What’s for dinner (also for lunch, breakfast and snacks)? Bread, the easy version.
Although I always loved to cook, when it came to baking, I passed – too fussy, too precise, too easy to screw it up. Bread baking scared me.
What changed my mind was a book I came across in a used bookstore - "Flatbreads and Flavors" by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. The book had interesting stories of the authors' travels, and recipes that looked simple enough for the novice. If I was too intimidated to start with classic bread, I could slide in sideways through flatbreads and pan breads - much easier. I’m now comfortable with much more complicated breads, but I still make flatbreads three times as often as I bake classic bread. It's funny that flat breads are now on fancy menus when they are so simple, but it’s great that they are getting more exposure and encouraging more people to bake.
Error correction I goofed and left the yeast out of the sweet potato focaccia. (thanks to Tapestry who spotted the problem!) I have now corrected the recipe.
What defines a flatbread or pan bread?
Flatbreads don’t rise, or don’t rise much. They range from paper-thin crepes to pizza up to the thickest: breads like focaccia, ciabatta and English muffins which might rise over an inch. You can make flatbreads on a griddle, in a pan, or bake them in the oven.
Pan bread is any bread cooked over a heat source in a pan. Although you can bake a risen bread in a pan in the oven, when someone says, "panbread," I think of bread made on the stovetop or over a campfire. Many breads that are usually oven-baked can be made thinner as a batter, or the dough stretched or rolled thin, and cooked in a pan or on a griddle. The pan version will be different, but faster and still good.
Flatbreads are the earliest form of bread, dating at least from the Neolithic period. This tells us that flatbreads are easy - at their simplest, a hot surface, grain, water, and maybe salt. The earliest breads were likely cooked on hot stones. Corn tortillas are an example of a ‘basic’ flatbread that everyone knows (treated flour and water - that's it.) The simplest ones are unleavened; some use chemical leaveners such as baking powder, and many are yeast-raised.
Because they are thin, flat or pan breads usually cook much faster than a typical "risen" loaf. Most cultures have some version of flatbread based on locally available grain: wheat, barley, rye, oat, corn, teff, etc. There are flatbreads beyond grains, such as buckwheat blinis, the pappadums of India based on beans, and Norwegian lefse, which is mostly potato.
Aside from being easy and less fussy, this type of bread is convenient. I often make a batch of dough, keep it in the refrigerator, and make fresh flat or pan bread daily. Several flat breads are fast even starting from scratch, and with pre-made dough it can be 10 or 15 minutes from opening the refrigerator to delicious fresh bread. When there were two in my household, flatbreads were our standard weekend breakfast.
Another nice feature is the ability to use whole grains, which can compromise rise in a classic loaf bread. After all, in a flatbread, who cares about rise? And since rise is less of an issue, there is more variety available to those who don’t tolerate wheat gluten. I’ve a few wheatless flatbreads below: oatcakes and barley skillet bread, then a few fairly simple wheat flatbreads, finishing with a fancy one for the adventurous: sweet potato focaccia.
Equipment
For pan breads, a heavy pan is crucial. The best is a cast-iron skillet or a heavy griddle, but a heavy pan of any sort will work. Some of these recipes are easier with, or require, a blender or food processor.
Two items that are optional but nice to have if you are going to bake flat or risen bread frequently:
A baking stone, pizza stone, or unglazed tile. For a few years before I sprang for a pizza stone, I bought unglazed quarry tiles (cheap) and put six on a baking sheet and that worked just fine. Second, parchment paper is a small luxury for the bread baker or cookie baker. It makes transfer to the oven easy, and clean up a snap. If you're not using parchment paper you will have to flour the bottom of breads to be baked in the oven, and flour the baking sheet lightly as well so the bread doesn't stick. While parchment paper used to be a specialty cooking store or a mail order item, many grocery stores now carry it.
We'll start with a very simple flatbread, oatcakes, made of steel-cut oats, water, salt, and melted butter. Don't use rolled oats as they will not result in a good texture for this bread.
The original recipe called for pouring boiling water over the oatmeal, then immediately forming the oatcakes. It didn't work well for me, as I can only get the standard McCann's which is a fairly coarse grind; the finished oatcake was still gritty for my taste. (It might work better soaking the oatmeal for at least an hour.) Instead, I make oatmeal in the slow cooker and use the leftovers. I like my oatmeal with texture rather than creamy, so my version uses 1 1/2 cups of water to 1 cup oatmeal (yes, I typed that correctly) and cooks a shorter time to leave texture, an hour and a half to two hours in my quart-size crockpot. Cooked oatmeal keeps well in the fridge for several days.
When I make this for myself, I use a half recipe for each panbread, and one is a hearty breakfast. If it's meant as an accompaniment for a dinner for two to four, I'd make the full recipe and cut the oatcake in 4-6 wedges.
1 cup cooked oatmeal
1 teaspoon melted butter
salt to taste
If you're baking it in the oven, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
If you're making the oatcakes in a pan, heat the pan over medium heat until a drop of water sizzles and evaporates within a second or two. Grease the pan with small amount of butter or a swipe of oil.
Mix the ingredients together well and pat into a round about 1/4-inch thick. Either place on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes, or cook in the pan over medium heat until browned on one side, then flip the oatcake over. This is good with butter or jam or both.
Another very simple flatbread is Finnish barley bread, one of my favorites. This amount will make three to four breads in my 6-inch skillet. You need a blender or food processor for this one, and you should plan to soak the barley the night before. The soaking barley will be fine for a day or two in the refrigerator if you can't make the bread when you planned.
1 cup pearl barley
1 cup buttermilk (yogurt thinned with water would work as an alternate)
1 cup water
1 teaspoon honey (double this if you want sweeter bread)
1 cup barley flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
sesame seeds (optional)
Combine the barley and the buttermilk in a medium-large bowl and allow to soak overnight.
An optional step that deepens the flavor is to toast the barley flour before you start. If you want to do this, put the flour in a heavy pan over medium heat and stir a few times a minute. The flour starts out as an cream color; heat until the flour starts to look tan or even light brown. Be cautious taking it any further, or it may burn.
If you're baking the bread, put the oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 F. If you're making a pan bread, heat your pan over medium heat until a drop of water sizzles and evaporates in a second or two.
Transfer the barley and buttermilk mixture to a blender or processor and add the water. Blend until the barley is well broken-down; it will never get to a smooth puree. Pour the mixture back into the bowl and add the honey, barley flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix well.
If you're baking this, sprinkle the sesame seeds in the bottom of a small, greased skillet and bake for 50 minutes.
If you're making a pan bread, pour a small amount (say, 1 teaspoon or less) into the pan and swipe the oil around with a paper towel. Sprinkle the sesame seeds into the pan and ladle batter in to cover the bottom of the pan. (Refrigerate the rest of the batter and make another bread tomorrow.) The batter is thick, so you may have to spread it around with the ladle or spoon; the batter should be about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch deep in the pan. Check the underside after 8-10 minutes, and when it's nicely browned, flip it over and cook another 8 minutes.
Ready to add batter
Barley flatbread cooking over medium heat
Almost done
The inside story
Barley bread is good plain, good with butter and/or jam. You could take this bread in a more savory direction by adding minced green onion to the batter, or any herb you're fond of.
A very low rise bread, Pueblo Pinon Bread is a nice accompaniment to green chile stew or other southwestern foods. This recipe makes eight thin 5 to 6-inch rounds.
1/2 cup pinon nuts (or sunflower seeds)
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour*
1/4 cup cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon butter, oil, or sour cream
3/4 cup water
*I only use white whole wheat flour as it's not as bitter as the traditional whole wheat flour made from red wheat. White wheat flour used to be hard to find, but I've seen it in regular grocery stores recently, so it's out there. In recipes the two types are interchangeable.
If you are making this in the oven, preheat to 400 F and lightly grease two baking sheets if you're making all 8 breads at once. I don't recommend making the full recipe as a pan bread all at once; it will take too long and the first breads will be cold by the time the last is done. I make the dough, and make one or two pan breads at a time for successive meals. For these, heat the pan over medium heat until a drop of water sizzles and evaporates within a second or two.
If you're making this by hand, mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl and cut in the butter. (Use two knives to cut the butter in ever smaller pieces, until the mixture resembles a very course meal.) Add 1/2 cup of the water and stir to form a dough. Add more water as needed, but you may not need it all.
If you're making this in a food processor, add all the dry ingredients and the butter, oil or sour cream, and process until it looks like a fine meal. With the processor running, slowly add the water until a ball of dough forms, then stop.
Once you have a dough, flour a work surface, such as a large cutting board, and place the dough on the floured surface. Cover with plastic wrap or a large overturned bowl, and let it rest for 10 minutes. Divide the dough into 8 pieces, and roll (or pat) each piece out into about a 5-inch round - these will be very thin, about 1/8 of an inch.
If you're baking them in the oven, place them on baking sheets and bake for 8 or 9 minutes, until they start to brown.
If you're making a pan bread, grease the hot pan with a small amount of oil and lower the heat to medium low. Place the bread in the pan and cook for about 5 minutes until browned on one side, then flip. The second side will cook faster.
These will be a little crisp in spots but still flexible.
Oven baked pinon bread
This next bread is a bit more classic for a bread - it has yeast, but it's still pretty simple and definitely flat. If you eat Indian food and there's bread with the meal, there's a good chance it's naan, and irresistably delicious. This recipe makes about 4 average size naan, say about 8 inches in diameter. The ideal way to make naan in a western kitchen would be on a grill or griddle, or with a pizza stone or baking tile. If you don't have those available, use the heaviest baking sheet you can find and be prepared to flip the bread over. As always, you can also make these one at a time in a heavy pan on the stovetop.
3 cups all purpose flour
1 cup milk - any but fat free should work well (lukewarm)
1 1/2 tsp yeast
1 tsp sugar
2 to 3 tbsp yogurt (again, I wouldn't use nonfat)
1 tbsp sesame seed or kalonji seeds (also called nigella. You have to order these or buy them in a specialty store.)
salt to taste ( I use 1/2 teaspoon)
A few tablespoons melted butter
Mix the flour, yeast, salt, seeds, and sugar together. Add the milk and yoghurt and stir or knead until it makes a soft dough. This might work in a food processor; I haven't tried it yet but probably will.) Cover the bowl and let it sit in a warm place for an hour or two, or in the refrigerator for 8 or more hours. Key point for the novice - flatbreads are forgiving. They can rise a little less or a little more and still be delicious.
When you're ready to make the bread, adjust a rack in the oven so it's about 6 inches from the broiler, and preheat to 450 F. If you're using a baking stone or tile, that should be in the oven to preheat, too.
If you're making pan naan, heat a heavy pan until a drop of water sizzles and evaporates in a second or two. Flour a work surface and divide the dough in 4. Start stretching or rolling out the breads. They may start to fight back, meaning they spring back when you stretch them. At that point cover them and let them sit about 10 minutes. The dough will then relax and behave. Once the breads are stretched or rolled out, brush one side of each bread with melted butter.
If you're baking the naan, put the breads on a baking stone or the heaviest baking sheet you have. Bake for 5 minutes and check. They should look puffy and maybe start to brown. At that point you can turn on the broiler for a minute to two to get that lovely spotted brown appearance. Then remove from the oven and devour the naan.
If you're making a pan version, put the naan in buttered side down and cook for about 5 minutes, checking after a few minutes for browning. When the naan develops brown spots, brush the side that is up with melted butter and flip. Cook until the other side starts to brown.
The finished naan
Finally, the fanciest flatbread. This is not a "true" focaccia, but none the less I present sweet potato focaccia with blue cheese. It's a delicious and unusual appetizer, but very filling. This amount should make an appetizer for at least 8, and would be good to take to a potluck. (I’m proud to say this one is my creation, or at least the combination of the various parts is mine.)
This one will not work as a pan bread if you want the toppings, or else you'll have to add the toppings at the end and finish it under the broiler.
2 cups bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon yeast
1 cup (8 oz) cooked mashed sweet potato
1 cup apple juice
2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
1 tablespoon oil
blue cheese, about 2 oz
1 tablespoon each chopped green onions and walnuts
This is easy in a food processor, a bit more laborious by hand but very doable.
If you're using a food processor, put the first four ingredients in food processor, then pulse to mix. Add the sweet potato, the apple juice, the oil and the ginger. Process until it comes together as a dough, which will be moist but should not be too sticky. If needed, add white or whole wheat flour until it sticks together as a dough.
If you're making the dough by hand, stir the first four ingredients together in a large bowl. Add the sweet potato, apple juice, oil and ginger and mash and knead until it feels like dough, moist and somewhat elastic but still soft. Again, add extra flour if needed, but the minimum necessary to make it all stick together.
Swipe a film of oil into a large bowl and place the dough in it. Cover the bowl, and let the dough rise approximately 1 to 1 1/2 hours in a warm place, or overnight in the refrigerator. (The bread will still bake nicely even after two days in the refrigerator, it just won't rise quite as high.) If you're going the overnight route, take the dough out of the refrigerator about at least 30 minutes before you plan to bake it.
When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 500 F and if you're using a baking stone or tile, make sure that's in the oven to preheat as well. Flour a work surface, or better yet, flour a piece of parchment paper. Roll or stretch out the dough. Sprinkle it with blue cheese, scallions, and chopped walnuts, and transfer to the baking stone or baking sheet. Bake the bread for 10 to 15 minutes. It should look puffy and be browned on the bottom. It's ideal hot, but I've always been happy to eat it cold as well, and the people I've shared it with don't seem to mind it cold either.
There are hundreds - probably thousands - of variations on flatbreads. These are just a few of the ones I make at home, and I left out several favorites. (Currently my absolute favorite is buckwheat potato flat bread, crusted with sesame seeds. Rather like a buckwheat flavored potato pancake, delicious topped with sour cream, with or without a sprinkle of chopped green onions... mmmmm.) Flatbreads are easy to experiment with and modify, and unless you're interested in the exotics, the ingredients are cheap.