I've been baking bread almost every day for three weeks, and it has been absolutely life changing. To be able to take a few cups of dusty flour, salt, and yeast, and a few hours later hold in your hands a warm loaf of delicious bread is positively miraculous. I modified my bread recipe a little bit to make pizza crust, and then let that pizza crust rise too long and ended up with flatbread. (Side note: leave out the herbs and this makes a delicious pizza crust; just let it rise 2 hours instead of 3).
Without further ado, here's the much promised flatbread recipe I've been teasing on Instagram for a few days!
ingredients
3 cups flour
1 1/8 cup warm water
1 heaping teaspoon yeast
.5 teaspoon sugar
1.5 teaspoons Himalayan salt
1 teaspoon garlic
Generous pinch of fresh dill, chopped
Olive oil
Parmesan
supplies
Medium bowl
Silicone spatula
Measuring cups and spoons
Tea towel or paper towel
Cookie sheet
how to make it
1. Make sure your water is nice and warm, like the temperature of a relaxing bath. Add the sugar and yeast to the water and let the yeast proof.
2. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, salt, garlic, and fresh dill.
3. Add the proofed yeast to the flour mixture and stir until it pulls together into a dough. Put a little flour on your hands and knead the dough for about a minute, not too much. Dough should be soft and a little on the wet side. If it's too tough and dry, add a bit more warm water.
4. Cover loosely and let rise for 3 hours. If you are using a paper towel, make sure it doesn't stick to any wet parts of the dough
5. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
6. Drizzle olive oil onto your cookie sheet, and spread it around with your hands.
7. With oil covered hands, peel the dough out from the bowl and begin to stretch it into a flat shape like a pizza. The key to stretching a flatbread or pizza crust without too many holes is to focus on the outer edges, since the middle will be stretched by the weight of the dough. Holes are ok in a flatbread; I actually love them because it gives me 4 or 5 different textures and levels of thickness in the bread.
8. Place the stretched out dough onto the cookie sheet and pull it to the corners to make a rectangle. You may have to pull it a few times to persuade the dough to take that shape.
9. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with parmesan, and crack some fresh pepper over top.
10. Bake for around 25 minutes, checking at the 10 minute mark to make sure it's doing ok. It may take more or less time depending on the thickness of your bread, but to tell it's done you want to be able to tap on the crust and hear a deep resonance rather than a dull tap.
11. Serve in generous hunks with literally anything. On this occasion I served it with feta lamb meatballs, tzatziki sauce, and a simple mixed greens salad with hummus dressing, feta, and olives. I called it a deconstructed gyro and it was absolutely delish. (You can check out the lamb meatball recipe here)
You can replace the dill with basil and serve with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and a balsamic salad for a deconstructed Caprese to serve as a light but mind blowing lunch.
how to make it (with photos)
1. Make sure your water is nice and warm, like the temperature of a relaxing bath. Add the sugar and yeast to the water and let the yeast proof.
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| right after adding yeast |
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| proofed yeast |
2. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, salt, garlic, and fresh dill.
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| this is what a generous pinch of dill looks like |
3. Add the proofed yeast to the flour mixture and stir until it pulls together into a dough. Put a little flour on your hands and knead the dough for about a minute, not too much. Dough should be soft and a little on the wet side. If it's too tough and dry, add a bit more warm water.
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| this is when you want to start kneading |
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| after kneading |
4. Cover loosely and let rise for 3 hours. If you are using a paper towel, make sure it doesn't stick to any wet parts of the dough.
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| after three hours of rising |
5. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
6. Drizzle olive oil onto your cookie sheet, and spread it around with your hands.
7. With oil covered hands, peel the dough out from the bowl and begin to stretch it into a flat shape like a pizza. The key to stretching a flatbread or pizza crust without too many holes is to focus on the outer edges, since the middle will be stretched by the weight of the dough. Holes are ok in a flatbread; I actually love them because it gives me 4 or 5 different textures and levels of thickness in the bread.
8. Place the stretched out dough onto the cookie sheet and pull it to the corners to make a rectangle. You may have to pull it a few times to persuade the dough to take that shape.
9. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with parmesan, and crack some fresh pepper over top.
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| ready to go! |
10. Bake for around 25 minutes, checking at the 10 minute mark to make sure it's doing ok. It may take more or less time depending on the thickness of your bread, but to tell it's done you want to be able to tap on the crust and hear a deep resonance rather than a dull tap.
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| so goooooodddd |
11. Serve in generous hunks with literally anything. On this occasion I served it with feta lamb meatballs, tzatziki sauce, and a simple mixed greens salad with hummus dressing, feta, and olives. I called it a deconstructed gyro and it was absolutely delish. (You can check out the lamb meatball recipe here)
