I am a fan of those new crispy flatbreads that keep popping up in gourmet delis and provedores. They are so crisp and delicious – but so expensive!

The other day I needed to take a plate of something to a friend’s house, so I decided to try my own version and this is what I came up with.

I used my basic bread recipe which I have shared before – but in case you can’t locate it easily, here it is again. The difference is in the shaping and making, so skip the recipe if you already know how to make bread. Just make a springy pliable dough.

FABULOUS FLATBREADS

Basic bread dough:

approx. 6 cups plain flour (wholemeal or white or a mixture of the two)

1/2 cup gluten flour *

l tablespoon dry yeast

l tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons salt

l tablespoon oil (olive, vegetable, macadamia)

2 1/2 cups warm water

Place 3 cups flour, gluten flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a large bowl and mix to combine. Add the oil and water and mix well. Add enough more flour to make a soft dough. Start by adding the flour and stirring with a spoon, but at some point you will want to tip the mixture onto a bench and continue using your hands.

Knead well until smooth and elastic adding only as much flour as is needed to make a smooth, soft dough. Wash mixing bowl and grease lightly. Place dough back into the bowl, turning to grease all the surface. Cover and leave in a warm place to rise until doubled. Punch down and shape into loaves or rolls and place in greased tins or on greased trays. Loaf tins should be filled about half full.

Cover again and let rise 30 minutes. The dough will be ‘doubled’ when it rises to within about 2cm of the top of the tin. Meanwhile preheat oven to 300C (I am lucky that my oven goes this high, but otherwise whatever is the maximum for your oven).

Shape bread dough into small balls about the size of a large egg, flatten and roll into a flat oval. I then used my trusty hand-cranked pasta machine* to pass the dough through several times on a fairly low setting to make long and very flat pieces which I placed on a large baking tray. I could only get about five to a sheet but that was OK as the cooking time (around 4-6 minutes) was so quick I could keep rolling other breads while the first were baking.

Before baking, I brushed the flatbreads with oil and sprinkled a little coarse salt and fresh rosemary leaves on some, and spread pesto or sprinkled grated parmesan  on others. There is really no end to what you could use, though. Get creative. Try cumin, sesame or poppy seeds, tapenade, seeded mustard…….. you get the idea!

*if you don’t have a pasta machine, simply roll balls out as thinly as possible with a rolling pin. You can also stretch the discs of dough if you gently take an end in each hand and shake it out while moving your hands apart. If it becomes too tight to roll, simply let that piece ‘rest’ and work on another.