flatbread – CafeGarima

It is the season for grapes and where I live,we are blessed with all varieties of the juicy fruit. Some kind soul sent us a huge lot of these jewel like pretty grapes and I was worried they would spoil if I do not use them up soon.

Unfounded fears totally! We’ve snacked on them like there’s no tomorrow!! Before the last bunch vanished, I had to try this mildly sweet and totally delicious flatbread – ‘Schiacciata con L’uva’, which translates to Focaccia with grapes.
It is a glorious explosion of flavours with the best quality grapes, some rosemary,a sprinkle of brown sugar and some sea salt! A big shout of thanks to my friend Megha Vikram Singh for the recipe idea! We loved it Meg ❤

I changed the toppings on my go-to Focaccia recipe and had this awesome crunchy delight to savour!

Ingredients

For the Focaccia dough

2 cups – All purpose flour (Maida)
1 ¼ tsp dry yeast or ½ teaspoon Instant yeast
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup buttermilk/chhas/taak (at room temperature)
¼ cup just-warm water
2 Tbsp olive oil

For the topping

A bunch of grapes, red/black
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 ½ tsp rosemary fresh/dried
A pinch of salt
1 tsp brown/white sugar (or more if you like sweeter)

Prove the yeast – add the sugar to ¼ cup of warm water. Mix well. The water has to be just the right temperature- not too hot because that will kill the yeast not too cool because the yeast won’t prove. Drop some on the back of your wrist and it should feel warm there. Add the yeast and rest covered for 10-15 minutes. The yeast should froth like soapy bubbles. If it doesn’t, throw the mix and start afresh. Proper proving of the yeast is vital to good bread!
In a big bowl, take the flour and salt. Mix.
Once the yeast has bloomed, add it to the flour and knead the dough with the buttermilk. It will be sticky and it is meant to be like that.
Add the Olive oil and knead for another 10-12 minutes.
Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl, cover with cling film, or a kitchen towel and rest for 11/2 to 2 hours. The dough should double up. The time actually depends on the weather conditions-if very hot, it doubles sooner than the 1 ½ hours. This is the first prove.

Remove from the bowl once the dough is doubled and gently knock out the air.
Roll it out into a square or circle as desired and place on to a greased baking dish. This amount of dough will give two regular sized focaccias.

Drizzle some olive oil over the Focaccia and sprinkle the rosemary, salt and sugar.

Arrange the grapes all over the flatbread. Sprinkle some more sugar, salt and drizzle some olive oil.

Cover with cling film or a kitchen towel taking care to that they do not touch the top of the bread. Leave to rise again for about 45 minutes. This is the second prove

When there are 20 minutes to go, pre-heat the oven at 200C.
Bake for 20 minutes, till the top browns. If doing in an oven with two elements, please keep both on
Serve fresh out of the oven.Enjoy with some cheese and wine. Or with coffee! It works beautifully.

Perfectly puffed Pita bread is a pretty sight to the eye!

Also makes for a beautiful sandwich base for goodies to be stuffed into rather than having to slice the bread to strips and dip into the Hummus (Find the recipe here)

Pita is a Middle-Eastern flatbread, very much like the Indian chapatti/roti and can be made with all purpose flour (maida), whole wheat flour (aata) or a mix of both. I keep playing with the proportions and quite like the 60-40 aata-maida ratio.

The recipe is simple and comprises of blooming the yeast, kneading the dough and a single prove.

The recipe below gives 20 medium sized Pitas

3 cups All purpose flour (Maida)
2 cups Whole wheat flour (Aata)
1 ½ tsp Instant yeast (Use 20% more if using active dry yeast)
1 tsp sugar
½ cup warm water (to bloom the yeast)
1 Tbsp Olive oil/any vegetable oil
1 ¼ tsp salt

Stir in the yeast and sugar into the half cup of warm water and leave covered in a warm place for 12-15 minutes till it froths well.
Mix the flours, salt and oil and add the frothed yeast mixture to this.
Knead the dough adding water gradually as required for about 5-7 minutes. We need medium firm dough almost like the chapatti dough.
Leave covered for 1 ½ hours till it doubles.
Preheat the oven on maximum with both the heating elements on for 10 minutes.
Roll out pita flatbreads little thicker than a chaptti.

Put the pita on a lightly greased baking tray and bake for 8-10 minutes till it fluffs and brown spots appear.

To get perfect little puffs I watch out for a few things.
1. Make sure the oven is very hot. The maximum temperature on mine is 250C. I preheat and bake at the maximum temperature.
2. After the preheating, I switch to ‘Bake’ mode (i.e. the lower heating element only) on the OTG for about 5 minutes to ensure the bottom of the pita cooks and the top doesn’t burn. After 5 minutes, I switch the top element on too. This ensures puffed pitas and perfect cooking on both sides.
3. Roll the bread a little thicker than a regular chapatti.
4. These can be made on a hot griddle on stove top too.

Tag: flatbread

‘Schiacciata con L’uva’ aka Focaccia with grapes.

Pita Bread- Perfectly Puffed Pockets