Category: Flat Breads

Week 102: Pizza con Patate

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ITALY: Made with a focaccia dough, and not baked until it’s fully risen, this potato pizza is delicious anytime. It makes for a great snack, is a nice accompaniment to a dinner salad, or you can put a fried egg on top, and call it breakfast.

Step 1: Prepare the dough

  •  297ml water
  • 30ml olive oil 
  • 370g bread flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/8 tsp sugar
  • 1-1/4 tsp yeast
  • 1/2 tsp dried Italian herbs
  1. Mix the olive oil together with the water.
  2. Measure the flour, yeast, salt, sugar and herbs into the bowl of a stand mixer. Whisk to combine.
  3. Place bowl in machine, add the water/oil mixture, and with the paddle attachment, mix on low speed until all the ingredients are mixed together. Remove paddle attachment, and et rest for 15 minutes. You can get the dough off of the paddle with wet fingers.
  4. With the dough hook, mix on medium-low speed for 5 minutes, or until the dough starts to clear the sides of the bowl, and sticks to the dough hook in one piece. If it’s too runny, you can add some flour — just 1 tablespoon at a time though, and no more than 2!
  5. Use a dough scraper to remove it from the mixing bowl and into a large oiled bowl. Cover and let proof overnight in the fridge.

STEP2: Shape dough

  1. Next day, empty dough out into a well oiled 7″ x 9″ rectangle baking dish or 10″ cast iron skillet.
  2. Press fingertips in dough then sprinkle with olive oil.
  3. Let the dough rise at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours, or until it fills the pan.
  4. Preheat oven to 425, and prepare potatoes

STEP 3: Prepare potatoes

  • 1 lb potatoes, sliced paper thin (preferable Yukon gold)
  • 2 shallots, sliced paper thin
  • 2 Tbsp dried Italian herbs
  • 1 Tbsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • black pepper to taste
  • 1/2 tsp chili flakes
  • 1 cup olive oil
  1. Place potatoes and shallots in a medium bowl.
  2. Add herbs and oil and mix well to combine.

STEP 4: Bake

  1. Add potatoes and shallots to the dough.
  2. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until potatoes start to brown on the sides.

Week 100: Everything Focaccia (SD)

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Making focaccia with sourdough and everything bagel seasoning gives it just a little more umph, both in texture and flavor. If you don’t have a starter on hand, check out Week 9: Focaccia and/or Week 33: Winemaker’s Foaccia made with grapes.

You’ll need to refresh your starter the night before, (or really early in the morning) and be forewarned that once you mix the dough, it will need to proof overnight in the fridge.

Here are the ingredients so you can have them at the ready and follow along to the video linked below. I am so pleased to have stumbled Mile Zero Kitchen’s video tutorials. They are as informative as they are relaxing, and I highly recommend them.

  • 100g active Liquid Starter
  • 320g Water
  • 400g Bread Flour
  • 15g Olive Oil
  • 8g Salt

Tips:

  • Substitute the 8g salt with 6g salt + 2g everything bagel seasoning. And put cream cheese in some of the dents.
  • Sprinkle the fresh herbs (I use basil) on just after the focaccia comes out of the oven, to keep it from burning.
  • I line my baking pan with parchment so I can easily lift out the bread.

Week 99: Whole Wheat Pita

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We made pitas with all purpose flour for Week 4: Pita. This time around we’ve used whole wheat flour and baked them in the oven, rather than the stove top. This would be fun to make with the kids; they’re sure to enjoy shaping the balls of dough, rolling them out, and then watching them puff up in the oven.

This recipe comes our way via Molly Yeh, who met with the folks at Hummus Place in New York, and wrote Pita – Fresh From Your Oven in forward.com.

This makes 6 pitas. They are best eaten fresh, so I only make what we can eat right away.

Step 1: Make dough

  • 1-1/4 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 2-1/4 tsp yeast (1 packet)
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 cup warm water
  1. Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl of a stand mixer and whisk to combine
  2. Add the water and then the olive oil on top of the water
  3. Place bowl in the stand mixer, and with the dough hook, mix on medium speed to combine, scraping sides with a rubber spatula to made sure verything’s incorporated. You might have to turn it off, and lift the hook up so you can get the dry bits from the bottom.
  4. Once it’s mixed, lower to #2 and knead for 10 minutes, unitl it comes away from the bowl. If it’s still sticking to the sides, add 1 tablespoon of four, but no more.
  5. Cover and let proof in a warm place for 1-2 hours, until doubled in size.

Step 2: Shape

  1. Preheat oven to 550, or as high as it will go
  2. Cut 3 sheets of parchment paper the size of your baking/cookie sheet.
  3. Place cookie sheet in oven — without the parchment paper sheets.
  4. Scrape dough out of the bowl onto a heavily floured countertop and divide into 6 pieces
  5. Form into balls by stretching out the sides then folding them in towards the center. Turn over and shape into a ball. View “Shaping into a Ball” on the Video page.
  6. Cover and let rest for about 45 minutes.
  7. Dust the countertop with flour, and the tops of each ball, then roll out to about 5 inches diameter. If they spring back, let it rest, move on to another one, then go back to it.
  8. Place 2 pitas on each sheet, and let rest 15 minutes.

Step 3: Bake

  1. Put the pitas close to the oven.
  2. Open the door, slide the rack out that has the cookie sheet, then carefully lift the parchment with one set of pitas and place them on the cookie sheet
  3. Slide back in and close door.
  4. Bake 2 minutes, then flip the pitas with tongs and bake another two minutes. Try to move fast, so the oven doesn’t loose too much heat.
  5. Repeat two more times. Make sure to wrap the baked pitas so they don’t dry out as they cool.

Week 65: Ramazan Pidesi

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TURKEY: During Ramadan (the 9th month of the Muslim year, when fasting is observed from sunrise to sunset), Turkish bakeries churn out loads of these flatbreads just in time for iftar, the meal eaten after fasting once the sun goes downs. Lines start forming an hour or so before sunset, so that the pide can be purchased fresh from the oven and enjoyed still warm.

It took me awhile to find a video recipe that was in English, and used measurements that I could duplicate at home. Aysenur Altan lives in Istanbul and has one of the first Turkish Recipe channels in Turkey. Follow her here on Instagram!

Notes

  1. The ingredients listed below are for just one loaf (she’s making two). It really does need to be eaten day of, so I didn’t want any leftovers.
  2. Try as I might, I could not find nigella seeds, so I sprinkled some oregano (they taste a little bit like that) and also some everything bagel seasoning because of the black and regular sesame seeds.
  3. I also shaped, then baked it on parchment paper, instead of using semolina flour to dust the surface of the baking sheet.
  4. I used the end of a spoon to make the indentations in the circle.
  5. Mine took 20-25 minutes to bake, but the video says just 10, so check often!
  • 250 ml warm water
  • 1-1/2 tsp yeast
  • 1-1/2 tsp sugar
  • 1-1/2 tsp olive oil
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Egg wash

  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 Tbsp yoghurt (or milk)

Topping

  • Sesame seeds
  • Nigella seeds

Week 60: Flour Tortillas

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MEXICO: This is very different from most of the tortilla recipes I tried, and on first glance might not seem authentic. It was contributed to Serious Eats by Christian Reynoso, the sous chef at Zuni Cafe, and recipe columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. This is his mother’s family’s method that uses milk instead of water for added richness, a little bit of baking soda to keep them light and airy, and a bit of sugar to balance the savoury lard*. It’s perfect.

Mexican-Style Flour Tortillas | Christian Reynoso, Serious Eats

6 TortillasIngredients12 Tortillas
158g (1-1/4 cups)Flour315g (2-1/2 cups)
4gSalt8g
1 tspBaking Powder 2 tsp
1/2 tspSugar1 tsp
57g (1/4 cup)Lard/Butter/Shortening115g (1/2 cup)
110gMilk220g
22gSpinach*45g

Tips:

  • Lard is actually better for you than butter. It contains no trans fats, and is 60% monounsaturated fat, which is associated with a decreased risk of heart disease. And, it’s better than vegetable shortening as well, unless you’re vegetarian. Easy enough to substitute butter if you prefer; clarified would be better because it removes the milk solids and water.
  • I just used a hand whisk to mix the dry ingredients; didn’t bother with using the stand mixer and whisk attachment.
  • Pay attention to the instructions for rolling out the dough. It really helps to flip it and turn it as you roll it out to the desired size.
  • Don’t use super high heat – they’ll burn before they are cooked all the way
  • You have to mind them the entire time they are cooking, and it only takes a few minutes, so it’s best to just roll one out, then cook it, then roll out the next one. Instead of rolling them all out at once.
  • I store them in a zip lock once they are cooked, instead of under a kitchen towel
  • For spinach tortillas, blend 45g raw spinach leaves with the milk until completely liquefied. Then, use only 110g or 220g milk/spinach liquid – sometimes there a little left over, sometimes none. Depends on the water content of the spinach leaves!