Let flatbread pizza become a weeknight staple. It's that easy and allows everyone involved to decide what they want to eat. Having a good flatbread recipe is the key to making flatbread pizza. This simple recipe focuses on a yeast-risen dough, which is also great for making breadsticks. It's easy to make gluten free as well: simply replace the wheat flour with a gluten-free flour.
While flatbread pizza is very similar to a regular pizza, this version tends to be closer to a thin-crust style. It’s not as doughy as a hand-tossed pizza, and the smaller size lets eaters get more creative with the toppings. Traditional flatbreads don’t use tomato sauce either, but in this case the chef can spoon on pizza sauce, pesto, olive oil or even Alfredo sauce as the base. One thing to keep in mind when building this type of pizza is that, because the dough is thinner, it won’t hold too many toppings. Best to keep it on the lighter side.
When sourcing toppings for the pizzas, really anything goes, especially if it's a classic pizza ingredient. This includes combinations such as fresh mozzarella, spinach and ricotta; veggie lovers with kalamata olives, mushrooms and cheese; and meat-heavy pizzas with smoked salami, Italian sausage and pepperoni. Flatbread can even be served with a simple smear of olive oil and herbs.
Linnea Covington
Ingredients
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1 teaspoon yeast
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1 teaspoon sugar
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3/4 cup water
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2 cups all-purpose flour
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1 tablespoon olive oil
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1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
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1 cup mozzarella cheese, spinach, pepperoni, mushrooms, sausage, or other toppings, optional
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1 teaspoon garlic powder, granulated garlic, minced onion, or dried herbs such as oregano and basil , optional
Steps to Make It
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Gather the ingredients.
Linnea Covington
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Combine yeast, sugar and warm water in a mixing bowl and whisk together. Cover with a dish towel and let sit for about five minutes.
Linnea Covington
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While yeast activates, also called “proofing,” grease a bowl with 3/4 teaspoon olive oil to set the dough ball in.
Linnea Covington
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Check yeast, it should be foamy on top. If it's not, use new yeast and repeat step one. If foamy, it's ready to add 2 cups flour, 1 tablespoon olive oil, and salt. Use an electric mixer with paddle attachment on low speed and blend until just together and dough has a "shaggy" look. You can also do this by hand if you don't have an electric mixer.
Linnea Covington
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Sprinkle 1/4 cup flour on your working surface and knead dough over the flour for about two minutes, or until it becomes smooth. If it's still sticky, add another tablespoon of flour and keep kneading.
Place dough ball in greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap, foil, or a clean towel. Rest for 45 minutes.
Linnea Covington
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Preheat oven to 475 F and prepare toppings for flatbread while it rests.
Linnea Covington
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Squeeze air out of dough and divide into two pieces. Use hands or rolling pin to flatten each section into the flatbread. Dough should be thin, about 1/4 inch thick. The shape doesn't have to be even, but try and get the thickness consistent all the way through. Once each flatbread is formed, put it on a parchment paper or silicone mat covered baking sheet and make divots in the dough with your fingers, or gently pierce with a fork. This helps with air bubbles.
Linnea Covington
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Top flatbread with desired toppings.
Linnea Covington
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Place flatbread in oven for 15 to 20 minutes, until edges are brown and toppings look done (for example bubbling and browning cheese, cooked vegetables, glossy meat).
Linnea Covington
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Pull out and let rest for about five minutes. Cut and serve.
Linnea Covington
Toppings
Cheese: Ricotta, fresh mozzarella, pearl mozzarella, feta, goat cheese
Vegetable: All types of olives, thinly sliced mushrooms, bell pepper, sun dried tomatoes, roasted garlic, spinach, fresh arugula, chilies
Meat: Pepperoni cups, ground Italian sausage (pre-cooked), Canadian bacon, crumbled bacon, prosciutto, stripes of salami
Yeast or No Yeast?
The first step in making flatbread is deciding if it should be yeast-risen or yeast free. Both types are fairly simple to put together, though a yeast dough takes longer to set. A non-yeast flatbread dough is common under a lot of names such as chapati, casabe and roti. Most of the yeast-free recipes can be done in 30 minutes, where the yeast breads take closer to an hour, at least. The boon of a yeast bread is you can save the dough for a couple days in the refrigerator, it makes a larger flatbread and once cooked, it preserves longer as well. Yeast-risen flatbread pizza tends to be a little fluffier in texture, where a simple non-yeast flatbread pizza has a crisper crust.
Storage
Once made, this dough can rest raw in the refrigerator for up to two days as long as it's wrapped in plastic or in an air-tight container. Once cooked with toppings it's easy to keep the flatbread in a sealed container in the fridge for around five days. In fact, cold flatbread pizza tastes just as good as regular pizza. But if reheating is desired, zap in the microwave for one minute to 30 seconds, or heat in the oven at 350 F for about five minutes. The latter method keeps the dough firmer and more crunchy.
