What do you do if you fancy bread, but bread made with wheat bloats your tummy? After years of omitting all bread from my diet, I suddenly fancied it again. So, I decided to get into the kitchen and start experimenting. I wanted to make a bread which was both wheat-free and very easy to make. And also create a flat-bread with wheat for those of you who have no difficulties digesting it.
After a little research and some experimenting, I now have these easy to make flatbreads recipes to share with you. I have tried quite a few different combinations of flour (see below, for those that didn’t work) and whilst the wheat flatbreads still win on taste, I am enjoying the buckwheat and the buckwheat-and oat versions—and I hope you will too. Buckwheat is part of the rhubarb family—so despite it’s name, it doesn’t contain wheat, or gluten.
To make these flatbreads, you need equal quantities of a flour and natural, full-fat, bio yoghurt (Yeo is my favourite brand) with a good pinch of rock or sea-salt. And that’s it. Now here is how you can make either just one: or make a batch of six
For 1 Buckwheat or Wheat Flatbread
Makes just 1 flatbread
- 27g flour — either buckwheat or self-raising
- 27g natural bio yoghurt
- pinch of rock salt or sea salt
Method
Place a small bowl onto your kitchen scales. Reset it to zero. Now sift the flour into the bowl. Reset your scales back to zero and add 27g – roughly 2 teaspoons – of yoghurt. Add pinch of salt. With a metal spoon, begin to mix the flour and yoghurt together until a dough is formed. It will be soft and sticky, especially for buckwheat, so instead of kneading it with your hands, use the back of your spoon to squash the dough flat, then bring it back into a ball. Repeat this action for 2-3 minutes. Now let it ‘rest’ for 20 minutes. If you are in a hurry, I have found that you can omit the rest period: but the air bubbles don’t form so readily and the flatbreads end up a little more crispy.
After the rest, place dough on to a floured surface. Pat the dough with your hand to flatten it into a oval shape. Then with a floured rolling pin (I use an old, large beer bottle!), do the final flattening and smoothing. The dough will be fragile: you may need a fish slice or palette knife to lift it.
Heat a pancake pan/frying pan/or griddle pan until it is very hot. Don’t add any oil. Now carefully lift the dough onto the pan. After a couple of minutes, flip the flatbread over. You will see brown spots appear on the dough. The flatbread will, begin to bubble as steam forms inside. You may need to flip it over once more – until the dough is cooked. It only takes a couple of minutes to cook your flatbread. As soon as it is cooked – enjoy!
Oat & Buckwheat Flatbreads
Makes 6 flatbreads
- 80g Porridge Oats
- 80g Buckwheat
- 160g Bio Yoghurt
- ¼ teaspoon rock or sea salt
Method
Put the oats into a food processor and blitz until they become a coarse flour. Sift the buckwheat flour into the food processor bowl, then add the yoghurt and salt. Whizz the ingredients once more until a sticky dough has formed. Spoon the dough out onto a liberally (buckwheat) floured surface and gently knead it for 2-3 minutes. Cover with a piece of kitchen towel and allow to ‘rest’ (this allows the yoghurt to begin working) for 20-30 minutes. Again, if in a hurry, you can omit or reduce the resting time, but the flatbreads don’t puff-up as much.
Shape the dough into a flat sausage and cut into 6 equal chunks (as in the photo above). Take a piece of dough, place it on a liberally floured surface. Flatten and shape it into a oval shape. Roll it flat with a dusted rolling pin. If your pan is big enough, prepare 2. The dough is fragile: you may need a fish slice or palette knife to lift the dough onto your hot pan.
Heat a pancake pan/frying pan/or griddle pan until it is very hot. Don’t add any oil. Now carefully lift 1 or 2 onto the pan. After a couple of minutes, flip the flatbread over. You will see brown spots appear on the dough. The flatbread will, begin to bubble with the steam inside. You may need to flip it over once more – until the dough is cooked. It only takes a couple of minutes to cook your flatbread(s). After cooking your first batch, brush away any burnt flour crumbs with a kitchen towel – being careful not to burn your fingers. Repeat this process until all of the flatbreads are cooked.
If you wish to freeze some of them, part cook them – just until they have become firm on each side. Make a stack with pieces of parchment (or greaseproof) paper in between each one. When cool, pop into a freezer bag and freeze. From frozen, you simply heat your pan until it is hot, and cook the flatbread by turning it over several times so it has completed the cooking and it fully heated.
My experiments and analysis
My favourite is the buckwheat and oat flour 50:50 mix. I tried with two-thirds oats to buckwheat and they were too oats in flavour. I like the 100% buckwheat version, but it has a slightly citrus flavour. I also tried making them with Gram (Chickpea) flour, but these ended up quite heavy and, not surprisingly, with a strong chickpea flavour, although I may see if buckwheat and gram works—I will let you know.
Eat Well—Be Well 🙂
