Dakos / Barley Rusks

Dakos Paximadia / Barley Rusks

Ingredients

• 4 cups of whole wheat barley flour
• 2 cups of whole wheat flour
• 3 cups of all-purpose flour + 2 spoons for the yeast
• ¾ to 1.5 cups olive oil
• About 3 cups of water (half a cup goes to the yeast)
• 1 teaspoon salt (or as much as you like)
• 1 teaspoon of sugar or honey
• 60-80 grams of fresh yeast

Directions

1. Dissolve the fresh yeast in half a cup of warm water and add the 2 spoons of white flour and as much sugar as our fingers can handle (as when salting), mix to make a slurry and let it double in volume. In a kneading bowl, put the flours (except for a cup of the white), salt and sugar. Mix them and open a well where we pour the yeast porridge, the oil and the rest of the lukewarm water.
2. We start kneading. We gradually add the last white flour so that we have a dough that is not too firm but that comes off the walls of the bowl and does not stick to the hands. If we add honey, we dissolve it in the water.
3. Let it rise. Knead again to let the dough come down. We take pieces of dough, knead them on a kneading surface and form large circular breads (from 150 to 200 grams of unbaked dough) or long loaves of bread that we divide into bites. If we make them circular, cut them in the middle with a sharp knife. on greased trays or lined with baking paper and let rise again. We bake them at 170-180 degrees for about an hour. We bake them again at 100 degrees until they are brown. They need a lot of time. Let them cool and store them in a container that will not absorb moisture.