Freshly charcoal grilled flatbread is one of summers highlights, whether you paint it with garlic butter, use it to dip into freshly made houmous or eat it with marinated lamb. It is also quick and easy to make.
Ingredients
One small bag of strong plain flour
1 tsp of salt
Lukewarm water – around 350ml
1 sachet of dried yeast
1 tsb of sugar
Olive oil
Flat bread is something I make by eye. It turns out a bit different every time, but every time it is fantastic. Bread flour is best but plain flour works. For your first go, measure out the water and from then on, you should be able to do it by good guesswork. The water should be warm, blood temperature, when you put your finger in, any warmer and it will kill the yeast. I know that more dried yeast says it doesn’t need to be pre-started but I always think it helps. So take a quarter of the water, put it in a bowl with the yeast and the sugar. Mix and leave for 10 minutes.
Put the flour in a bowl, add the salt and mix it in. Add the yeast water, which should be foaming and using a strong fork, mix the flour and water. Add more water until you have a wet dough. Then with clean hands start working the dough. Once you have worked it a bit, it should start to come together. Then lightly flour a board, take the dough and start to stretch and pull it. It will be sticky, but keep working. Keep kneading the dough for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes it should be soft and smooth. Lightly oil the dough, put it in the bowl. Put the bowl in a warm placed, covered with a clean tea towel. Leave it for at least 30 minutes, until it has doubled in size. It is now ready to use. You can now take a small piece, roll it thinly and make your own pitta. Leave it thick and rolled to a large teardrop, and you have nan bread. Heat a barbecue and put the bread on the barbecue, wait until it bubbles and turn it over. It is now cooked. Take a bite. Eat the lot and make some more.
This recipe works for pizza as well.
