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When I awoke and entered the kitchen as a child to find four sheets, a plastic backed table cloth, and the powder blue bedspread that had the little popcorn-ball looking puffs on it all sitting patiently on the kitchen table, I knew what the day would hold – fresh baked Syrian Bread!!!!!
Syrian Bread – the staple of my upbringing – makes my mouth water just thinking about it. And no one’s Syrian Bread holds a candle to my Mom’s recipe! In fact, her Syrian Bread was SO good, she often substituted it for monetary payments, especially when it came to getting her driveway plowed in the winter (you know who you are Bob H. and John R.)! 
Probably my longest-standing baking memory of my Mom, other than evening dinners, includes her making this bread. Although a fairly simple recipe with few ingredients, it is an all day process (which you will see shortly). When I was a little girl, my Mom would portion out a small ball of dough for me to make my very own loaf. Rather than care for it gingerly as she did the other loaves, I had a tendency to treat it like play-doh, over-rolling and patting it out to the n-th degree, so when it baked it was all crust and no middle. I didn’t care – I was just tickled to have my very own loaf!
With both my daughters home, my Orthodox sister Sue C. joined us on Wednesday this week to spend the day baking – and thank goodness she did or we would have had an epic fail (Sue is a whiz kid in the kitchen!)! I had been hopeful my bread making skills improved from rolling my poor loaves to death as a kid, but if Sue wasn’t there, it may have been a repeat of my childhood! 
We have decreed this will be a yearly holiday tradition from this point forward!
Syrian Bread Crew 2016 (front: Sue [Orthodox Sister], James [child#4],
back: Me, Emily [child#1], Logan [child#2])
Once Sue arrived and I got my groggy girls up from their slumber, we headed to the kitchen for coffee and frittata and to get our baking day started.
The first thing you need to do is dissolve the yeast, salt, and sugar in water. Sue became immediately indispensable here (not a shock – Sue is always immediately indispensable), as I was so excited I immediately wanted to start stirring my Mom’s giant bread bowl with a wooden spoon as I had always seen her do when I was younger. Sue, on the other hand, had the wisdom to force me to wait until the yeast “activated” (I didn’t have a clue what she was talking about…)
Yeast in one bowl, salt and sugar in other waiting to add to the water… (notice Finn our resident guard dog overseeing our cooking in the background)
… and POOF! The yeast suddenly exploded! So that is what “activate” meant!
Who could turn away such a cute face?! He even put on his 4-H apron!
James (child #4) stayed to help, so he assisted with adding the 3 cups flour, and beating it in with a wooden spoon. Now, I should probably add that we tripled the recipe, so we all would be taking our turns at stirring and kneading…
…the first set of 3 cups flour …
… now Logan’s (child #2) turn (we give her a little leeway since she is expecting a baby girl in late February) …
… and then Sue is up …
My Mom’s directions say “Add one more cup … blend in … one more cup … blend in … add last cup of flour a little at a time while kneading until smooth.”
The last three cups will be kneaded in …(remember we tripled the recipe)
Our little bread warrior…
Zumi, part of the floor clean up crew, is helping get the spilled flour mixture up…
Now it’s time to tuck the dough in for the first of three (yes – you read that right – THREE) risings. Mom’s directions say “Cover with a sheet and bedspread,” but I remember her saying it was really important to keep it warm, so we used a sheet, a towel, an insulated blanket, and a quilt. We also sprayed a piece of wax paper with olive oil spray and placed that over the top of the bowl to keep the dough from sticking to the cloths. Let the dough rise until double in size, about 1 ½ hours.
First the sheet, covered by the towel…
… covered by a quilt. Nighty-night dough – see you in about an hour and a half…
Now — Mom’s recipe didn’t have an INTERMISSION, but our baking session did!
Because baking bread wasn’t enough, we also had :DANCING
(notice Finn felt the need to join Sue and James …
It looks like our kitchen guard got a little too close to some flour (look between his ears)
Then, since we were still waiting on the first rise, there was BAKLAVA (requested by child#2, the pregnant one) — NOTE – Sue made this from memory (I told you she was a whiz in the kitchen):
The pregnant one requested this – notice her TUMS also behind this picture (an accident for the photo, but also goes with being pregnant)
By the time the baklava was done, it was time to get back to the regularly scheduled bread session, although the girls started planning several other cookies to make during the next rising intermission …
Once the dough has risen to double its size, it’s time to prep it for the second rise.
My Mom used a plastic-backed table cloth covered by a sheet, but we used my regular table mat covered by a table cloth covered by a sheet. Whatever you use – make sure a clean sheet is the layer you flour well for the next rising. Cut dough to the size of a softball. Flatten balls, like a flat tire. Place on floured sheet about 6 inches apart.
Notice the prepped table in the background
We ended up with 33 loaves in our triple batch
Then cover with a sheet, flannel backed tablecloth of some sort, and a doubled bedspread.
With the second rising of 30-45 minutes, INTERMISSION #2 began, this time with:
Hot Cocoa Cookies, although they made the cookie dough from scratch …
Emily found the recipe on pinterest
AND Chocolate covered pretzels…. the girls even got our resident Grinch Michael (child#3) to come up at the sounds and smells of chocolate!
The resident Grinch helping with the pretzels…
NOW — back to our bread …
Check the dough in about 30-45 minutes or until dough is easy (not tough) to flatten. Mom’s recipe says to “first flatten with hands then once or twice over with a rolling pin.”
Cover again and let rise again about 30-45 minutes (until it is about one inch thick).
By this point, Logan (child #2) was out for the count – again, we cut her some slack since she’s pregnant. Besides, we had fun snapping pictures of her sleeping on the couch….
Her guard-poodle, Pilo, passed out with her…
AT LAST – after three risings – the bread is ready to cook! Heat the oven to 500 degrees. Put an oven rack on the counter for the bread as it comes out of the oven. Put the other rack to the lowest position inthe oven.
Put it in the oven for about two minutes. Then slip bread off cookie sheet right onto oven rack. Bake about three minutes or until light brown on the bottom. Flip bread loaves over and bake for about 2 more minutes until the bottom is brown.To bake – put one or two loaves on a flat no edge cookie sheet.
Remove from oven immediately and brush with soft butter all over. Wipe with a paper towel to remove excess.
Let cool. Store in a plastic bag.
Or – if you are like Sue — just break a mini loaf in half and eat if fresh out of the oven!
You can’t see it in the picture, but as Sue broke this in half it was actually steaming!!!
Is there anything like freshly baked bread?!?!
“Here is bread, which strengthens man’s heart, and therefore is called the staff of Life.” ~ Matthew Henry
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