No-Knead Rosemary Flatbreads

There is just something about straight from the oven baked bread.

These little loaves of crusty breads are PERFECT to serve warm with a good olive oil and it goes really well with spreadable goats cheese like a good local chevre. In fact, I normally bake these in celebration of the new seasons olive oil in the beginning of Autumn.

You don’t need to be an accomplished baker to bake these no-knead breads, you just need time, ideally for up to 6 hours or overnight. It is the long rise (or prove) that gives these flatbreads their incredible depth of flavour.

The perfection lies in the fact that, once baked, you can freeze these loaves and simply heat when you need them.

Getting ahead: the dough needs to be made minimum of 4 hours ahead of time, ideally for 6-8 hours. I make the dough in the morning, which is ready in a matter of minutes and I then honestly just forget about the dough and will even pop it in the fridge at night if I have not had time to bake these.

Who doesn’t love a flatbread with anything? Salads, soups, dippy things (think tzatsiki, hummus and as mentioned some salty spreadable cheese) and even on its own just dipped into a good olive oil.

To bake from room temperature, heat oven to 180c and bake until warmed through about 2 minutes.

To bake from frozen, heat oven to 180c and bake for 8 minutes.

a large glass bowl, plastic wrap, baking paper and one large or two small baking trays.

• 400g cake flour, plus more to dust
• 1 1/4 teaspoons dry yeast
• 1 1/4 teaspoons fine good salt (no table salt please)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
• 350ml(1 1/2 cups) warm water
• 1 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil plus more for greasing
• leaves from 2 fresh rosemary branches, chopped
• flaked sea salt (fleur de sel or Maldon)

1. Put the flour, yeast, salt sugar and water in a large bowl and mix by hand until the dough comes together. The dough will be very loose and wet, don’t panic!
2. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest/prove for 4 to 6 hours, during this time the dough will double in size. TIP: once wrapped write the time on the cling film, this will help you to remember how long the dough have been resting.
3. After the resting time, line a large baking tray with baking paper, lightly grease it with olive oil.
4. Lightly flour a work surface and turn the dough out onto the surface. TIP: Oiling your hands will keep the dough from sticking to your hands.
5. Divide the dough into 6 or 8 equal pieces, and fold each one over once by tucking the edges under itself. Remember not to knead the little loaves, set them on the lined baking sheet, they will spread a bit so use two baking sheets if you don’t have one large one.
6. Rub the tops of the loaves with olive oil and cover with another baking sheet (turned upside down so hollow side facing the breads).
7. Let them rest for an hour or until doubled in size.
8. Meanwhile preheat your oven to 250c (its hot!) and position a rack in the centre of the oven.
9. Once the breads have doubled in size, press little indentations with your fingers into each bread, press right down, we want little ‘focaccia’ style indintations.
10. Top with the rosemary and season with salt and a little drizzle more olive oil.
11. Bake until the crust is golden brown – about 10-14minutes. If you have more than one baking sheet you will need to bake in batches only placing one baking tray in the oven at a time.
12. Remove the baking sheet and transfer the loaves to a rack to cool. Enjoy!

Recipe: Battersby Restaurant