The official Flat bread Community bake thread

Profile picture for user The Roadside Pie King
The Roadside P… on 4 Mar 2025 at 10:33

To keep things tidy please post your bakes here. Then give the full down low at your blog. Good luck everyone.

Sample formula 

#1. https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/51320/weeks-baking-march-26-2017

#2.

https://youtu.be/8BZZJjewoos?si=AdrKkyuYrv0ldzup

I am looking forward to some great exotic ( or not)  flat bread bakes!

They are filled with anything you can think of. 

Basically a thin batter enriched with eggs. No levein at all. 

These are my mom's crepe style manicotti. Cheese filled crepes. Traditional manicotti use pasta tubes to fill. These are lighter, and decidedly Maltese. 

Sorry for the the not so artistic leftover photo.

 

This looks simple, practical and very delicious! Thanks for posting Will, and even more thanks for getting the ball rolling!

  1. when is the deadline?
  2. Are Danish squares considered flatbread? I might want to do an elevated twist on a laminated flatbread of my homeland

I think the CB are pretty much open ended. If I am wrong someone please correct me and I will edit the post accordingly. 

Personally, I consider stuffed pizza flat bread. So, why not stuffed danish? Go for it.

What is the "Ftira"?

A relatively high hydration lean, sourdough, ring shaped, squat bread sandwich.

The typical bread formula 

Bread flour - 100%

Water - 75%

Salt - 2%

Ripe starter @ 100% hydration - 28%

Totals 

Bread Flour (14% Protein) 560 ( 14% Prefermented)

                                  Water 420 (  (14% from preferment)

Final Dough 

Ripe sourdough culture 160

                    Bread Flour.  480

                                Water 340

                                     Salt  12        

          Most typical filling (Ħobż biż-żejt) bread with oil

Kunserva ( Tomato paste)

Olive oil

Canned tuna in oil

Tomato 

Anchovies 

Capers 

Olives

Aim:

To create the Ftira, using the ultra high hydration Cristal bread formula.

The you tube link is a online Maltese friend of mine creating the quintessential example.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=JIkIOjiTDuU&si=8G-4tGEqFmC9eTe9

 

 

As I stated in my bake description, my next bake will be an ultra high hydration formula. I was not up to that today. So, now I have a baseline of a proper Maltese bread formula. Not much tobit really. Flour, water, salt, % of flour prefermented.

Just a couple of general notes about the community bake for members who might be joining us the first time (well, I am one such member ;), and taking the cue from Paul, who hosted the Infinity Bread CB, and from Dan who started CBs:

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Per Dan Ayo, the originator of Community Bakes: for those not familiar with our Community Bakes see THIS LINK. The idea of a Community Bake is for those interested learning and baking as a group. Be sure to post the results. This way we can all learn together. This is not a bread baking competition, everyone wins! All bakers with any skill level are welcomed to join the bake, and the CB remains open, though the initial burst of activity tends to last for two to three weeks.

Novice bakers are especially welcomed and plenty of assistance will be available for the asking. The Community Bakes are non-competitive events that are designed around the idea of sharing kitchens with like minded bakers around the world, "cyber style". To participate, simply photograph and document your bakes. You are free to use any formula and process you wish. Commercial yeast, sourdough, a combination of both, no rising agents... all completely acceptable. 

Here is a list of our past CBs and here is the post for the Infinity Bread CB. They remain active and are monitored by numerous users that are ready, willing, and able to help if assistance is needed. A quick browse of past CBs will provide an accurate picture of what these events are all about.

Should the updates to this thread become overwhelming for you, you may always click on the link at the bottom of a notification email and unsubscribe to the updates. You may also choose to receive notifications of replies to your own comment only when posting.

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As Will has already announced, we're diving into the world of flat breads this time and all conversations surrounding them. Flatbreads can be found all over the world, and we will start collating a list of our bakes by region/country as this thread starts getting populated. I think we will learn a lot from everyone - if you want more ideas in addition to what Will has posted, here's Floyd's pita, Omid's barbari bread, and Doc's injera. It would also be really fun to see what you eat your flatbreads with! Good luck everyone and happy flatbreading.

-Lin

I'll be following your bake closely - good luck! I like that you're using ghee and spraying water when cooking them - sometimes I put a lid over the pan as well to keep the naan really moist and bubbly.

Please let us know how it turns out!

-Lin

And it looks like it's got good texture and taste too, from the flour combination! For me parathas do not need to brown, but if that's desired it's usually a liberal amount of ghee (doesn't burn) and more layering, a good steady heat held constant. 

What did you eat this with? 

-Lin

Thanks for starting off the festivities. South Asia in the house! The flakey thin rounds look the perfect accompaniment in my left hand while weilding a fork in my right hand! All jokes aside, great looking pan cooked bread.

I froze two of them to see how they come back later.  I'll post about it when the time comes.

Just like for the Infinity Bread CB, as soon as I started to get serious about an entry, I found that I wanted to make something a little different, either because most of us don't know about it or it would be a twist on something standard.  This time it was the corn-rye flour combo. Next time, who knows?

You are making me hungry!  Great job.

Check out my entry inspired by you a year ago!

Still on the gluten free kick, so I thought I'd try this recipe for gluten free pita.

The flour blend is two-thirds white rice flour and one-third tapioca starch, and psyllium is used as the binder. 

I baked them on my baking steel at 230°C (446°F) as I normally do when making pitas rather than cooking in a pan as they do In the video. 

Photo of pita breads on coming rack

These came out surprisingly well! They needed longer to bake than regular pitas (gave them 4 minutes in closed oven, then I flipped for a further 2.5 minutes). 

Only about half of them puffed up (and normally all my wheat pitas puff up). Perhaps I didn't give them enough resting time after shaping before baking. Other differences: shape wise the edges weren't as regular as normal pitas (they were crennelated); and the texture was more chewy than fluffy.

Cut open pita pocket showing interior and plate of home made hummus in background

They could all be cut open to make pockets and were lovely with plates of home made hummus.

These look terrific! You are raising the bar for gluten free bread! Thanks for sharing, Jon.

That looks pretty amazing for a gluten free flatbread and it sounds like it tastes great as well.

Thanks for sharing.

Ian

a South Tyrolean rye flatbread courtesy of Dan Leader's Local Breads. Super chill to make: just over 2 hours from start to finish.

It's 50/50 rye/bread flour, 90% hydration, flavored with fennel & anise (though I've read that locals often add blue fenugreek too) and lifted (a tiny bit) with instant yeast.

The tradition is to vigorously shake the dough on a tray to thin it out. Leader saves time by suggesting you roll it out instead. I did a bit of both -- with uncertain results.

My partner said, 'Where's the hummus?' but I think the local tradition is to eat this with speck or some other cured or smoked meat. It'd go great with tapenade as well or thin slices of perfectly ripe tomatos. Or peppers cured in vinegar. Or (she's right) hummus or baba ghanoush.

next week: a New York version of the super-mysterious Ticinese fiàscia!

Rob

Thanks for sharing.  This  looks great.  Some thin meat and/or cheese would go perfect with this!

Love that you found a way to use rye, not that it isn't already your signature thing Rob. To my mind it looks like a (shmurah) matzah with the fork marks. I'm with your partner on the hummus.

South Tyrolean, boarders Germany / Italia, up in the mountains am I correct? I don't remember, is this town in Italia, or Germany? I was very interested in breads from this region a few years ago. Alas , I lost interest, ( who knows why.) In the end I did not pursue it. 

 These look very interesting.  What did you serve them with? Did you enjoy them? What was your partners opinion! Glad you joined in Rob. I am looking forward to your next Swiss inspired bake! Chestnut flour! What a treat! I am certain, the people of Val Bavona, would be honored by your NY rendition! Where about in NY City are you? I was in the Village just off of Washington Sq. 

 

thx, Will. Though the name is German, this bread is Italian, I believe. The baking tradition defies the language division. 

Unfortunately, I failed to plan ahead for toppings, so I am eating pane nudo. The fennel is the forward flavor, bursting on first crunch; the anise lies behind with its dank liquorice tang.

Regarding fiàscia, I may have to use hazelnut flour, bc chestnut is a hard grind to find, even in NYC.

As for neighborhoods, I am a beast of many boroughs, having made it from Queens to Brooklyn, with a 10-year detour in Manhattan. 

Rob

Mom would buy shelled dry chestnuts. She used them to make a sweet chestnut tea/soup. It was delicious. But my favorite way to consume chestnuts was roasted in the shell. 

 I started life in Canarsie Brooklyn. I moved into my girlfriends apartment in Masperh Queens at 25ish?  I married the girl, brought a house in Maspeth, had a couple of kids. Divorced moved back to Canarsie. Became a resident manager, and lived in Manhattan for 25 years. My first superintendent gig was a workout job 27 E 62nd street. Talk about an affluent area! Within a few years I found the full-time gig in Greenwich Village. Much more laid back spot. 

chestnut soup!!!!

As far as I understand fiàscia, those who couldn't afford wheat or rye turned to chestnuts. Now the tables are turned & chestnuts are the pricey commodity.

I grew up in Jamaica, Queens, did hard time in Hartford, Conn after college, then moved to Hell's Kitchen. Now I'm in Williamsburg. I came to Brooklyn for the desolation. Today it's got more gentry than Gramercy -- and bigger buildings. Ah well, at least it has better coffee than it used to🤣.

Rob

PS: My grandmother lived on E. 63rd -- but over by Second Ave. I think she was an original tenant in one of those 1960s white brick buildings. She lied about her age and worked in a wholesale toy showroom till she was in her 80s.

My first job in the building service industry was as a midnight concierge at World Wide Plaza 50th between 8-9. Long story short, I was promoted to handyman,(4-12)  biked across town to my job/ apartment on 62nd. I spent too much time at the subway bar! 

We were neighbors!!! I lived on 48th between 8th & 9th. Tub in the kitchen, toilet in the hall. Eighth Ave was filled with 'too much time' places: McHale's, Morahan's Irish House, Ferguson & McLoughlin's, Tin Pan Alley.

Here we have flatbread what popularly known as roti canai, or locally known as roti maryam. It's started out as phyllo dough, smeared with ghee, rolled and coiled, then flattened into disks. Kinda laminated. Roti means bread, and Maryam is feminine name equivalent to Marie

I reinterpreted it as pain suisse dough, cut into disks. You may call these...

 

Marie in Switzerland

 

lol I'm choking

It's a failed bake, I switched flour to higher protein flour, dough resisted to be rolled

I will make a blog about it once I'm happy with the result

Jay

I am so used to torturing myself making croissants using 13% flour, so I thought why not torture myself even more with 14% 😄😄 but then I learned my lesson (lol). In the past, working 13% dough was always slow and painful for sure, but the results have never disappointed 

I prolly will dilute the gluten of my flour with rice flour, just until I get rid of the flour

Jay

My Flatbread Bake

I started on my serious baking journey in 2008 with a class at the San Francisco Baking Institute (SFBI). In that class we made this flat bread. The instructor called it Jewish flatbread. The story he told about it was that he had been watching a movie and fell asleep. When he woke up this bread was being made and he was intrigued so to the best of his memory he created this formula. He could not remember the name of the movie but my recollection is he believed there was some connection in it to Israel which is why he called it Jewish Flatbread. 

I have made this with the feta called for and have also used goat cheese. This bake I used block feta in brine that I crumbled. I did not get it well mixed in and you can see in the pictures flecks of it. I also think my tastes have changes some as I found it a bit sweet.

Water and olive oil are not calculated but added just to make a dough. For this 750 gr batch I added about 50 gr each of both. If you use feta in olive oil you might not need to add as much. After mixing I let the dough rest for about 5 minutes before dividing - into about 100 gr each, and then rested another 10 before rolling out. The instructions only say to roll very thin. I went with about 8” across. I think when making in the past I divided smaller, maybe 50 gr and so the pieces were smaller as well.

Thanks for choosing flatbread for this bake. There are so many variations and it is so accessible for someone just starting their baking journey.

Bread Flour 100% 389 gr

Water *

Olive Oil *

Salt 1% 4 gr

Feta 67% 260 gr

Honey 25% 97 gr

  • Added as needed. For this bake 50 gr each. 

Total dough quantity 850 gr divided into 9 pieces approximately ~100 gr each

Process Final Dough:

Mix feta and honey together in bowl with fork till smooth.  Begin to add flour and salt till stiff consistency - begin to knead by hand.  Mix all in until incorporated and improved. If it’s too dry may need to add some olive oil.  

Divide: 1” balls about 100 gr each

Rest: 10 minutes

Final shape: Roll out thin, brush with olive oil

Bake: On griddle, both sides over medium to high heat

 

After mixing

One piece rolled out

On the griddle

After Flipping

All Done

Being served for dinner tonight with lamb kofta meatballs with tahini sauce and pearl couscous with fresh greens mixed in.

Thanks to all for hosting this community bake.

 

Janice
 

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The Roadside P… on 9 Mar 2025 at 15:52

They look absolutely mouth watering!

Lovely breads Ian, I especially loved your attention to detail with the stamping. 

To my mind this is the real kind of interesting flatbread to aspire to.

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mwilson on 10 Mar 2025 at 14:30

Picked up some Atta to make Chapatis...

Opened and grilled (salamander) - topped with mature cheddar cheese, Italian pepperoni with fennel and basil.

I just finished eating but now I’m hungry again!  Your complete dish looks fantastic.

Ian