Barley Bread

The early Greeks used barley to make bread, preparing a flat cake called maza. Although barley produced an inferior bread, the grain produced high yields in the thin, rocky soil of Greece. Many Greeks—especially poor people and slaves—relied on barley bread. The Spartans fed barley bread to their army, and a popular saying of the time declared that “a barley cake is the next best thing to a loaf.” By the 300s B.C., wheat bread replaced bread made from barley. Wheat bread was tastier, more nutritious, and easier to digest than barley bread, according to many writers of the time.

Because barley bread lacks the fluffiness-imbuing element of yeast, the final consistency of this recipe feels and tastes more like a dense, lightly sweetened cake. Because it is so dense, dipping or drizzling it in honey (or a moistening agent) is recommended.

Maza and Paximadi (barley cakes and twice baked leavened bread)
From https://www.romanobritain.org/

Barley, cultivated in the Mediterranean from the beginnings of civilization, was for many centuries the basic food of the regional populations. It was roasted so that some of its husk could be rubbed off, then ground and mixed with water, spices, and maybe honey, to be made into gruel, or it was kneaded with water, shaped into cakes and then baked. The barley cakes were called maza, and according to the laws of Solon, maza was the everyday food of Athenians in classical times. Maza was probably a kind of heavy unleavened flat bread, unlike paximadi, which is first baked as leavened bread. The way maza was eaten though, dipped in a more or less rich broth was very similar to the way paximadi is consumed to this day.

The twice-baked barley biscuit called paximadia (similar to rusks), a favorite Greek food item, was soaked in broth prior to eating. Greek farmers would eat paximathia in their fields after soaking it in water and olive oil, which would soften it. This was sometimes accompanied with foods such as homemade cheese and a few olives, often as sole accompaniments. It used to be baked in outdoor ovens approximately every ten to fifteen days, after which the bread would be sliced thickly into wedges and placed back in the ovens to dry, which would serve to preserve it. Paximadia was a staple food for the inhabitants of Crete.

Since barley contains less gluten than wheat, the bread made with it is heavy, darker in color and dries faster. So it is not surprising that it was baked again in order to be preserved. The flavor is good, with an unmistakably earthy tang. Milk and barley meal were the basic ingriedients for this cake which was the alternative to bread in classical Greece. It was carefully distinguished by ancient writers from leavened barley breads. Flavourings such as wine, herbs or lettuce could be added to this simple recipe.

Krimnitas or Chondrinos (coarsely milled barley bread)

A bread roll claimed by Archestratus in 5th century B.C. to be the best barley was prepared in Lesbos and Thebes by rounding the dough in a circle and pounded (by hand) prior to baking. This bread was called krimnitas or chondrinos, which were terms describing coarsely milled barley.

From Athenaeus’ Deipnosophistae:

Archestratus in his Gastronomy expounds thus the subject of barley-meal and bread: First, then, dear Moschus, I will call to mind the gifts of fair-haired Demeter, and do thou lay it to heart. The best that one may get, ay, the finest in the world, all cleanly sifted from the rich fruit of barley, grows where the crest of glorious Eresus in Lesbos is washed by the waves. It is whiter than snow from the sky. If it so be that the gods eat barley-meal, Hermes must go and buy it for them there. In seven-gated Thebes, too, there is good barley, in Thasos, also, and in some other towns; but theirs seem like grape-stones compared with the Lesbian. Grasp that with understanding sure. Supply yourself also with the round roll of Thessaly, well twisted in the maker's hand, which Thessalians call krimnitas, but the rest of the world calls chondrinos.

Further, Nicander of Thyateira says that bread made of barley is called kyllastis by the Egyptians. The dirty loaves Alexis named 'grey-bread' in The Man from Cyprus.

"As for barley-cakes, one may find them also recorded in Tryphon​ and several other authors as well. Among the Athenians, to be sure, is the sort called phystê, in which the meal is not ground very fine; but there are, besides, the 'cress' cake, the berex,​ the 'clews, and the Achilleum; this last is probably made of 'Achilles,' or very fine barley.​ There are likewise sandwich bread,​ wine biscuit, honeycake, and lily loaf. . . . (A dance figure for choruses under the name of 'lily' is mentioned by Apollophanes in The Bride.)​ The thridakiskai mentioned in Alcman are the same as the Attic sandwich bread. Alcman has it thus:​ 'Heaping up sandwich bread and muffins.'

Sosibius, in the third book of his commentary on Alcman, says that kribana is the name given to certain breast-shaped cheese-cakes. Health is the name of the barley-cakes distributed at festivals for all to taste. Hesiod​ calls another kind of barley-cake amolgaia, 'a hearty barley-cake and milk from goats just running dry,' meaning the shepherd's cake full of strength; for amolgos refers to the height of vigour.