Baking isn't my favorite thing to do. That's part of why this flat bread is awesome. No baking!
Now, you can make this recipe, and bake the dough into a nice herbed regular bread. The first time I came across the recipe was after someone had done just that. There's yeast and sugar, so it will rise, and maybe I'll try that sometime, but I needed something to eat with
my hummus!
This isn't much of an adaptation at all. I followed this recipe...oh, almost exactly. Next time, I'll sub honey for the sugar and see what that does to the taste, and update you.
This is
Homemade Flat Bread from The Food Network's site.
Ingredients
2¼ teaspoon active dry yeast
½ teaspoon sugar
1 C all purpose flour (OR 1¾ C of all purpose flour. I like using whole wheat whenever possible.)
¾ C whole wheat flour (plus a bit for dusting)
1 tsp sea salt (or other coarse salt)
1 Tbsp fresh thyme (or 1 tsp dried thyme)
approx ¾ C warm water (may need more, may need less)
1 tsp olive oil
This is easy to do in a food processor, which is what I used. I probably would have used my stand mixer, but it was busy doing other things (apple cider muffins).
In your food processor (or bowl, whatevs), combine yeast, sugar, flour salt, and thyme and pulse (or stir!) to combine. While processing or stirring, slowly add water until a firm dough forms. There shouldn't be any dry flour left, and the dough shouldn't be thin or crumbly. A ball will start to form.
Take your dough ball, and knead it a few times on a lightly floured surface to make sure it's smooth and everything is combined. I only gave it about five of six pushes with the heel of my hand. You don't want to overwork dough!
Lightly coat a bowl with oil, and place the dough in it to rise. Cover with a damp towel for about an hour. The dough should double in size.
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Once the rising has happened, punch the dough down, move it to your lightly floured surface, and gently knead it into a ball again.
You'll want to divide this into about twenty pieces, around the size of golf balls. I worked on ten at a time.
Roll each ball out into a disc that's five or six inches in diameter. That rolling pin is not the tool for the job. I ended up using a jar to do this.
Maybe a bit more flour-y than I'd planned, but still good to go.
Now, place these on an un-oiled skillet and cook on medium high heat for two to three minutes each side. I used an electric griddle at 350 degrees.
It indeed made twenty little flat breads, which have been disappearing quickly, topped with hummus.
I plan to make and freeze more dough this week, so when I want some flat bread, I can take the dough out of the freezer before work in the morning, and punch it down and cook it when I'm done with work.
