Flatbread Recipe – Middle-Eastern Style

We are all big fans of bread in my family. I have recently been trying to cut down on gluten & finding it really hard. I don’t think I can ever give it up totally despite that I feel better when not eating it. I love chewy crispy bread so much I could basically eat it at every meal. I eat these flatbreads all the time with dips, meats, tagines and I even use them as a pizza base.

This is my favourite flatbread recipe after trying out about 6 or 7 versions for my restaurant menu a few years ago. We started serving these with hummus or with a tomato & rosemary sauce & they were really popular with customers so I thought I would share the recipe.

Once you have a batch made just crisp them up in a dry frying pan just before eating. They keep really well for around a week. They also freeze well and take only 10 minutes or so to defrost, I always have some in the freezer.

Here’s how to make flatbread:

Middle Eastern Flatbreads

Ingredients
2 tsp dried yeast
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt
500g Flour – regular plain flour is fine but I prefer to use stronger bread flour
200ml water – should be hand hot
3 tbsp natural yogurt
1tbsp olive oil

Instructions

1. Put all the dry ingredients into a bowl.
2. Add the yoghurt,olive oil and then the water.
3. Mix well with a spoon to incorporate the ingredients.
4. Leave to stand for 10 minutes and then begin to knead the dough. It should feel a little too sticky at this point. If it is dry add a little more water.
5. Knead the dough for at least 10 minutes to activate the gluten so that the bread is chewy. It should be really smooth and soft.

6. Transfer into a lightly oiled bowl to prove for at least 2 hours, more is fine. Make sure to cover with cling film or foil. You can make the dough the day before and leave it in the fridge overnight, just take it out an hour or so before you want to cook the breads.
7. To form the bread, first weigh out the dough into six equal balls.
8. Put a heavy bottomed frying pan on high to heat up to smoking.
9. Roll out the dough until it is about 3 – 4mm thick. They should be about the size of a regular frying pan.

Roll the bread 4mm thick

10. When the pan is hot enough place the first one in and turn down the heat to medium so that the bread cooks through but does not burn. Bubbles should start to form on top. Turn it over after 3-4 minutes & keep checking that it is not burning. I like to cook the other side until these bubbles are pretty much burned as it adds lovely texture and flavor.

Bubbles should form as you cook the first side

Flip the bread and cook the other side, slightly charred parts give extra flavour

11. Cool the flatbreads on a rack and at this point they are ready to store until you want to eat them.
12. Before serving reheat the flatbreads in a dry frying pan to crisp them up.

Allow the bread to cool completely before storing or freezing

Enjoy with dips, soups, tagines, cheese, meats or make it into a pizza.

by Sally