Julie Goodwin's Flatbread

Julie Goodwin's Flatbread
Home Cooking

Like many others out there, I've been weaning myself off Season 4 of Masterchef by watching the All Stars series. It's nowhere near as good but it's still some form of Masterchef and that's better than nothing by far.

In the episode where they're forced to axe their Mystery boxes for firewood, Julie is praised for her delicious char-grilled flatbread. I was browsing through the internet and stumbled upon THIS, no less than Julie Goodwin's flatbread recipe! This recipe doesn't force us to chop wood or cook oven an open flame so it's much easier to follow.


I was so excited about making this flatbread that I actually made the dough on my lunch break (as you do) and kneaded away, injuring my wrist (it's not that the recipe is very strenuous, I just happen to have a wrist problem that I ignore when I shouldn't). I wrapped the dough in cling wrap to rest and left it till the next day to roll and cook. Julie says that in winter, you can leave the dough at room temperature for a couple of days.

I followed Julie's recommendation of serving the flatbread with labneh, which I also made myself. I halved the original recipe because... I didn't have 4 cups of flour. Julie's recipe is for 8 pieces of flatbread so by simple maths, I should have made 4. When I divided the dough into 4 balls, they rolled out too big for my frying pan so I ended up making 6 instead. They were still fairly big. The quantities below are halved. For the original recipe, click here.

Julie Goodwin's Flatbread
Makes 6 large pieces

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of flour (I used 1 cup wholemeal and 1 cup plain)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 50g butter
• 185ml (approx 3/4 cups) milk
• olive oil, for shallow frying

Procedure:

1. Combine the flour and salt in a bowl.
2. Heat the butter and milk on low heat until the butter is completely melted.

3. Make a well in the centre of the flour and add the milk into the middle. Start bringing in the flour from the sides.

4. Once all the flour is incorporated, you should have a soft dough. Knead the dough for at least 5 minutes on a floured surface until the dough is stretchy.

5. Wrap the dough in glad wrap and let it rest for at least half an hour. The dough can be stored at room temperature in this state for up to 2 days (provided the weather is reasonably cool).
6. Divide the dough into 6 balls. Roll out each ball on a floured surface as thin as possible.

7. Heat some olive oil in a large fry pan on medium-heat heat and fry each piece for about 40 seconds to 1 minute. It will start to bubble straight away and it's ready to flip when the edges are golden-looking and the centre looks less floury. The easy way to check is by simply lifting up the edge and peaking underneath.

8. The flatbread can be served hot with dips or stored for making wraps or pizza. They can be stored in clingwrap for a day or so.

This flatbread is great for tearing and dipping but also also soft and pliable, making it ideal for wraps. The use of wholemeal worked for me. It didn't seem to negatively affect the texture at all and I feel marginally healthier for using it.

Wraps are something I buy EVERY time I do grocery shopping because it's one of my lunchtime staples. Being able to use my own will be awesome! They taste amazing hot straight off the stove. I was really impressed with just how easy it was to make my own flatbread and I will be doing it a lot more in the future. An extra perk is that the dough was warm from the milk, which is lovely to work with in winter.