How Georgian bread is baked. Photo report from the bakery

Bread in Georgian: “puri”, and oven: “tone”.

Now it’s not difficult to guess that “tonis puri” literally translates as “bread from the oven.” Tone resembles a stone well. It is dug into the ground and lined with clay bricks on the inside. A fire is lit at the bottom of the well.

You need to keep in mind that Georgian peasants bake different types of bread in tone - loaves, “bricks” and “shoti” - the bread that will be discussed in this post. Therefore, the name “tonis puri” is broad. This can be the name of any bread that is baked in tone.

“Shoti” is the same “Georgian bread” that in Russia (and in Georgia in Russian) is sometimes called “lavash”, or “Georgian lavash”. This is a wrong definition. The correct name for such bread is “shoti” or “shotis puri”.

But such traditional Georgian bread baked in tone comes in different shapes - round (which is usually called “Georgian lavash”), rectangular, with rounded corners, called “dedis puri” (mother’s bread),” and the shoti itself is diamond-shaped with elongated ends. In fact, all of this is shotis puri.

As for the word “lavash”, it is of Armenian origin. Armenian lavash is a thin flatbread. It is good for wrapping cheese with herbs or lula kebab with onions.

Armenian lavash and Georgian shoti are good in their own way, but they are completely different types of bread products. As mentioned above, shotis puri is baked in a special oven, which is dug into the ground and lined with kripich.

It is advisable to eat it hot or warm. It tastes much better this way. Shoti is indispensable when eating dishes such as khashi (soup made from beef legs and tripe), kharcho (thick and spicy Georgian beef soup with rice and spices), satsivi (ideally turkey, more often chicken in nut sauce), lobio ( thick red bean soup with spices), canakhi (coarsely chopped fatty lamb with tomatoes, eggplants, onions, herbs - everything is baked in portions in clay pots)...

In addition, it is with shoti that one should eat Georgian cheeses - milky Sulguni, velvety Imeretian, goat milk with a pungent smell - guda...

Use this bread to remove the finished kebab from the skewers. A whole shoti is placed on the dish, the kebab is laid out on the bread (in pieces or directly on skewers), and on top, so as not to cool down, another whole shoti is covered and served like that. Shoti is soaked in hot meat juice and the aroma of shish kebab and turns into a very tasty dish in itself.

In Tbilisi, there are bakeries where shoti is baked literally at every step. Shotis puri usually weighs 400 grams. One such bread costs 70 - 80 tetri (about 45 - 55 cents). The smell of such freshly baked bread spreads throughout the street, filling all the nooks and crannies and causing profuse salivation.

Here is an ordinary bakery located near the station. The sign says "tone". You already know that “tone” is the oven in which shoti is baked.

There is a hood above the tone.

Unassuming environment. Simple icons, sieve, clock. There is an electric light bulb under the ceiling. Everything is inexpensive. This is a business that will feed one family. On average, from 120 to 200 loaves of bread are sold per day.

Baker - Zurab. The bakery is owned by Mamuka, who allowed me to make this photo report.

The stove is tone. Powered by gas. In villages, tone is wood-burning, as in ancient times, when each household had its own tone.

Zurab lights the stove with a piece of paper attached to a pole.

Libra from my childhood. The curled ends reminded me of ducks. I remember I stared at them with all my might when I went to the market with my parents and the peasants weighed out eggplants, cucumbers, peaches, grapes, sauerkraut to us...

Zurab gives the dough the desired shape. I said that it can be different. Here they bake “dedis puri” - “mother’s bread”, rectangular with rounded corners.

To give shape, a foot is used, a board on which lies a thick layer of sponge with cotton, covered with dense fabric.

Another purpose of the foot is to bring the finished dough into the oven. The dough should stick to the inner wall of the oven. Deftly using his paw, the baker slaps the dough onto the hot bricks.

Tone fills up and Zurab has to “dive” deeper and deeper into it.

The final stage of filling the oven resembles a circus act. Tone becomes a giant predatory worm from a Hollywood blockbuster, with slippered feet sticking out of its mouth.

Meanwhile, the bread is toasted and acquires an appetizing golden hue.

This goldenness evokes pleasant thoughts of sulguni cheese cut into thick slices, sweetish Choport (from the town of Choporti) tomatoes, kupats (sausages made from coarsely chopped minced meat or giblets mixed with pomegranate seeds) and a large clay jug of good “Kakheti”.

Zurab takes the finished shotis puri out of the tone. This is some kind of balancing act.

It differs both in taste and appearance from its thinner Armenian counterpart. Georgian lavash - we are, of course, talking about it! This national dish is a kind of calling card of the Caucasus. Skillfully prepared, Georgian lavash turns out fluffy and thick, with a crispy crust and aromatic crumb. Shall we try?

How to cook according to the rules?

Proper Georgian lavash is baked in an oven called “tone”. This special oven consists of a huge clay pot, lined with bricks and positioned obliquely at an angle of approximately thirty degrees. Tone is usually melted with sawdust. During the cooking process, the fire is constantly maintained. Lavash made from dough is placed (stuck) to the back wall of the oven and baked for about ten minutes. To get a crispy crust, you need to constantly sprinkle the prepared pita bread with water. Real Georgian lavash is simply delicious! It is customary to eat it freshly prepared with cheese, milk, herbs, and wine. To prevent the bread from weathering, wrap it in a towel - this way it lasts longer. Georgian-style lavash can also be used as a base for other dishes. For example, baked with meat or cheese filling - it will be even tastier! By the way, some Georgians consider the word “lavash” itself to be Armenian and prefer to call the national flatbread “puri” (tonis puri), which means “bread” in Georgian.

Homemade Georgian lavash

Of course, it is best to build a tane oven for food in the courtyard of a private house. But if you live in a high-rise building, don’t worry: good bread can be made both in the oven and in an electric mini-bakery. You just need to knead the dough correctly and select the temperature and baking mode.

Georgian lavash: recipe

In order to knead the dough, take half a kilogram of flour, about half a glass of water, 30 grams of fresh yeast, salt, sugar.

Dissolve the yeast in warm water, add a little flour and sugar, let it sit until it rises. mix it with salt and yeast. Knead a homogeneous dough (like for pies). Cover the dough with a kitchen towel and leave to rise for half an hour. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees. Sprinkle a baking sheet with flour. Roll out the dough into characteristic shapes, place on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for 20 to 30 minutes until cooked. Sprinkle the hot pita bread with water and wrap it in a towel so that it sweats a little and becomes soft.

With cornmeal

How to cook Georgian lavash with and egg? We will need: a kilogram of wheat flour, five large spoons of corn flour, 80 grams of yeast, two small spoons of salt, one egg, vegetable oil.

We start preparing Georgian lavash (the recipe is in front of you) by sifting the flour and mixing it with salt. Next, dissolve the yeast in half a liter of warm water and let it sit for a while. Combine yeast and flour. Knead soft dough. Place it in a warm place for half an hour. Meanwhile, preheat the oven thoroughly and grease the baking sheets with oil. We form the cakes, lightly rolling them in corn flour, flatten them to the required size (they turn out oblong and quite thick). Beat the egg with vegetable oil (preferably olive oil) and sugar. Grease the pita bread with the resulting mixture. Place on a baking sheet in the oven. The cakes are baked for 15-20 minutes at the very top in the oven until cooked. Sprinkle the pita bread with water several times during cooking. This will make the crust crispy but not hard.

Ancient recipe

How to cook Georgian lavash (recipe without yeast)? Ancient Georgian flatbreads were prepared, of course, without the use of this product. Same as without eggs. They used the so-called old dough as leaven, which remained from previous batches and soured. This is what the bakers added to the new, freshly prepared one. So, nothing but flour, salt and water! All the piquancy lies in the method of cooking in a special tane (or tone) oven.

Madauri

This type of Georgian lavash is an oblong flatbread of a ruddy, golden hue. On one side the cake is round and thick. On the other hand, it is thin and pointed. When preparing the dough, no yeast is used: only flour, salt and water. This type of pita bread bakes very quickly (three to four minutes). Madauri variants are found in various areas of Georgia. You can use eggs and vegetable oil. The flatbread is eaten with butter, sour cream, herbs, and cheese.

Khachapuri

This word can be translated literally: “curd bread.” There is no uniformity in the preparation of this dish. Megrelian - round, covered with top Adjarian - boat-shaped, filled with egg on top. Rachinsky - with beans. The classic filling is Imeretian cheese. The dough is used prepared with matsoni or kefir (where yeast is replaced with a lactic acid product). Khachapuri is fried in a frying pan or baked in the oven.

Shoti-lavash

To prepare it you will need: 300 grams of flour, a glass of water, 10 grams of fresh yeast, a spoonful of honey (or molasses), salt, olive oil.

Dissolve the molasses with yeast in warm water. Add two large spoons of flour and set aside in a warm place for 15 minutes. Combine flour with salt and mix with molasses and yeast. Set aside again for 10 minutes. Knead the dough with olive oil. When the dough has approximately doubled in volume, form small loaves by rolling them in the air and pulling out the edges. Place on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Sprinkle with water and let stand until volume increases. Bake in a well-heated oven for 15 minutes. Before eating, lightly sprinkle the pita bread with flour. You can eat milk and butter instead of regular milk.

Try making this delicious Georgian bread with or without filling according to one of the above recipes - and you will surely remain a fan of Caucasian cuisine forever! Bon appetit everyone!

Georgia is one of the few countries where bread is baked in the old folk way - in "Tone" ovens.

Georgian bread is often confused with Armenian bread and is called lavash. Not true. Lavash is Armenian bread (thin), and tonis puri is Georgian ( This is a fluffy flatbread that is eaten hot)...Translated it means. - "puri" - bread, "tonis" - from the stove tone

Thonis puri is made using ancient technology and its recipe is passed down from generation to generation.

Georgian bread is very diverse. I will list the most popular types:

mrgvili (round)
shoti (sickle-shaped)
dedas-puri (long)
puri (kvass bread)

The recipe for this bread is simple - water - flour and salt. An interesting technology for baking bread... Look at the tone and see that the cakes literally stuck to the wall. Question: why don’t they fall off and hold on?

The secret is that the oven has a certain temperature, or rather 300 degrees (it is at this temperature that the bread will not fall).

It also depends on whether the dough is good.
If a baker sticks dough pieces to the hot walls of the oven and some of them suddenly fall off, it means the dough is bad, and the baker’s further work will be in big doubt.

Traditional Georgian bread is an integral part of any feast. Bread in Georgian is “puri”, and it is baked in special clay ovens - “tone”, heated to 400 degrees. The dough pieces are stuck directly onto the walls of the “tone” and baked very quickly.

Georgian bread comes in various shapes: round, oblong, with rounded corners - “dedis puri” (mother’s bread), and “shotis puri” - diamond-shaped, with elongated ends.

Today I want to tell you how to prepare diamond-shaped Georgian bread, in the form of a saber "shotis-puri" at home. According to experts, the shape of such bread did not appear by chance - it was convenient to take on military campaigns. That is why it is also called the bread of warriors. It's easy to bake and cools down very quickly.

To prepare Georgian shoti bread (shotis-puri) you will need a simple set of ingredients: water, yeast, salt and flour. Since home ovens cannot heat up to 400 degrees, we will bake the bread at 250 degrees. Of course, we won’t get the same result as in a special “tone” oven, but we will try to get an approximate version.

Shotis puri, prepared at home, turns out very tasty. It has a crispy crust and a very soft, porous crumb.

To prepare Georgian bread, prepare the necessary ingredients.

Pour the yeast into warm water, stir and leave for 5-10 minutes so that it starts.

Knead the dough. The main thing is that it does not turn out too steep, so it is better to add flour in parts. The dough should be soft and tender, but at the same time completely pull away from your hands. Gather the dough into a ball and place in a bowl, cover the bowl with cling film and leave in a warm place for 1.5-2 hours.

After time, the dough will rise well and increase in volume.

Divide the dough into two parts. Roll each piece of dough into a log, cover with a towel and leave for another 15 minutes.

Then give the workpieces a more elongated look (as in the photo).

Then stretch the elongated loaf a little wider to form a diamond shape. Make a hole in the center through which air will escape. Leave the pieces to proof for another 20 minutes, covering with a towel.

Bake Georgian bread in a well-heated oven at a temperature of 240-250 degrees for about 10-15 minutes.

Remove the finished flatbreads from the oven and wrap them in a towel.

Georgian shoti bread (shotis-puri), prepared at home, turns out very tasty. It can be served hot or chilled.

The crust of this bread is crispy, and the crumb is porous and soft.

Bon appetit!

It is still baked in the old folk way - in ovens called “tone”. Bread in Georgian is “puri”, so it turns out “tonis puri”, literally “bread from the oven”.

Tone in Georgia is on almost every street. The smell of freshly baked bread spreads along the street, filling all the nooks and crannies. Few people bring it home whole: it is simply impossible to resist pinch off the fragrant crispy crust along the way, because the most delicious bread is hot, straight from the oven.

Georgian bread weighs about 300-400 grams and costs, depending on the size, from 80 tetri to one lari (about 30 - 40 cents).

Secrets of tonis puri

The tone oven is like a stone well. It is dug into the ground and lined with clay bricks on the inside. The fire burns at the bottom, and the bread bakes on the walls.

Georgian bread baked in tone comes in different shapes - round, oblong, with rounded corners - "dedis puri" (mother's bread), and shoti - diamond-shaped, with elongated ends.

The shape of the Georgian shoti with pointed ends is a tribute to tradition, and the hole in the middle of the bread is a necessary technological attribute. Without it, the hot air inside the bread will expand and the whole bread will rise and turn into a big bubble.

Shoti, which consists of flour, water, salt and yeast, is kneaded to a thick dough, then a cake of the required shape is formed, which the baker molds to the walls of an oven heated to 300 degrees. It is at this temperature that the bread will not fall, but will be fried until golden brown. On average, it takes 10-15 minutes to bake crispy, aromatic bread.

In Georgian villages, stoves still operate on wood, but in the city they have long switched to gas burners. Villagers claim that their bread, with a slight aroma of smoke, tastes better than city bread. This is the same difference as with barbecue cooked in the city, on ready-made coals, and in nature, on a live fire.

Ancient traditions

In ancient times, Georgians stored “purisdeda” - soured dough from previous baking - in a special clay pot "kochobi". “Purisdeda” was diluted in warm water and mixed with a small amount of flour, left for a day, after which the well-soured mass was added to the flour and thoroughly mixed with water and salt.

Hops yeast or beer were also used to prepare the dough.

Evgenia Shabaeva

Photo from the series "Peragon" (Georgia)

The dough was kneaded and matured in a special vessel - “warzli”. Then it was cut into pieces - “gunda”, laid out on an “oromi” board and covered with a towel. Meanwhile, the walls of the hot stove were sprinkled with salt water - this was called “feeding with salt.” This way the dough was better attached to the vertical wall of the oven, and the surface of the freshly baked golden steaming bread became saltier and tastier.

Traditionally, round bread was baked first, and then, an oblong shotispuri was placed into the already slightly cooled “tone”. After cooling, the bread was stored in wooden grain storage facilities - kidobani.

As a rule, bread was baked once a week; during baking, a small family feast was held with cold wine, fresh cheese, pickles and hot, crusty bread.

Warriors Bread

The "Shoti" shape, a sickle-shaped Georgian bread, was baked in the Kakheti region, the technology, recipe and shape of the bread have been preserved there to this day. The peculiarities of “Shotis puri” are that it is easy to bake and it cools quickly. And for the mountainous regions of Georgia, the shape of the loaf was typical. In the mountains there were special ovens in which Georgian loaves were baked; this tradition was preserved until the 20th century.