No need to heat up the oven to have freshly “baked” bread–and this dough can even be refrigerated, so you can make up a big batch and have fresh bread every day for a week–if it lasts so long!

For centuries, women (yes, mostly women) have been baking these kinds of breads, flattened with their hands and baked over hot stones or on grills. These have often been the mainstay of daily diets and rarely involved recipes or complicated processes. Now, we sometimes overcomplicate things; if you do a litttle searching on the internet, you will find all kinds of multi-step recipes with carefully measured out ingredients and complexities that could be so off-putting that you might decide not to even try.

Today’s recipe is one that is designed to take away all that mystique and just result in a quick batch of bread that will soon have your house filled with the scent of fresh-baked bread without even heating up the oven or kitchen…and as we enter the summer season, that can be a welcome thought too.

There are flat breads that you can make that use baking powder or even soda as the leavening agent, but it is the fragrance that yeast gives that I find especially appealing.

Stovetop Flat Bread

1 cup warm (NOT hot) water

1 teaspoon salt

2 to 3 tablespoons olive or canola oil

1 tablespoon sugar

1 package active dry yeast (aboout 2 1/2 teaspoons)

3+ cups flour

1. Combine the first five ingredients with 1 cup flour and beat until the dough is satiny, about 2 to 3 minutes.

2. Stir in more flour, a cup or so at a time, beating after each addition. The dough should be a little sticky but not so much that it will be difficult to handle.

3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead until smooth, just a minute or two. (If your bowl is large enough you can just knead the dough right in it.)

4. Set the dough aside in a warm place for at least 15 minutes–long enough to work on the rest of the meal.

5. When you are ready to begin baking the bread, pull off pieces of dough about golf ball sized–or bigger if you’d like. Roll out to about 1/4 inch thick, or just pull and shape each piece of dough into a thin circle While you will be aiming for a pretty uniform thickness, don’t worry too much over it.

6. Heat a nonstick flat pan or griddle with just a small amount of oil, enough to just lightly coat the entire surface. You will want a medium high heat to be sure it browns well but not so fast that the middle is not done before the outside is browned.

7. When the pan is quite hot (a drop of water will sizzle if you want to test it), gently lay the first bread into the pan and allow to cook for about 3 to 4 minutes. The thinner you were able to pat the bread, the quicker it will bake. Flip the bread and continue cooking another 2 minutes or so until that side is also golden brown.

8. Remove the bread from the pan and repeat with remaining pieces of dough. Best served warm.

If desired, you can make the dough ahead, doubling or even tripling the recipe if you’d like. If you will be refrigerating all the dough, just use cold water from the tap; no need to warm. Cover tightly and punch the dough down about once a day if not using it right away. Remove the dough from the refrigerator at least half an hour before planning to bake it. Pat and flatten it while it is still cold and then allow to come to room temperature for best results. This will keep for at least a week in the refrigerator.

I have even frozen some dough like this, allowing it to thaw on the counter, again shaping it as soon as it is malleable–it’s actually easier to work with at this stage.

Print Recipe

Stovetop Flat Bread

Course: Breads

Keyword: flatbread

Ingredients

• 1 cup warm NOT hot water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 to 3 tablespoons olive or canola oil
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 package active dry yeast aboout 2 1/2 teaspoons
• 3 + cups flour

Instructions

• Combine the first five ingredients with 1 cup flour and beat until the dough is satiny, about 2 to 3 minutes.
• Stir in more flour, a cup or so at a time, beating after each addition. The dough should be a little sticky but not so much that it will be difficult to handle.
• Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead until smooth, just a minute or two. (If your bowl is large enough you can just knead the dough right in it.)
• Set the dough aside in a warm place for at least 15 minutes–long enough to work on the rest of the meal.
• When you are ready to begin baking the bread, pull off pieces of dough about golf ball sized–or bigger if you’d like. Roll out to about 1/4 inch thick, or just pull and shape each piece of dough into a thin circle While you will be aiming for a pretty uniform thickness, don’t worry too much over it.
• Heat a nonstick flat pan or griddle with just a small amount of oil, enough to just lightly coat the entire surface. You will want a medium high heat to be sure it browns well but not so fast that the middle is not done before the outside is browned.
• When the pan is quite hot (a drop of water will sizzle if you want to test it), gently lay the first bread into the pan and allow to cook for about 3 to 4 minutes. The thinner you were able to pat the bread, the quicker it will bake. Flip the bread and continue cooking another 2 minutes or so until that side is also golden brown.
• Remove the bread from the pan and repeat with remaining pieces of dough. Best served warm.