Sangak
A Persian bread whose name means little stone — because it bakes directly on a layer of hot pebbles. Not folklore: the stones transfer heat in points, creating its characteristic hollows and letting a very wet dough bake in minutes without spreading. At home a tray of clean river pebbles heated with the oven at full blast is enough.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Dough 10 min
- Autolyse 40 min
- Folding 120 min
- Fermentation 720 min
- Heating the stones 45 min
- Baking 30 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneMix a high-hydration dough
Mix both flours, the water and the starter (plus the yeast, if using) without salt and leave 40 minutes. The dough runs at 80 per cent hydration — loose enough to pour in the bowl. Deliberately so: sangak is not shaped by hand, only spread over the stones.
Ingredients: 400 g wholemeal flour · 200 g strong bread flour · 480 ml water · 120 g sourdough starter · 2 tsp salt · 2 g dried yeast
Add the salt after autolyse
Add the salt and work it in with a wet hand, squeezing the dough between your fingers. Forty minutes without salt give the wholemeal flour time to absorb the water — the dough turns smoother and folds more easily.
Ingredients: 400 g wholemeal flour · 200 g strong bread flour · 480 ml water · 120 g sourdough starter · 2 tsp salt · 2 g dried yeast
Fold every half hour
Fold the dough with a wet hand four times, every 30 minutes, lifting an edge and folding it to the centre. Dough at this hydration cannot be kneaded on the worktop — folding is the simplest way to develop the gluten.
Ingredients: 400 g wholemeal flour · 200 g strong bread flour · 480 ml water · 120 g sourdough starter · 2 tsp salt · 2 g dried yeast
Eighty per cent hydration — the dough pours.Ferment overnight in the cool
Cover and leave 12 hours at around 15°C, or 8 hours in the fridge plus two in the warm. The long cold fermentation gives sangak its markedly sour, deep flavour.
Ingredients: 400 g wholemeal flour · 200 g strong bread flour · 480 ml water · 120 g sourdough starter · 2 tsp salt · 2 g dried yeast
Heat the pebbles with the oven
Spread clean river pebbles in a single layer on a tray and heat with the oven 45 minutes at maximum. The stones must be hot all the way through, not just on the surface.
Ingredients: 2 tsp nigella seeds · 2 tbsp sesame seeds · 100 ml water
Forty-five minutes — the stones must be hot right through.Spread the dough with wet hands
Pull out the tray, tip a third of the dough onto the stones and spread it with wet hands into a long oval 1 cm thick. Work fast — you have seconds before the underside starts to set.
Ingredients: 400 g wholemeal flour · 200 g strong bread flour · 480 ml water · 120 g sourdough starter · 2 tsp salt · 2 g dried yeast
Wet hands and seconds — then the dough sets.Scatter nigella and return to the oven
Scatter with nigella and sesame and slide the tray onto the highest shelf. Sangak bakes from below thanks to the stones and from above thanks to the heat near the element — lower down, the top would stay pale before the bread is done.
Ingredients: 2 tsp nigella seeds · 2 tbsp sesame seeds · 100 ml water
Bake 5 minutes and shake off the stones
Bake only 4–6 minutes, until the bread bubbles up and browns at the edges. Take it out and shake off the pebbles by standing the bread upright, picking off any that stick — they leave the characteristic hollows behind. Bake the other two breads the same way, giving the stones 5 minutes to reheat each time.
Ingredients: 400 g wholemeal flour · 200 g strong bread flour · 480 ml water · 120 g sourdough starter · 2 tsp salt · 2 g dried yeast
Before you start
The pebbles must be river stones, and clean
Use smooth hazelnut-sized river pebbles, scrubbed and pre-baked. Do not use garden stones or porous ones — they can hold moisture and shatter at high heat. Once prepared they last for years.
It works without stones
In place of pebbles use an inverted, thoroughly preheated baking tray or a pizza stone. The bread comes out well, though without the hollows and with a slightly less crisp base. The rest of the process is unchanged.
Wrapped in cloth
In Iranian bakeries sangak can be up to a metre long and is at its best on the day it is baked. Wrapped in a linen tea towel it keeps two days; reheat sprinkled with water for 3 minutes in a hot oven.
