Uighur Nan

Directions

1. Pour the warm water in a large bowl, sprinkle in the yeast and stir to dissolve.
2. Whisk in 3 cups of flour and stir to create a batter. Let the mixture sit, loosely covered, for a couple of hours (or even overnight) to develop the glutens and flavor.
3. When ready, sprinkle in the tablespoon of salt, and another 2 cups of flour, incorporating well.
4. Pour yet another cup of flour onto a floured surface or board. Make sure your hands are well floured at all times throughout the process, dump the dough into the pile of flour and start incorporating it.
5. Knead the dough, adding more flour as needed, until the dough is no longer sticky, but smooth and elastic. This will take anywhere from 5 - 8 minutes.
6. From this point on, it's much the same as pizza dough. Form the dough into a ball, put it in a large, lightly oiled bowl, cover with a clean dishtowel and place it somewhere for about 2 hours to rise.
7. While it's resting / rising, place your pizza stone in the upper third of your oven to heat and set the temp to 450F.
8. After the dough has rested, turn it out onto a well floured surface, and with well floured hands, form the dough back into a ball, and cut it into 8 equal pieces by cutting it in half, then half, then half - you get the idea.
9. On a floured pizza peel, or board, roll or stretch a piece of dough into a 9 -10 inch circle, and form a very slight rim using your fingers. Since you probably don't have a durtlik, simply use a fork to prick the dough all over. If you have a meat tenderizer with a patterned bottom, you could use that too.
10. From above, scatter sea salt and cumin seeds evenly over the top of the dough.
11. Place the peel onto the pizza stone and slide the Nan onto it. Cook for about 8-9 minutes until golden. Repeat for the other breads.