Categories: Food

Seeded Flatbread

I stumbled on some notes about making flatbread while tidying up my desk recently. The recipe was attempting to do a version using whole, uncooked millet and quinoa. The notes in the margin cautioned me to use less crunchy ingredients the next time around. This time I went the seed route, and the resulting flatbreads were fantastic and wildly flexible. You can pull the dough out paper thin or leave it a bit thicker, serve it straight or bake it with toppings. Here’s how.

When I pull the flatbread dough extra thin, I often like to add a thin later of toppings. Here are a bunch of pizza topping ideas to reference. The version in the photo above was baked with paper thin slices of sautéed potatoes, a bit of cheese, a pinch of fresh thyme. When I leave the flatbread a bit thicker, like you see in the lead photo, I usually skip the toppings, preferring it right out of the oven with a bit of salted butter (or a compound butter!) – and preferably alongside a big bowl of good soup.

How to Make Flatbread

Making this flatbread dough is basically the same as making pizza dough. With a heavy load of seeds and using a different flour. To start you combine the seeds and flour with instant yeast and cold water. You don’t need to worry about proofing the yeast, just mix well, knead for a bit and move on. You can absolutely make this dough without a mixer and I have notes on how in the recipe below.

After kneading for a bit your dough will feel more elastic and resilient. And look something like the photo below.

Divide your flatbread dough into six equal wedges.

Shape each piece into a ball, rub with a bit of olive oil and refrigerate overnight or until ready to bake.

A reminder, ideally, you’ll make the dough the night before, it takes about 10-15 minutes to prepare the dough, and then you pull it out and bake it the next day. This helps develop the good flavor.