fruits and vegetables. After some experimentation I feel I have created a delightful recipe for barbari style bread. Please enjoy!

Mini Barbari Style Bread Recipe

Yields 8 mini flat bread loaves

Specialty Tools: Pizza Stone and pizza paddle

Prep Time 10 to 60 minutes

Inactive Time 30 minutes

Bake Time 10 minutes

Drink Pairing Suggestion: Black tea

Ingredients

Dough:

1 1/4 cups warm water (110 F/ 45 C)

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon olive oil or vegetable oil

1 1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast

Topping:

Olive oil for drizzling

1 teaspoon white sesame seeds

1 teaspoon black sesame seeds

1/2 teaspoon poppy seeds

1/2 teaspoon dried onion

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Directions

To make the dough:

With a Bread Machine

Place the dough ingredients in order into bread machine; water, flour, salt, oil, sugar, yeast. Select the dough setting.

With a Stand Mixer

Place flour, salt, sugar, and yeast into the bowl of the stand mixer. Attach the dough hook, run the mixer on low to medium speed, and slowly add the water and oil. Run the mixer until the dough forms a ball.

Lightly grease a large bowl and place dough inside. Cover the bowl with a towel and put in a warm area until the dough has doubled in size.

Divide the dough into 8 equal sized balls.

Shape each ball into an oval. Set aside on a floured surface and cover with a towel.

Let dough rise about 30 minutes until slightly puffy.

Place pizza stone in the cold oven. (Do not put pizza stone in hot oven or it might crack or explode.)

Preheat oven to 450 F

Flatten each dough oval into a 3 x 7 inch rectangle. Taper the ends. Using your fingers make 4-5 lines from tip to tip of the dough.

Brush olive oil evenly over the dough.

Mix together the sesame seeds, poppy seeds, dried onion, and sea salt in a small bowl. Sprinkle topping mixture over the dough.

Place dough on pizza stone. Bake for 10 minutes, until golden.

Remove barbari with a pizza paddle.

Serve hot.

Barbari is a great side dish for koobideh.

When eating barbari as a stand alone dish, accompany it with some feta cheese, honey, butter, grapes, or cucumbers.

To make the barbari traditionally sized follow the above instructions, but shape the dough into two 6 x 14 rectangles. Bake them for 15 minutes. They may have to be baked one at a time depending on the size of your pizza stone.

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