Roasted Autumn Vegetable Flatbread

Well it’s that time of the year again… Roastin’ time! There are quite a few things that signal the fall to me (as they do to everyone for that matter): dropping temperatures, sweater vests, pumpkins (well any gourd for that matter) and the changing colors of the vegetables. Vegetables?!? That’s right, vegetables. Sure the leaves change colors and we all know that, but next time you’re taking a stroll down your nearest produce section and you’ll see fall fully represented and shining with those oh so fallsome hues of orange, yellow, green and those tints somewhere in-between those three. Ahhh yes fall. So in the spirit of fall I’ve decided to go ahead and commemorate it with some super easy to make roasted vegetable flatbread.

I’m surprised that it’s taken me this long to post using this particular technique of bread making. This is the sort of technique that I always point people to whenever they are concerned about getting into yeast breads. I also have to confess that when I first heard about this book (Thanks mom!) I didn’t think it worthy of actually being a bread book. I mean no kneading, no pretentiousness, this whole everyone can do it attitude; those sorts of things are certainly not welcome in any bread book of mine! Well I suppose that if populism and egalitarianism doesn’t have a place in our government, at least it’s got one in some of our cookbooks.

This dough is the easiest (ok well maybe second easiest, but I’ll have to get to that one later…) and most versatile that I can think of. Use the ingredients below as just a starting point. I generally add some sort of spice to it (red pepper and fresh pepper are always welcome in this loaf) and I’m not afraid to put in some whole wheat, rye, barley or some other sorts of flours and you shouldn’t be either! Just to demonstrate the versatility of this dough I’m going to sneak in some pics of something that one of my roommates dubbed (well to be fair this nomenclature actually got its name from one of the bloggers she follows) ‘best sandwich ever’. I’m afraid the full recipe will have to wait for a guest post from her, but until then just know that it was excellent (and this modest dough was the basis for the sandwich!)

Recipe for crazy easy super versatile dough (adapted from a cookbook by Jef Hertzberg and Zoe Francois with the oh so modest title of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking)

This recipe can be easily doubled or halved

3 cups of lukewarm water

1 1/2 tbsp yeast

1 1/2 tbsp salt

6 1/2 cups of all purpose flour

1. Mix all of the ingredients in a bowl or a food safe container. You’ll only want to mix here until all of the ingredients are hydrated and evenly incorporated. If you are using different types of flours here (which I recommend) be sure to stir them together before adding the water.  Don’t over mix! The success of the dough is premised on its ability to rise easily and lots of strands of gluten will result in a much thicker dough, worthy in its own right, but not what we are going for here.

2. Transfer to a food safe container (or leave in a food safe container if it already is in one)

3. Let it rise for approximately two hours. While this time may vary, what you’ll be looking for is for the dough to collapse back down on itself. It should also be noted here that the dough.

4. In the meantime, if you are planning on using the dough after the initial rise preheat the oven to 450 45 minutes before baking. If you don’t have a stone to use then place an inverted sheet pan in the oven or (with a baking stone if you’ve got one) and proceed as below.

5. If you are not going to use the dough immediately, (no worries!) simply place the dough in the fridge. It will keep for about 10 days or so. Throughout the week the dough will be a continue to get a more sour taste to it and if you really want to cultivate the sour taste then once you’ve finished with this bread, just make another batch using the same container and you’ll start to really get that sour taste that many of us go for at the markets.

See steps below for flatbread method

6. Sprinkle your work surface with flour,cut off 1/4 of the dough(rough one pound) and quickly shape into a ball if making a boule. To do this simply coat the dough with flour, turn over coat the other side with flour and then lift the dough and gently stretch all the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides,  rotating a quarter turn as you go.  It may look like you haven’t done it right, but chances are you have. Let the dough rest for approximately 45 minutes.

7. Put the dough in the oven and take out the bread 30 minutes later!

8. Let cool (an hour)
and enjoy at will!

Roasted Vegetable Flatbread Method:

Note: I used roasted veggies from the day before and you don’t need to actually top with roasted veggies to have yourself a good flatbread. Use whatever you got!

6. Rather than forming into a boule (see step 6 above) flatten out the dough using whatever method you see fit (I’m partial to the tossing myself): toss, pull and stretch, roll or anything else that comes to mind.

7. Preheat the oven to 550 (as hot as it will go).

8. Coat the flatbread with olive oil (I made a quick sauce with butter olive oil, shallots and garlic).

9. Place vegetables on flatbread.

10. Slide into oven.

11. Remove when crust begins to have a golden sheen and enjoy while still hot!