As you might remember, I’m a bit of a bread purist. Thanks to the fact wheat blows me up like a four month pregnancy I try to eat only bread I’ve made myself, figuring that at least I’ll know every ingredient that’s gone into my delicious-tasting nemesis.
Or, you know, extortionately-priced Gail’s Sourdough. Cos if you’re paying 4 quid for a loaf of bread surely it’s good for you?
Our favourite recipe at present is the lowly easy flatbread recipe.
A flexible food, the flatbread can be modified for all manner of situations: we eat ours as wraps for lunch, to scoop up dips or in place of naan bread.
It’s such an easy flatbread recipe to throw together and the dough lasts for about 5 days in the fridge, making it the perfect thing to whip out and cook up fresh for those meals when you need something a little extra.
Plus, for those a little shy of wheat like myself, you’ll be eating a lot less than your two usual sandwich slices in one of these rounds of loveliness.
The next time you’re making a sandwich try this easy flatbread recipe: it takes 5 minutes to whip up the dough and the same to cook, and I promise it tastes MILES better.
Easy Flatbread
Makes around 6-8
Ingredients
- 300 g plain flour
- Pinch salt
- 50 g butter
- 170 ml milk
Instructions
- Melt your butter gently in a pan on the hob. Stir in the milk.
- Mix together your flour and salt. Add the butter/milk mix and stir well until a ball of dough is formed.
- Knead your dough well for a couple of minutes until soft and pliable. Leave for 30 minutes to stand (this is not necessary but means the dough is slightly easier to work with)
- Flour a clean side of worktop and roll a small amount of the dough between your hands - a little larger than a golf ball.
- Heat a dessertspoon of oil (I use olive) and a small knob of butter in a large heavy-bottomed frying pan on a medium heat.
- Roll out the dough with a rolling pin until nice and thin, almost as thin as a store-bought wrap. Leave thicker for a more naan-esque bread.
- Transfer to your pan and cook until golden and bubbly on top, about 4 minutes on each side.
- If you're cooking a batch, transfer on a plate covered in foil to an oven heated to 100 degrees c so they stay delicious and warm
I usually use my flatbreads as a base for all kinds of salads, but recently ate them with slow cooked lamb shoulder, pomegranate and garlic minted yoghurt (YUM!) as well as lamb kebabs with pickled onion and more yoghurt. They’re also great with a chicken caesar salad or as a crispy bread to dip in hummus.
I don’t think I’ve ever made flatbread, but Belle is a big fan of stuff in wraps so perhaps I should give these a try.
These look amazing , am going to try them this weekend.
If you want a really easy recipe for a loaf, Irish soda bread is the way to go – dead quick and never fails: you just need 125g plain flour, 125g wholemeal flour, 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda and 1 250 ish ml pot of buttermilk, plus some salt. Stir it all together to make a fairly wet dough and either drop it into a loaf tin (I use the loaf tin liners, because I’m lazy!) or just form into a flattened ball on a baking sheet, and bake for 30 minutes at 200. For some reason this keeps better if you wrap it in a clean tea towel.
LOAF TIN LINERS! Can’t believe I’ve never heard of these – have just ordered some.
And thanks for this recipe, does it need kneading? This would be a great one I can make with Elfie! Let me know how your flatbreads go :)
Love John Lewis, cake tin liners are an absolute godsend.
Nothing as strenuous as kneading required, so it’s perfect for little ones – you just need to stir. If you’re feeling really flash, you can sprinkle some oats on the top :-)
Just to let you know, I made the flatbreads this weekend – they were fabulous. Cook beautifully on the barbecue :-)
Oh brilliant!! I hadn’t thought to put them on the bbq so will definitely trying these.
And my loaf tin liners arrived last week… I love this exchange of info we seem to have going on here :)
I used my loaf tin liners last week and they were brilliant – anything to not do the messy greasing of the tin. Thank you for the tip! xx
Oh Alice! This looks amazing. I recently sat and watched a friend of mine make this, for us to eat along side a delicious slow cooked bean stew she’d made. She made it all look so easy!
This sounds perfect! I’ve not experimented much with making my own bread but this looks foolproof for even me! Thanks Al xo
Oh I do love flatbread especially when eating al fresco with friends!! These look so easy I am deffo going to give them a go the next time the kids decided to shine as I think the kids would love them as well
Laura x
I have never made my own flatbread before, but it looks so easy to do! I must do this with the kids over the summer break! Thanks!
These worked perfectly, super quick & easy to make & my daughter loved rolling them out (& eating them!). We had them with Portuguese meatballs, yoghurt, coriander & some ancient pomegranate molasses that was (ma)lingering in the fridge. It was yummy. Thank-you for the recipe!
OOh that sounds absolutely delicious, so glad you liked them! They’re on the menu here for dinner tonight :)
I’ve always shied away from making my own bread because I thought it would be super tricky and take forever to make. You actually make it sound really quick and easy! Looks like I have something to do this weekend thanks to your recipe. Thank you for sharing xxx
It really is brilliant! Flatbreads are a weekly thing in our house now.