Daring Bakers Challenge: Lavash

This month's Daring Bakers Challenge marks a momentous occasion... I didn't have to make a single substitution to make the recipe vegan! That's because this month's lovely hosts are members of the Alternative Daring Bakers, representing both vegan and gluten free... Shel of Musings from the Fish Bowl and Natalie from Gluten a Go Go. The challenge? Make vegan, and optionally gluten-free, lavash (an Armenian cracker bread) topped with a spice mixture of your choice and a vegan dip! It was nice to have so much freedom to play around with the flavors. And luckily, my post-Ike power situation was resolved this week (after 12 days without power), so I was able to bake with my own oven!


Even though we made Armenian-style lavash crackers, I chose an Egyptian spice mixture as a topping. Dukkah is a blend of dry nuts, seeds, and spices. The dukkah I made has slivered almonds, sesame seeds, cumin seeds, fenungreek, dried thyme, black peppercorns, and sea salt all toasted lightly, then ground into a coarse meal (photo below is just after toasting).
I was a bit pressed for time last night when I made these crackers. We were having a dinner party and I was making three other dishes at the same time, so I chose a simple dip for the lavash that would let the dukkah spice mixture shine through. This is a traditional hummus recipe from Veganomicon, finished with a light dusting of paprika and a drizzle of olive oil.
As for the lavash, they are crispy and full of flavor. In fact, I am eating them for breakfast with leftover hummus as I type this post. Best of all, they were very easy to make and my dinner guests were impressed with homemade crackers!
I hope all of the Daring Bakers had fun with this challenge and saw how easy it is to bake with vegan ingredients! There has not been a challenge yet that I couldn't complete, baking vegan allows you to experiment and be creative. I would encourage anyone to join us as an alternative baker any month to see how much fun it can be. Thanks again Natalie and Shel for a challenge that will go down in daring bakers history!