Ok, I'm sure someone in this very knowledgeable group can help me here. We have a local Middle Eastern specialty store just down the street from our house full of wonderful spices, foods, etc. (we have a large Armenian and Greek neighborhood in Cambridge/Watertown, MA) and we have discovered this fantastic bread that is not unlike froccicia or naan. It is chewy, a bit salty, and has great texture. The package says "Matnakhash" and lists only flour, yeast, salt and water as the ingredients. I've done a dogpile.com (much better than google) search for "Matnakhash" and had no success with finding a recipe to try at home. I don't speak either Armenian nor Greek and the wonderful ladies that run the store don't seem to speak English, I can't get the recipe.
Anyone know that this bread is called or have a recipe?
Yeah, I saw that as well. I know that those breads are ancient and have been made in one form or another across a large section of the populated portion of this planet for something approaching a dozen millennia or more. And as certain as I'm sitting here, I know that prior to about a hundred years ago, the vast majority of it wasn't made with "yeast." Being a dyed-in-the-wool sourdough nut, I've been fooling with converting recipes BACK to what was probably their original state.
The sugar is needed as yeast food, and was almost certainly unavailable to bakers that long ago. The SD critters use the flour directly and don't need sugar. If you're going to use yeast, you'll need the sugar to give them a wakeup call. But I don't think it'll detract from the bread. So go ahead and use it. If you elect to go SD, then that aspect of it will go away...
I can't comment on the accuracy of the ingredient list you gave (I believe you read it as you say...but that doesn't guarantee that it's completely correct). All of my SD bread recipes contain ONLY flour, water, salt & culture, and I've been quite happy with them. All of the "differences" between the various breads I make (Rustic, Rye, Coccodrillo, Ciabatta, Francesi, Poilane, and Provender) are due to blending different flours and the handling/treatment of the dough before and/or sometimes during baking. The basic ingredients are all the same...
Barbari is just one version of the many flat-breads that can be found in that area of the world (greater Persia). They are all similar in most respects. Lavosh is the same as Barbari, except it's unleavened. Matnakash is little more than a leavened version of Lavosh sprinkled with seeds. Given that, just leave out the fats and oils. All they really do anyway is make the texture of the bread a bit nicer (different?) to eat.
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