Pebble Bread - TWD: Baking with Julia

Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia - 77th installment. The recipe is Pebble Bread.

Talk about whiplash - from the ultra-complicated previous recipe to this very simple Moroccan flatbread...

Sponge before rising

Sponge after rising

This one starts with a "sponge" (starter) of flour, yeast, and water that sits for 24 hours.  It's smooth when you mix it up initially, and then the liquid separates out so during the rising: 
You stir the liquid in, and then mix in barley flour, wheat flour and salt to make the dough.   Knead the dough until smooth, and then rise for three hours.  At that point, it's time to shape it.   You split the dough up into eight pieces, and for each one, roll it out, dip in breifly in water, and then put it out and use your fingers to make the dimples (traditionally resulting from baking it on hot pebbles!).  

Dough in the skillet

This dimpled dough is cooked on one side in a hot skillet for a few minutes, followed by broiling until golden on top.  
The bread was very good, and went well as an accompaniment to our curry for dinner.  It made a lot, so we had some left for the next day.  It didn't really stay moist, but I toasted it, and it was OK that way.  I think I would prepare this again if making a Moroccan meal, although definitely for a crowd, so you would eat it all up on the day it is baked, as suggested in the recipe.