A watercolour of a stack of blistered golden flatbreads with dark charred spots
Generated with OpenAI gpt-image-1
Adapted from Unleavened griddle breads

Pan flatbread

An established dish converted to shelf-stable ingredients. Every substitution is documented below.

How long it keeps

About 6 months, set by Plain flour.

Indicative, for planning a build before you buy. The answer for a pack you already own is the best before date printed on it, and that only holds if it has been stored as the label says.

Serves
4
Burners
1
Pans
1
Water
0.3 L
Active
15 min
Total
25 min

Ingredients

The most useful recipe on this site, and the one the others keep referring to. Flour, water, salt. Four minutes. It turns a bowl of stew into a meal.

The ratio is roughly 60% water to flour by weight: 250 g flour to about 150 ml water. Add it gradually; flours vary and you want a dough that is soft and just short of sticky.

  1. Flour and salt in a bowl. Water added in stages, mixed with a hand until it comes together.
  2. Knead on any clean surface for a minute. It does not need more.
  3. Rest for 10 minutes if you can. This is the one optional step that makes a real difference, the flour hydrates and the dough stops fighting you.
  4. Divide into four. Press or roll each as thin as you can manage.
  5. Properly hot dry pan. 60 to 90 seconds a side. They should puff in patches and take dark spots.

If they are going pale and leathery the pan is not hot enough. If they are burning before they puff it is too hot. The first one is always a test.

A brush of oil after cooking keeps them soft; without it they stiffen within about ten minutes.

Makes 4.

What this was adapted from

Unleavened griddle breads: chapati, piadina, and every flour-and-water bread cooked on a hot surface

  • a tandoor, griddle or oven → a dry frying pan over a camping burner

    These breads are traditionally cooked on something much hotter than a pan. A frying pan gets there slowly and unevenly, which means a slightly thicker, softer bread with fewer blisters -- the trade being that it needs one ring and four minutes rather than an oven.