Thank you King Arthur for another great bread recipe.  If you like gyros you’ve had bread very similar to this.  If you’ve had naan, you’ve had bread very similar to this.  King Arthur says these flat breads are like a Taco Bell Gordita or a pita bread.  Doesn’t really matter what you call it.  What’s important is how it tastes and how it holds up to what ever you decide to fill it with.  I made this to accompany our Easter dinner of lamb chops, hummus, and tabouli.  It was the perfect vehicle for hummus and tabouli but it is also perfect to use as a sandwich bread.  Any kind of sandwich.  The bread was easy to pull together and seriously only took minutes to “bake”.

Ingredients:

3 to 3 1/4 cups of AP flour

1 1/4 cups boiling water

1/4 cup potato flour or 1/2 cup potato flakes

1 1/4 tsp salt

2 T vegetable oil

1 tsp instant yeast

Place 2 cups of the flour into a bowl.  Pour the boiling water over the flour and stir until smooth.  The boiling water is added to the flour to pre-cook the starch in the flour and to eliminate the possibility of a starchy taste in the finished product.  Cover the bowl with a clean towel and set aside for 30 minutes.

In a smaller bowl whisk together the potato flour or flakes (I used flakes), 1 cup of the remaining flour, salt, yeast and oil.  If you’re using the yeast packets measure out 1 tsp.  The packet is a little over 2 tsps.

After you’ve waited  the requisite 30 minutes add the potato flour/flake mixture to the flour/water mixture.  You can knead by hand or use the dough hook on your mixer.  I used my mixer.  Knead for approximately 5 minutes to form a soft dough.  If you’re kneading by hand King Arthur says to keep your hands and the work surface lightly oiled.  Let the dough rise in a warm spot, covered, for one hour.

Once the dough has risen, divide the dough into 8 pieces, cover, and let rest for 15-30 minutes.

Roll each piece into a 7-8 inch circle.  The dough is easy to roll and I did not need to flour my work surface.

Once you’ve made the rounds, dry fry them (using no oil) about 1 minute per side in a heavy skillet.  They will puff up a bit and be flecked with brown spots.  I think cast iron works the best for the dry frying.  I used my cast iron pizza pan which is one of my favorite pieces of cast iron.  (Thank you Lodge).  I let my pan heat over a medium flame for a few minutes before I started cooking the bread.  Adjust the flame if the bread is cooking too quickly or too slowly.  Too slowly and they will be dry, too quickly and they will be raw inside.  I divided one of my eight balls into two smaller balls, rolled those out, and used them to “test” my griddle temperature.

I was skeptical at first, but it really takes only about 1 minute per side.  Transfer the cooked breads to a wire rack, stacking them to keep them soft.  I stored leftovers in a zip lock bag.

My friend Jane also made these flat breads and used one of hers for an egg salad sandwich.  (Sandwich photo credit goes to Jane.)  Now I want to boil eggs for egg salad!  I will be making these again.  They might even work well for personal pizzas.

NOTE:  King Arthur says this recipe works best with instant yeast because it dissolves during the kneading process.  If you don’t have instant yeast, hold back 1/4 cup of boiling water and dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup of warm water.  Add to the mixture along with the potato flour/flake mixture.