Friday, September 4, 2009

Flatbread and a Quick Crunchy Pizza



I was just craving this flat bread and so....I went ahead and made a batch.
What's a girl to do ?
This is the type of bread you saw plated with the hummus and let me tell you it is so easy to make !
You have two options for baking it....either in the oven or in a skillet, preferably a cast iron one.
Apart from having to rise for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, the dough does not take long to bake.
Ready in minutes !

Ingredients:
325-350 gr flour
160 ml water or milk
5 gr instant yeast
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 TBSP oil (use olive oil if you have)
1/2 teaspoon white sugar or 1 full teaspoon brown sugar
1 TBSP sour cream
1 teaspoon margarine/butter
1 TBSP heavy cream (or half and half)

Directions:
Combine all the wet ingredients and place the yeast on top, then stir to combine and let 10 minutes aside to soften.
Mix the dry ingredients and add them to the wet ones, stirring at first and kneading towards the end, to get a soft, pliable dough.
I always use my bread machine, on the dough cycle, but you can also do it by hand in which case you need to knead at least 10 minutes - or you can use a food processor or a stand mixer.
You do need to make sure some gluten forms so that the dough is pliable.
Place in a bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place (75-85 F if possible) for close to 1 hour.
Punch down and divide in 8 equal pieces.
Form balls and flatten them out to form disks.
You really should use your palms, but you can by all means use the rolling pin.
At this point you need to preheat the oven to 450 F.
When the oven is heated, place the pieces of dough on a baking sheet and bake them for 5 to 10 minutes, but please watch them closely.
They should puff up nicely.
Right under your eyes. Mine did !
Now the other option is to use a heavy cast iron skillet or the skillet of your choice.
Heat the skillet well, place the dough disk in the skillet, cover if you have a tight fitting lid and cook for approx. 4 minutes on each side.
Ready !
Oh, and it freezes well (you can defrost it by heating it 15 seconds in your microwave, which also makes it soft) and also makes great pizzas.
I took a flat bread, topped with some homemade tomato sauce, tomatoes and cheese and bakes it at 500 F for 7 minutes.
Delicious !

3 comments:

  1. After the prep, this becomes a fresh-fast meal in only 7 minutes, that's great

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  2. yes, and if you have extra left you can freeze it and then you have it on hand at all times. all you need is to microwave it for 15 seconds and it tastes as fresh as if just baked

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