Small Win #21: The easiest & quickest bread in the world

2 ingredients + 10 minutes of your time

Welcome to Small Wins, a newsletter that shares a small win with you every other week — one that has the power to improve your cooking, your home, your life. If you’ve found your way to this newsletter but are not yet subscribed, here, let me help you with that:

Today’s small win is, truly, small: nothing but an excellent flatbread recipe that is soft and plush, requires just 2 ingredients and takes about 10 minutes. Simple as can be!

If you’ve been around here for a while you’ll know that I generally like to send out a little cooking lesson with every recipe but today I have nothing in particular to add so I’m not going to write something for the sake of it… instead I’m just going to sharethis extremely handy little recipe that I know will become part of your regular repertoire. This is very much bread-on-demand — anytime, anywhere.

Love,
Alexina

P.S. Thank you to all those who comment, or reply to these newsletters with their thoughts, questions and feedback. I love writing these newsletters, but I love hearing from you even more. Do always feel free to reach out, or share if you’ve made something!

Coming up on Small Wins — A flavourful way to cook white fish. The easiest, best + crispiest potatoes. The best way to cook courgettes is also the simplest. Perfect meringues that don’t require you to add the sugar one slow spoonful at a time.

For my Small Wins+ community — Most recently we did a deep-dive into the savoury side of eggs covering why the best boiled eggs aren’t boiled, the secret to foolproof mayonnaise and meal-prep eggs that will last for up to one month (and much more)! Coming next week is a piece I’ve written on the art of following a recipe, with a substitutions tool that I’ve built just for you. And looking further ahead, we’re going to be doing a deep-dive into the Victoria Sponge. Sign up to make sure that you don’t miss out.

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SUPER EASY, SUPER QUICK FLATBREADS

So many good things to say about this recipe: quick, easy, 2 ingredients, soft and a little more nutritionally balanced on account of the yoghurt.

Makes 2 smallish flatbreads

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup self-raising flour

• 1/4 cup yoghurt — I typically use Greek yoghurt

• Flaky sea salt

• Ghee, to brush on after cooking (optional)

• Dukkah or nigella seeds, to garnish (optional)

Quick note — The water content of yoghurt varies a lot. I have made this recipe with various types and they have all worked, but you may have to add a touch of water when using thicker yoghurts (or conversely a touch of flour if your yoghurt is particularly watery).

Method

There’s a video further below showing the process.

1. Add the flour to a small bowl with a generous pinch of flaky sea salt, then stir through the yoghurt. Once it’s starting to clump, use your hand to bring the dough together. Give the dough a few kneads until it’s a touch smoother (add a splash of water/a touch of flour if the dough feels a little too dry/wet) then cover with the bowl, and allow to rest for 5 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, preheat a dry frying pan (cast-iron is particularly good here) on a medium heat (you want it to be pre-heating for a good 5+ minutes).

3. Divide the dough into two then roll out each piece to 3 to 4 mm thick.

4. Cook the flatbreads one at a time, cooking until golden on one side, 2 to 3 minutes, and another minute or so on the other side.

5. Serve immediately, brushed with ghee and sprinkled with dukkah, if liked.

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FURTHER READING + RESOURCES

• I’ve said it before, but a handy tool to have in your kitchen is a dough scraper (doesn’t matter which one). Extremely useful when working with any sort of dough, and also when making flaky pastry. Also handy for transferring large quantities of cut vegetables from a chopping board to a pan. Also handy for scraping down surfaces during clean-up.