Flat bread is great. It is so easy to make, cooks quickly and is delicious straight out of the pan. Making your own bread is always going to be a win-win. It will have no chemicals added to it and it won’t have extra fat injected into it to prolong shelf life. I am constantly amazed at how something so simple as bread can have such a long list of ingredients printed on the side of the packaging.
For instance, a well known brand name bread has the following list of ingredients;
Wholemeal Wheat Flour,Water ,Wheat Flour ,Yeast ,Wheat Gluten ,Salt ,Emulsifier (Mono- and Di-Acetyltartaric Esters of Mono- and Di-Glycerides of Fatty Acids) ,Soya Flour ,Preservative (Calcium Propionate) ,Calcium Carbonate ,Flour Treatment Agent (Ascorbic Acid)
What a load of crap to be putting into your body.
The smell of freshly baked bread is one of the nicest things on the planet. Bread should be simple and natural. For me, the ideal plain bread is made from flour, yeast, water and pinch of salt. Flat bread, in particular, is easy to make with these ingredients and you can cut out all the faffing around waiting for dough to rise and rest.
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Ingredients for Flat Bread
Makes 5-6 flat breads
2 cups flour
1/2 cup vegan yogurt
1 cup warm water
1 packet fast action yeast
Pinch Salt
The yogurt can be omitted if you wish as can the fast action yeast. I use the yeast because I like cutting open the flatbreads for packing with ingredients.
Pour the yeast into the cup of warm water and cover with a teatowel. The yeast needs about 5-10 minutes to get going. In the meantime, whack a frying pan onto the stove and leave to heat up – the hotter the better. Sieve the flour into a bowl, add a good pinch of salt and the vegan yogurt. Mix. Carefully add some of the water until the dough starts coming together.
Flour a wooden surface and knead the dough for 5 minutes. If you want, leave the dough rest and rise under a bowl for 10 minutes.
Roll out into a roll and slice a chunk off. With a floured rolling pin (or wine bottle), roll the dough out into a flat circular shape, no bigger than your hand. I normally roll mine to a thickness of 3mm (about 2 coins stacked on top of each other).
Throw the first into the pan while rolling out the second. Depending on the heat of the pan, cooking time varies from 3-10 minutes. Take them out of the pan once once the crust has started browning.
These can also be made in the oven – just turn it up to its highest setting.