OLIVE OIL FLATBREADS WITH THREE-GARLIC BUTTER

These flatbreads are really easy to do and they are just wonderful. Nothing to do with the bought ones. I am not very good with bread-making, and can't never get them to look like in the picture from recipe, but as the author say, it doesn't matter if there are holes; they make them look like homemade!! The main thing is the flavour!  

Ingredients

2 ripe plum tomatoes
2 black garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 tsp picked thyme leaves
1 tsp picked oregano leaves
salt, flaked sea salt and black pepper

FLATBREADS

200g strong white bread flour
1 tsp fast-action dried yeast

1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for greasing and drizzling
120ml lukewarm water

THREE-GARLIC BUTTER

1 head of garlic, top fifth cut off to expose the cloves
1 small garlic clove, roughly chopped
4 black garlic cloves, roughly chopped 
10g parsley, finely chopped
1½ tsp caraway seeds, toasted and crushed 
100g unsalted butter, softened


Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C fan.

First, make the dough for the flatbreads. Put the flour, yeast, oil and ½ teaspoon of salt into a large bowl. Pour in the water and use a spatula to combine the mixture. Transfer to a lightly oiled work surface and then, with lightly oiled hands, knead the dough for 5 minutes until it’s soft and elastic. You may need to add more oil if the dough starts to stick to your work surface. Return to the bowl.

Using the Thermomix 

To make the flatbreads: Put the flour, yeast, oil, salt and water in the bowl and mix 5 sec / speed 3. Knead for 5 minutes and then transfer to the bowl. 

Cover with a slightly damp clean tea towel or cling wrap and leave to rise in a warm place for at least 1 hour (preferably 2 hours), until nearly doubled in size. 

Cut the dough into four equal pieces and set aside, covered with a clean tea towel.

While the dough is rising, make the garlic butter. Drizzle the head of garlic with 1 teaspoon of oil and sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. Wrap tightly in foil or place in a garlic cooking tagine and bake for 40 minutes, until the cloves have softened. Remove the foil and when cool enough to handle, squeeze out the cloves, discarding the papery skin. Increase the oven temperature to 240°C fan.

 

Put the cooked, raw and black garlic into a pestle and mortar with 1½ teaspoons of flaked salt and a generous grind of pepper. Pound to a rough paste.

Transfer to a bowl with the parsley, caraway seeds and softened butter. Mix everything together and set aside.

  

The first time I made it I didn't have black garlic and forgot to add the caraway seeds - first picture. 

Coarsely grate the tomatoes, discarding the skin. Transfer the tomatoes to a sieve set over a bowl and set aside to drain a little.

Place a large baking tray on the middle shelf of the oven to heat up.

Transfer the dough balls to a lightly oiled work surface and use your hands to stretch each piece into a rough circle, about 18cm wide and ½cm thick.

Bake two flatbreads at a time. Remove the hot tray from the oven and quickly place each flatbread on the tray, spaced apart. The dough will be very thin but should have enough elasticity not to break. If you do get a hole in the dough, don’t worry; this just adds to the homemade look.

Quickly return the tray to the oven for about 7–8 minutes, until the dough is golden-brown and crisp. Continue with the other two flatbreads in the same way.

Spread each flatbread with about 1 tablespoon of the garlic butter and top with the drained, grated tomatoes and the black garlic slices. Sprinkle over the herbs and finish with a drizzle of oil, a generous pinch of flaked salt and a good grind of pepper.

The first time I made them I didn't add the tomato on top because I served them with the Spicy Berbere ratatouille which it already has a lot of tomato. See below.

Here served with Tofu meatball korma and Spicy berbere ratatouille.

Notes from the author

Some things are impossible to resist and, indeed, shouldn’t be resisted. The three-garlic butter is the best example we can think of. Made with mellow slow-roasted garlic, sweet black garlic and pungent raw garlic, it is totally glorious and you’ll want it over everything. Luckily, the recipe makes more butter than you’ll need here (and we’d even make double). It will keep in the fridge for 2 weeks, ready to be smothered on toast, melted over roasted vegetables or stuffed into baked potatoes.

On top of the layer of butter, we also spoon freshly grated tomato, which adds freshness and acidity to the flatbreads and turns them into a very good standalone snack. Without the tomatoes, however, they can be served alongside lots of dishes in the book, such as the Spicy berbere ratatouille with coconut salsa and the Tofu meatball korma, to name just two. Wrapping a whole head of garlic in foil and roasting it, as we do here, is an accelerated way of getting results close to confit garlic. It’s a nifty trick we use to add sweet-savoury depth to lots of other dishes, such as our Butternut, orange and sage galette, Barley, tomato and watercress stew, Romano pepper schnitzels and Charred peppers and fresh corn polenta. Roast three or four heads at a time, if you like: squeeze the cooked cloves into a jar and cover them with olive oil – they’ll keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. The soft garlic is great to ramp up your soups, stews and sauces and the fragrant oil can be used to finish dishes. Make the dough up to 2 days in advance and keep it refrigerated in a large, sealed container, if you want to get ahead.