Sangak, also known as Persian Pebble Bread or Persian Army Bread, is a flatbread usually made with whole meal flour, and baked on a bed of hot stones.

Wild Naan Sangak is the bread of the month for the Bread Baking Babes. Elizabeth of blog from Our Kitchen, the host kitchen this month, has been enjoying “Persian-style” dinners recently so she decided we needed to experience some Persian bread.

Breads. From the Hearth.

Coincidentally, after Elizabeth chose this bread, but before I made it, I attended a workshop on “Breads from the Hearth.” The workshop was part of the virtual Kneading Conference sponsored by the Maine Grain Alliance.

In this workshop, Michael Hanson & Evan Orloff demonstrated how to make flatbreads in a wood-fired oven. One of the breads they demonstrated was Sangak. Michael referred to it as Persian Army Bread and gave us his interpretation of how the Persian Army would have baked this bread.

“As the story goes, every soldier would carry 2 or 3 stones in his pocket and when the army camped for the night, each soldier would take their stones and put them in a big pile in a pit. They would build a massive fire on top of the stones and let it heat for a couple of hours, then brush off the embers. Then, the baker would throw the flatbread onto the hot stones. They were able to cook for 3 to 4 hours on the hot stones.” Michael Hanson

According to Michael’s workshop bio, he is a third-generation Master Baker. He’s had a very successful baking career in the UK and has conducted research in Turkey, Bulgaria, Italy, and most recently in the Republic of Georgia where he has been exploring almost-extinct ancient grains and learning from traditional bakers. Hee is working on a definitive bread book. Something to look forward to in the future.

Michael and Evan made their dough with 75 – 85% extraction whole grain flour (i.e., lightly sifted), water, salt, and sourdough, and formed it into balls before spreading out the dough with their fingers and baking small oblong loaves on the stones.

Michael piled the stones on one side of what he called a cast iron skillet, but I would consider it a cast iron griddle because it was rectangular shaped like my cast iron griddle. He heated the griddle and stones in the wood-fired oven until they reached 700 degrees (I think).

Then he carefully removed the griddle with the stones to a heat-resistant surface and baked the bread on top of the stones. He didn’t place the griddle back in the oven to bake the bread. Instead, he baked the loaves on the stones for a few minutes, then flipped them over and baked them on the other side. He was able to bake a few loaves before the stones lost too much heat.

When a couple of stones stuck to a loaf, Michael made up a funny quote: “You get a free stone with every loaf!”

Notes:

I used Elizabeth’s formula for Wild Naan Sangak, but omitted the olive oil because Michael mentioned they don’t typically use olive oil in the Middle East, but they do use yogurt.
I also omitted the sesame seeds because with the method I used, you flip the dough over to bake on the other side and that wouldn’t work with toppings.
My dough is made with Maine Grains stone-ground lightly sifted whole wheat flour.
I used 3 lbs. of river stones I got from a garden supply store. I think 5 lbs. or more stones would work better, but the package I bought only had 3 lbs.
I tried the method Elizabeth provided (i.e., using water to press out the dough onto a baking sheet and then transferring the dough to another baking sheet with the hot stones), but I couldn’t seem to get the stones hot enough and to keep the dough from sticking to the original sheet pan.
So, I improvised and used a cast iron skillet instead of a sheet pan. I would’ve used my cast iron griddle but it doesn’t fit in my oven. I liked this method because it was easier to manage the skillet and the dough.
After the dough fermented at room temperature for about 3 hours, I placed it in the refrigerator overnight. The cold dough was much easier to work with the next day.
I still had a little trouble getting the stones hot enough so I increased the temperature to 480 degrees and placed the skillet up another level in my oven. That seemed to do the trick. I was glad I had several dough pieces to practice with.
More stones piled higher (not too high) would be better, but it still worked with the 3 lbs. If you have more stones, you can probably bake more than one bread in the skillet.
I wanted to use my grill to bake this bread, but it was raining on bake day. I think the higher heat from the grill would get the stones hotter, but I haven’t tried it yet.

Equipment needed

Cast iron skillet
River rocks or stones – enough to fill at least a portion of the skillet (5 lbs. or so)
Tongs – to flip the dough over and to remove any attached stones
Oven or Grill

Preparing the stones for baking

To prepare the stones before the first baking, wash them several times with dish detergent and warm water to remove oils and/or dirt. After several rinsings, once the rinsing water is clear, they will be almost ready to go. Just to be sure, boil the stones for 10 minutes in a pot of clean water.

After draining the stones, dump them onto a rimmed cookie sheet to dry. Once they are dry, they are ready to use.

Sometimes after baking, there are bits of bread stuck to one or two stones. To remove the bread, soak the stones in clean water. The bread will come right off.

When not using them for baking, let them cool, make sure they’re dry, and keep them in the jar or other container.