grilled flatbread

World, meet my latest infatuation. I am hopelessly smitten, and you should be, too.

In case the pictures aren’t enough to rope you in, I made a list spelling out all the reasons to love.

1. No kneading.
2. The recipe uses part whole wheat
3. The dough can sit at-the-ready in the fridge for several days.
4. It tastes awesome—chewy and tender.
5. It’s flexible—top it with everything, or nothing
6. It’s bread without turning on the oven!
7. (Which means I can now make bread even if the power goes out!!!)

And that pretty much sums it up.

The other night, I made pesto flatbread by topping the finished breads with pesto (from our first big basil picking!), fresh Parmesan, and some mozzarella and then slipping them back on the hot-but-turned-off grill for a couple minutes.

The cheeses didn’t melt all the way, so next time I might slip the breads onto a piece of foil and then put them in the lidded, turned-on-low grill for a couple minutes.

Grilled Flatbread
Adapted from the July 2012 issue of Bon Appétit

3 cups warm water
2 ½ teaspoons yeast
4 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour (I used pastry)
2 tablespoons kosher salt (I used Diamond Crystal)
½ cup sour cream

The dough:
Dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Stir in the flours and let rest for 20 minutes. Add the sour cream and salt and mix vigorously. It will be quite wet.

Let the dough rise at room temp for about an hour before covering well with a plastic shower cap and refrigerating.

Shaping and grilling:
Very important note: when shaping the dough, you need to do two things: flour it to death and move fast.

Fire up the grill—you want it to be about 400 degrees. (I really have no idea on this part. The directions say a “medium-hot fire,” so whatever.)

Snowball a baking tray with flour. Flour your hands. Flour your hands again. Scoop out a handful of the chilled dough, using a scissors or sharp knife to separate it from the rest of the dough. Plop the dough onto the tray, flour the dough well and press it into a flat mass, about 1/4 inch high. Repeat until you have all the flatbreads you need. Put the leftover dough back in the fridge.

Oil the grill.

Quickly, and with lots of extra flour so the dough doesn’t stick, scoop up the flatbreads (one at a time, of course) and lay them on the grill. Close the lid. After several minutes, the breads should be bubbly on top and, on the bottom, brown with flecks of black. Flip, and grill for another minute or two.

Allow the breads to cool for a couple minutes before eating.

Yield: 8-12 flatbreads, depending on the size.

This same time, years previous: red raspberry lemon bars, angst over my daughter’s reading, raspberry lemon buttermilk cake, angel bread