FABULOUS GARLIC AND CORIANDER FLATBREAD

Baking bread can be quite a daunting and laborious task. All that kneading and proofing and then there is always the fear of your yeast failing so you end up with dodgy bread that's as tough as cardboard. This recipe for a delicious garlic and coriander flatbread removes all of these worries. You still need to rest the dough overnight but once you have then all you need to do is roll out your dough, pop it in the oven and finish with garlic butter for a delightfully thin and crispy accompaniment to many a meal.

 I recommend using "00" flour for this recipe. For a yeast free bread I find it does give you the best results in terms of bready texture and taste. If you don't have any then I would try maybe using a plain flour first which could work or at a stretch then maybe strong bread flour however I cannot say if you will get the same results. Bread flour may make the bread tough and plain flour might not make for a good elastic dough but give it a whirl and see what happens. I'm no Paul Hollywood so don't blame me if it doesn't work!

If you want you can use different herbs such as sage or rosemary to compliment the meal your serving it with. The garlic butter is optional too. Experiment and you'll find you can come up with a range of different flat bread flavors for many an occasion.

For the most crispest flat-bread in town, whip out a pizza stone that's roughly 35cm in diameter and give it a good warm up on the highest oven temperature for at least one hour before baking. This will give you a beautifully crisp base to your flat bread. If you don't have a pizza stone then simply roll out your flat breads and bake on a baking tray lined with grease proof paper. You may need to bake the flatbread in batches depending on the size of your trays and oven and just keep a close eye on them as they will take a bit less time to bake. Once the top of your flat bread is brown all over, carefully lift them up and tap the underside as close to the middle as you can. If it sounds hollow then your flatbread is baked.

Here comes the recipe. Remember to start it at least 12 hours before you plan to bake them to allow that dough to rest and give you perfect flat-breads;

Garlic and Rosemary Flat-Bread

400g "00" Flour

3 Tbsp Of Olive Oil

1 Handfull Of Chopped Fresh Coriander

1 1/2 Tsp Salt

50g Unsalted Butter

2 Grated Garlic Cloves

1. In a large clean bowl, add in the flour, olive oil, coriander and salt and give everything a good mix together. Slowly pour in 250ml of warm water, mixing as you go until the everything come together into a dough ball. 
2. Turn the dough ball out onto a lightly floured surface and knead the dough for around 5 minutes until smooth and elastic. Shape the dough into a ball and then place it in a lightly greased bowl. Cover with film and place into a fridge for at least 12 hours but preferably overnight to rest.
3. Around 1 hour before your ready to start baking your flatbread, remove the dough from the fridge to warm up slightly and place your 35cm pizza stone in the oven at 200 degrees (180 fan) to warm up.
4. After the stone has warmed up for an hour, take your dough and roll it out on a piece of grease proof paper to the size of your pizza stone. The dough should around 2mm thick but you can give it a bit more thickness around the edges so that you form a little crust around the outside.
5. Melt the butter in a pan on a low heat and then brush the dough all over with around half of the butter (keeping the other half for later) and carefully transfer the dough still on the paper to the pizza stone and bake for around 15-20 minutes until the top is golden brown and the base sounds hollow when tapped.
6. As the bread bakes, mix together the grated garlic with the remaining melted butter. Once the flat-bread has finished baking, remove it from the oven and brush over the melted garlic butter.

Cut the flatbread with a pizza cutter into quarters or eighths and serve as quickly as you can so that bread is still deliciously warm and crispy. The coriander flavor that will of infused right through the bread dough is a perfect complement to the punchy fresh garlic butter that is brushed over at the end. If you want to give your flatbread a further flavour pop then you could even grate over some Parmesan to add another zingy cheesy layer to the top of the bread. However you chose to serve it I'm sure you will agree it is a truly fabulous flatbread!