In 2008 Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid published Flatbreads and Flavors, a delightful cookbook featuring flatbread recipes from diverse cultures, and stories about the people that made them. I have been using the recipes in Flatbreads and Flavors at least a year before I launched Chronicles of Thyme. Many pages have pencil markings and thumbprints made from flour. It's an amazing journey through bread and culture. The authors pair each flatbread recipe with an another recipe for a salad, stew, or soup and provide suggestions to other sides. Flatbreads are the highlight in the trip around the world.

Alford and Duguid have traveled throughout the world and you can view recipes, anecdotes, and cultural observations on their website, Hot Sour Salty Sweet.

It could have been the culinary shows I've been watching airing on the create channel in the middle of the night, or the recent purchase I made of Lidia Bastianich's Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy that inspired my desire to work from an Italian recipe from Flatbreads and Flavors.  Sardinian Parchment Breads, wafer thin flatbreads are warm, crisp, slightly salty, and are rich with the taste of semolina. They can be served warm or at room temperature. They barely had enough time to cool before Matt and I gobbled them up. I've halved the recipe, added a few spices, and adapted the process for my kitchen.

While these can be eaten alone, and are perfect without accompaniment, they could be topped with freshly shaved Parmesan cheese, or olives, or a sundried tomato tapenade. 

Sardinian Parchment Bread
Modified from Page 328, Flatbreads and Flavors
Makes about 8 thin rounds, 8 inches in diameter

1/2 cup coarse durum wheat semolina*
1/2 cup all purpose unbleached flour
1 1/2 tsp dried rosemary*
two pinches of dried oregano*
3 oz hot water, from tap
1/2 tsp sea salt
olive oil

equipment: rolling pin, pizza stone, pastry brush, medium size mixing bowl

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place a pizza stone on the bottom rack.

In the mixing bowl combine flours, water, spices, and sea salt. Stir with a spoon to combine to form a rough dough, but do not knead.

On a prepared floured surface, with both semolina and all purpose flour, roll out a large spoonful of dough as thin as possibly without tearing. Keep the surface and rolling pin generously coated in flour. An ideal flatbread would be 8-10 inches round. Brush each lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Place directly on the hot pizza stone. Bake for 2-3 minutes then flip over and bake for another 1-2 minutes until golden spots appear. The color of the surface will look closely like parchment paper- uneven, but golden.  Areas of the flatbread will look wet in some spots but they will dry upon removal from the oven. Remove flatbread, place on cooling rack to dry further and cool, and repeat the process.

You can roll and prepare another flatbread in the time it takes to bake one, so you'll be constantly active in the kitchen. 

Enjoy the flatbreads warm or cool. They can be stored in an airtight container and will keep for a few weeks.

*I've added a few spices to complement the semolina in the dough. I've also used durum wheat semolina flour, the same flour used to make pasta. My revision of the recipe is not authentic as the authors specify to use course semolina and not semolina flour, but I was quite pleased with the result of #1 durum wheat semolina.

Whole Wheat Naan

This is a soft, thick naan that will go with just about any meal. I paired this flatbread with my quinoa & three bean croquettes. Serve naan warm, with a yogurt and cumin sauce or as it is fresh from the oven. I've worked with various naan recipes before but this one, of my own variation, is by far, as my boyfriend Matt said, the best one I've made to date.  Enjoy.

Whole Wheat Naan
4 large pieces, 15" long

2 tsp dried yeast
1/4 cup warm water (from the tap)
1 cup lowfat 1% organic plain yogurt
1 cup boiling water
3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour (plus more for dusting)
2 T wildflower honey
2 tsp salt
2 scallions, chopped
1 1/2 cloves of garlic, minced

Equipment: 2 mixing bowls, rolling pin, pizza/baking stone, parchment paper

Pour the warm water into a medium mixing bowl. Sprinkle the dried yeast on top and stir to dissolve.  In the smaller mixing bowl place the yogurt in the bowl and pour the boiling water on top. Use a flat spatula and stir. Let the temperature reduce to about room temperature, a little less than 5 minutes.

Pour the yeast mixture into the yogurt mixture and stir together. Add 3 cups of whole wheat pastry flour 1/2 cup at a time. Use a spatula or a wooden spoon to stir batter. Stir in the same direction for about 2 minutes. If you have happy yeast your sponge will be nice and bubbly after 5 minutes and more so after 30 minutes. Let sit in its sponge state for about 30 minutes, covered with a plastic lid or plastic wrap.

After 30 minutes, uncover and pour salt and honey onto the sponge and stir in as much of the whole wheat and all purpose flours, 1/4 to 1/2 cup at a time. Add scallions and garlic to the dough at this point. The dough should begin to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Turn out onto a kneading surface. Clean your mixing bowl and spray with a non stick cooking spray. Knead your dough with floured hands for about 10 minutes. Place back into the mixing bowl, cover, and let it rise for 1 hour.

About 20 minutes before baking time, preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Place a pizza or baker's stone into the oven. When the dough has risen, divide it into 4 pieces. Take one piece at a time with floured hands and with a floured rolling pin roll out onto a flour dusted sheet of parchment paper into a free form shape about 1/4" thick. Set each piece off to the side and let each rest for 10 minutes. Right before baking, make dimple like indentations with your fingers onto the dough. Place one sheet of naan into the oven at a time and bake for about 10 minutes or until slightly golden. Remove and cool. Serve slightly warm. 

I've been baking through Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes A Day, and finding recipes to use the refrigerated dough, the same dough that I mixed to make their variation on Brötchen. Here, I cut off the refrigerated dough I needed to make two pizzas and a fougasse.

Eggplant Flatbread Pizza
Serves 4-6

1 handful of refrigerated Brötchen dough (Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day recipe)
3/4 of an eggplant, cut into 1/4 round slices
3 shallots, peeled and sliced
1 fresh long holy mole pepper, rinsed and cut into medallions
1/2 of a large fresh mozzarella ball, cut into 1/4 chunks
Freshly ground pepper, salt,
Olive oil

Preheat oven to 350degrees. Drizzle eggplant slices with olive oil, sprinkle with grated salt and pepper and place into the oven. Partially bake for about 10-15 minutes. Do not completely cook or cook the entire way through. Remove from oven, cool.

Raise the heat of your oven to 450degrees and set your pizza stone inside your oven.

While eggplant is cooling and your pizza stone is warming, prepare to roll out your pizza dough on your counter. You'll need a little bit of flour to work the dough, but don't overwork it. Stretch it to fill the equivalent size of your pizza stone, or until your dough is about 1/8" thick. I roll it pretty thin and leave the edges thick. I roll and stretch my dough on parchment paper. The paper will move quite a bit, but it's easier to transfer the pie while still on the parchment paper to the heated stone in the oven.

Place eggplant, mozzarella, shallots, pepper, on the dough, leaving about 1" border on all sides. Drizzle with olive oil. Add salt, pepper to your liking. Pick up the flatbread by the parchment paper and lay it onto your hot pizza stone. Bake for about 25 minutes at 450 degrees. I like a crispy crust. Twice during baking I sprayed a fine mist of water into my oven. Due to my own oven's inconsistent way of baking, I usually rotate halfway through baking time. Remove and cool before serving.

Margherita Pizza with fresh pizza sauce
Serves 4-6

1 handful of refrigerated Brötchen dough (from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day)
3/4 of a cup of pizza sauce
1/2 of a large ball of fresh mozzarella
Fresh Basil and Oregano


Pizza sauce: (This is my staple. For those of you that need a recipe, here it is. You can do this to taste.)

1 quart of canned, whole, peeled tomatoes
1 tablespoon of olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, minced.
1 palm full of fresh chopped herbs: oregano, basil
(I grow cuban oregano and hot and spicy oregano in my garden and cultivate a standard basil. If you must, you can used dried spices but once you've tasted the difference you'll never go back to dried spices.)

I make the pizza sauce before I even begin to prepare the pizza. I've used this sauce for many different recipes. I simmer the quart of tomatoes on low-medium heat with garlic and olive oil in a medium stockpot until the liquid is reduced by half. Break up the tomatoes with a wooden spoon and rest the spoon nearby. Sometimes I've even added shallots or onions to the sauce. Stir frequently to ensure nothing is stuck to the bottom of the pan. Use a medium size stockpot or larger, so that you don't get burned by the occasional splatter. Time varies, it usually takes between a half hour to 45 minutes. I add the chopped herbs during the last 10 minutes. Taste once or twice to see if you need to add more spices and to ensure the texture is thick enough for sauce. Set the sauce to the side and use when needed.

Follow Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes A Day's recipe for pizza, rolling thin for a crispy crust, and their baking directions. Place sauce on the dough, add mozzarella slices, and fresh herbs. Some Margherita pizza recipes call for placing whole basil leaves on the sauce, you can do that as well. It looks nice. Baking on a hot pizza stone really does make a crispy crust on the bottom, so don't miss out on that step.

Stuffed Fougasse with Butternut Squash and Pears
Serves 4, as an appetizer or side

1 portion of Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day refrigerated Brötchen dough
1 medium butternut squash, cut into 1/2" cubes, partially boiled
2 bartlett pears, cored, peeled and sliced thin
2 stems of fresh rosemary, rinsed
Olive oil to brush

Follow Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day recipe for Fougasse Stuffed with Roasted Red Pepper, found on page 154 of their text. Instead of stuffing the fougasse with roasted red peppers, I stuffed it with butternut squash, pears, and rosemary. I kept the baking time the same, around 25 minutes at 450degrees.  The squash and pears need to be about the same texture, so partially boil and cool the squash before layering it between the pear slices. (Raw squash will not cook completely during baking.) I had leftover pear and squash, as to not overstuff the fougasse. Make one row of squash, one row of pear across the dough surface, then lay the rosemary stems across them and lightly drizzle with olive oil before folding and sealing the edges. Bake on a pizza stone. The squash and pears will be soft, and the dough on the outside will be crisp.

Next time I might bake the fougasse with goat cheese, and brush the folded surface with egg white for a nice golden color.