May 7, 2013

Homemade Whole-Wheat Flatbreads

Today is my spring cleaning day, and I am really hoping I find a big wad of cash. So far I have only found one penny but a girl can dream. In the past three hours all I have organized is my nightstand, and that's it. This is most likely because while I was cleaning I got distracted with reading my recipe ideas notebook. Lots of times when I am asleep I have dreams about food [surprise, surprise] and I wake up in the middle of the night with ideas for recipes. I keep a notebook in my bedside table to write these ideas down. Let's just say some of them are very entertaining and would probably never amount to much of anything (but that doesn't mean I don't give a lot of these ideas a try).

These whole wheat flatbreads were a not so crazy middle of the night recipe idea, and I probably was only dreaming about them because we had just eaten some awesome chicken gyros for dinner the night before on some totally awful store-bought flatbread. I won't tell you the brand, but they were honestly like soggy cardboard. YUCK!

These homemade ones are perfect, however. They are thin, but fluffy and chewy. They really are 100% whole wheat too which means they are good for you. And, no, they do not taste like cardboard. Extra bonus= they freeze well so you can always make a batch and freeze them before you actually need them for a meal. 

Whole Wheat Flatbread #recipe via The Taste Tester

Whole Wheat Flatbread

Recipe Source: © The Taste Tester

1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 tablespoon honey or sugar
1 cup warm water (110 degrees)
2 tablespoons olive oil + more for cooking
2 tablespoons vital wheat gluten
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour, plus or minus 1/4 cup depending on heat and humidity

Mix yeast with warm water and honey. Let sit for five minutes (yeast will activate--- should bubble up).   In the meantime whisk flour, gluten, and salt together.

When yeast is ready stir in the olive oil first and then the flour mixture until wel combined. Knead dough twenty times. It should be soft but not sticky. Add more flour while kneading as needed. Let dough rest for 20 minutes.

Divide dough into eight equal portions. Shape each piece into a ball and then roll into a oval or rectangle on a whole-wheat-floured surface (they don't have to be perfect). The dough should be thin. Heat a pancake griddle to 350 degrees. When grill is heated brush it with two teaspoons of olive oil and place two-three flatbreads on it. Cook for 1-2 minutes on each side or until lightly browned. They will bubble up. Remove to a plate and repeat with remaining pieces of dough.

More recipes for using this flatbread will be coming your way this Thursday! You can like my page on facebook to get the latest updates on new recipes here.

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8 comments:

  1. I love homemade bread! This looks healthy and delicious. Thanks for sharing!

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    1. Thanks for stopping by :) I love homemade bread as well.

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  2. I just stumbled across your blog. I think I'm going to love it! One quick question on these flat breads. I use instant yeast rather than active dry yeast. How would this effect the out come?

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    1. You could definitely use instant yeast, but you could probably skip the activating the yeast part and just mix it in with the dry ingredients first, then add the wet ingredients last and form a ball of dough that way. It should still work, though I have never done it before! You'll have to let me know how it turns out :)

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  3. How "vital" is the vital wheat gluten? I don't have any but I have the whole wheat flour. I made some flatbread last week, made them into small breakfast sandwiches, wrapped each tight in plastic wrap & had them in the frig. 2 days later, the flatbread was moldy. Not sure why... I want to make again, but I'm hesitant. Didn't like throwing out 6 breakfast sandwiches & wasting the egg, ham, sausage & cheese. :(

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    1. Jill- Whole wheat flour has a lower percentage of gluten than other flours like all-purpose and bread flour. I add the vital wheat gluten so that the result is a lighter, fluffier, chewier whole wheat bread product, like what you'd get if you used a flour with a higher gluten percentage. I think it is pretty vital :) but you could definitely try it without and see how you like them. Also, unless you freeze them, they won't last too long mainly because they are a real food staple, no preservatives like in the store bought variety that last a lot longer. We usually freeze the flatbreads we don't use within the first 48 hours or so. Maybe you could try freezing your breakfast flatbread sandwiches?

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    2. You can get wheat gluten at walmart. Top shelf above the flour in a small box.

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  4. These were good, thanks!

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