Azernews.Az

By Laman Ismayilova

Remember a fresh homemade loaf of bread come out of the oven or smelling homemade cookies?

The first-ever Bread Festival will showcase in Baku a large variety of this sacred food.

Everything from traditional kinds of bread to various bakery products will be presented at the festival.

The event, marking the International Chefs Day will take place in the majestic Serin restaurant on October 20 beginning from 11:00am, Trend Life reported

This international observance is considered to be a professional day of all chefs around the world. The holiday was established under initiative of World Association of Chef's Societies in 2004.

Celebration usually includes culinary contests, organized in many cities.

Festival has some of the most skilled bakers from more than country's twenty regions as well as guests from Turkey, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and other countries.

Every October 20, home cooks, and professional chefs across the world celebrate International Chef’s Day. As the name implies, the day is meant to celebrate the greatest of culinary gurus.

Azerbaijani people can’t really imagine their national cuisine without homemade bread.

There are other bread varieties sold in Azerbaijani bakeries, including tandir, lavash, and shirinchorek.

Each of them is different in shape, size, taste and smell. Cooking of bread from flour and water is done by its steaming and roasting.

Tandir bread is usually preferred over others on special occasions, such as weddings, birthday parties and holiday celebrations.

It's history began in Neolithic. Scientists note that the word "tandir" refers to the ancient Turkic peoples (the Sumerians).

The bread cooks in the inside of the hollow which has been plastered in surroundings. Bread is cooked by attaching on walls of tandir. The bread is also prepared like fragile bread and kept for a long time.

Lavash is thin flat bread made of water, flour and salt.

It's thickness varies depending on how thin it was rolled out. Toasted sesame seeds or poppy seeds are sometimes sprinkled on before baking.

The bread is widely consumed in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Iran.

Shirin chorek, or sweet bread, is mostly baked on holidays such as Novruz and Ramadan.

Here's exactly how to make a delicious pastry.

All you need is 1 teaspoon of dry ferment, 500 mls of heated milk, 1 pc of egg, 1 teaspoon of yellow ginger, 250 grs of sugar, 200 gr of butter, flour, salt.

Ferment is mixed in the milk, salt, 1 big spoon of sugar and 10-12 big spoons of flour, yellow ginger is added. Al they are mixed. Mass must not be very limpid. The fermented dough must rise. Few times the mass is mixed, and butter is melt. Half of flour and sugar is added into one vessel, the fermented dough, butter, and egg are added and not hard dough is mixed and flour is added slowly onto it. Ready dough must not be hard, it should be adhesive slightly.

Enjoy the pastry with a cup of tea as Azerbaijanis would typically do.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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