Very Easy Flatbreads
Let’s just face it, everything tastes better with a flatbread on the side!
I am ALL about, eating a little-bit-of-everything and a good freshly-pan-flipped warm flatbread is the ultimate ‘tool’ I have to add loads of delicious things to it.
Making a good flatbread should be a lifeskill and my easy recipe will have you flipping flatbreads like there is no tomorrow.
What is unrefined flour?
Unrefined flour is milled using stone mills at the proper temperature, they tend to be more golden than white, and depending on whether its wholegrain or not, the flour might retain all of its vitamins, minerals, and fibre in the form of the bran and germ.
Choosing a good flour
Finding an unrefined flour is not easy, when choosing a flour look out for the following:
- organic flour means the wheat was not sprayed with pesticides and agricultural chemicals during the growth or harvesting of the wheat.
- stoneground flour – this means the flour was milled in a traditional way (with little heat from the milling) resulting in a better quality flour. Industrial flour is milled intensely which means lots of nutrients are lost during the milling process.
- ideally from a single estate, rare but possible.
- the flour has nothing added to it, if the flour has anything ‘added’ to it, it is a clear indication of a inferior flour.
Here are my choice of good flour suppliers:
- first prize would be Lowerland Organic farm (available online Cape Town ), ticking every box above and even the ‘white’ flour is wholegrain too.
- Gideon milling available at Checker in SA
- Eureka mills available at most supermarkets
- Knysna Grain Mill – spelt flour, which is not bread flour but still an excellent white flour alternative.
You will roughly need 2 hours to make these
Although my flatbreads are easy they are quick’ish – you will need a couple of hours to make these, giving the dough chance to relax and the yeast to start to work.
Make ahead dough
I love the fact that after the dough has had its 2 hours to rise, I can roll the dough into neat 60g dough balls (yip, I am precise like that) and pop in the fridge to roll and bake as and when I need to, ensuring I have a warm freshly baked flatbread ready to eat!
The dough is forgiving
Because we are not looking for a ‘rise’ on the flatbreads the dough is pretty forgiving. I tend to make my dough in the morning, leave for 30 minutes (to settle) and then roll the dough into the above dough balls. I leave the dough out to rise, waiting for me to roll them.
Very Easy Flatbreads
Ingredients
- 250 g white bread flour plus extra for dusting
- ½ heaped teaspoon fine salt
- ½ heaped teaspoon dried yeast
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 150 ml hand hot water
Instructions
- Put the flour into a large bowl, add salt, yeast, olive oil and water.
- Stir with a wooden spoon and once incorporated, bring the dough together with your hands to form a rough dough. The dough will feel slightly sticky.
- Turn out the dough onto a very lightly floured work surface and knead for about 5 min or until the dough feels smooth, plump and no longer sticky.
- Place the dough in a clean bowl and wrap tightly with plastic. Leave your dough to rise for 30 minutes.
- Remove the plastic, tip the dough onto the work surface and knead (knock back) the dough for 2 minutes. Add the dough back to the bowl and wrap again.
- After 1 hour, knead the dough again, and divide into rough 6 pieces of 60g each, I am not suggesting you weight your dough balls, but I do, I am precise like that!
- I find rolling and cooking one or two flatbreads at a time works best for me, this prevents the dough from drying out.
- Lightly flour the work surface and your rolling pin, roll one or two dough balls, into a round(ish), thin as you can, flatbread.
- Set a large frying pan over high heat. When its very hot, shake off any excess flour from the flatbread (use a pastry brush if you have) and carefully lay the flatbread on the hot pan. Let it sit for 1-2minutes, until the dough starts to bubble and puff in places.
- Look at the underside, if you can see dark patches forming, flip the flatbread over and cook on the other side. Serve immediately! And roll, cook, flip and serve until all the flatbreads are cooked.