Flavorful Homemade Flatbread Recipe
What can I say about flatbread? Flatbread: The Flattest Bread? I’m blanking on this one.
Regardless of whether or not I can come up with an articulate sentence about the stuff, flatbread is definitely having a moment, and it’s surprisingly easy to make if you have the time. Versatile, too, making delicious sandwiches or quesadillas even though it isn’t quite bread and isn’t quite tortillas, either. I have big plans to try baking some into dip chips in the unlikely event that I ever have leftovers. And if you’re worried that I forgot to mention flatbread pizzas, never fear, for I have a picture.
The first part of the recipe is making a fairly straightforward yeast dough: first blooming 1 pkg (or 2.25 tsp) active yeast in a cup of warm water mixed with a Tbs of honey. Once the mixture is foamy and fragrant, you know you’ve got a real live one and you can start adding in the rest of your ingredients: 2 lightly beaten eggs, 1/4 cup of olive oil, 2 tsp of salt and your seasonings. (If you don’t want the savory flavor, you can omit the garlic and onion but not the salt. Bread is grody without salt, totally flavorless. True story.) Next step is mixing in the flour, half a cup at a time until you have a soft dough. I needed about 4 1/4 cups to make one that wasn’t too stiff or too sticky. The dough needs kneading before it’s left to rise in an oiled bowl, for about an hour.
The risen dough gets punched back down and split into about a dozen equal-sized pieces, rolled into balls, and covered to rise again for another half hour. I cooked mine on a cast iron grill pan but a griddle or flat surfaced cast iron would work just as well. Either way, your cooking surface needs to be good and hot to cook the flatbread. Once the pan is ready, the risen dough balls need to get rolled out into wide, flat discs and immediately slapped down on the grill for a few minutes, until the top begins to bubble, then flipped over for a few more minutes. The pan I chose only allowed me to cook one at a time, so this process took for-frickin-ever, but the lil’ breadies themselves came out picture perfect with little grill lines and everything.
Now you can make pizzas, or sandwiches, or scarf some down plain, or anything else your heart may desire.
| Prep Time | 1 hr 45 min |
| Cook Time | 5 min |
| Servings |
units
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- 1 cup Warm Water
- 1 tbsp Honey
- 1 package Active Yeast
- 4 cups Flour 4-ish cups
- 2 Eggs beaten
- cup olive oil
- 2 tsp Salt
- tsp Garlic Powder
- tsp Onion Powder
- 2 Garlic Cloves pressed or minced*
Ingredients
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- Mix warm water and honey in a bowl and sprinkle yeast on top. Let the mixture sit for about 10 minutes to bloom.
- Stir in eggs, oil, seasonings and salt
- Add flour, half a cup at time, stirring after each addition to form a pliable dough.
- Knead until smooth then place in a well oiled bowl to rise until doubled in size (about an hour should do)
- Punch dough down and knead a few times before separating into
- 12 equal sized pieces, rolling each piece into a ball. Cover and let proof until doubled again (about half an hour this time).
- Preheat your cooking surface before rolling a dough ball out in a thin flat circle and immediately setting on your hot pan or grill, cooking for 3-4 minutes before flipping over and cooking another 2-3 minutes.
- Repeat with remaining dough balls and use in your favorite flatbread preparation!
*These are the seasonings I used and can be changed or omitted depending on how you like it
ITEMS WE USED TO MAKE THIS RECIPE
