I've been totally hooked on a commercial product called Margaret's
Artisan Flatbreads. An absolutely wonderful product which I fully
endorse. But my rate of consumption far outweighs my grocery budget
(This stuff's expensive). I'm looking to duplicate, or approximate it
in my own kitchen. It's unleavened, and the ingredient list is:

enriched durum semolina and wheat flour
water
olive oil

then various herbs, garlic, salt, etc.

Sounds easy. But I'm sure there are some secrets buried in the process.
Does anybody know this product? And can you give me any advice on how
to bake a similar flatbread at home?

-Bruce

On Tue, 21 Aug 2007 20:27:52 -0700, Bruce Edwards wrote:

> Sounds easy. But I'm sure there are some secrets buried in the process.
> Does anybody know this product? And can you give me any advice on how
> to bake a similar flatbread at home?

I would say to just do it. Let the dough rest a while before bringing it
into final form. You are talking about the most ancient bread in the world
here so don't be intimidated or over think it.

Flatbreads from India are something you might want to look into. Some are
essentially made form the same ingredients you mentioned. Some you
roll out then fold over, roll out again, fold and roll a few more times
and somewhere along the line you can roll in additional stuff, even meat.
http://www.indianfoodsco.com/Recipes/breads.htm

I have tried this after getting some frozen from a local Indian grocery.
You pretty much can't go wrong.

ZerkonX wrote:
> On Tue, 21 Aug 2007 20:27:52 -0700, Bruce Edwards wrote:
>
>
>>Sounds easy. But I'm sure there are some secrets buried in the process.
>> Does anybody know this product? And can you give me any advice on how
>>to bake a similar flatbread at home?
>
>
> I would say to just do it. Let the dough rest a while before bringing it
> into final form. You are talking about the most ancient bread in the world
> here so don't be intimidated or over think it.
>
> Flatbreads from India are something you might want to look into. Some are
> essentially made form the same ingredients you mentioned. Some you
> roll out then fold over, roll out again, fold and roll a few more times
> and somewhere along the line you can roll in additional stuff, even meat.
> http://www.indianfoodsco.com/Recipes/breads.htm
>
> I have tried this after getting some frozen from a local Indian grocery.
> You pretty much can't go wrong.
>
>
Thanks for the advice. I'll start to mess with it again this weekend.
The product I'm trying to mimic is not flaky, so I doubt it is folded
much. It's more like a cracker, than a bread. Very thin and crisp.
The flavors I can duplicate. The texture is the challenge. What I'm
afraid of is that the commercial product may use a special grind of
semolina which is not available to me off the shelf. The attempt I made
last week produced the right flavors, but it was not as crisp as I'd
hoped, and it was a little grainy. Thanks for your suggestions.

-Bruce

>The attempt I made last week produced the right flavors, but it was not as
>crisp as I'd hoped, and it was a little grainy.

Grainy is probably the semolina, don't add it to the mix, just use it to
dust the breads with and to prevent them from sticking (I regularly leave it
out of recipes because it is so difficult to get here (UK). Crispiness is
often dictated by the amount of water, both in the recipe and as vapour in
the oven. Try increasing the water in the dough and putting a dish of water
at the bottom of the oven whilst heating it up and during cooking. Happy
baking.