Bread

In Georgia, bread is made from diverse grains and comes in many shapes and sizes. The most delicious are baked in the toné, a terracotta cylinder produced by the master potters who make the qvevri for wine. The cylinder is placed on the ground, often with an insulating plaster or basket-work surround. Hot embers from burning vine prunings or other woods are placed inside, on the ground, and heat the clay walls. When the walls are piping hot, the moist dough sticks to the sides of the oven and bakes the bread. The most spectacular are long, curved traditional baton loaves called puri, shotis puri or tonis puri and more rounded loaves with one or two ‘handles’ called shoti. Their varied thicknesses ensure that parts of the loaves are crisp and others soft. Lavashi is the thin, pancake-like bread used to wrap around kebabs. Two bakers I’ve featured are on.