Pumpkin Ale Flatbread (with Apples & Smoked Chicken Sausage)

Our pumpkin ale flatbread begins with an easy no rise dough (fist pump), tinted golden by a touch of turmeric and conceived with pumpkin ale. Topped with diced apple, smoked chicken & apple sausage, red onion and Asiago cheese. Drizzled with hot honey.

So, another recipe with pumpkin ale… And if you only knew how many others we have. One could think we just love the stuff, lol. We do…for cooking. Biggest teaser topic this Fall. It is truly good as an ingredient in flatbread dough. Any beer would be – due to the carbonation, but pumpkin ale does add such a classy touch of Fall flavor to the dough, whether you’d top the flatbread with sweet or savory ingredients. The very overpowering pumpkin spice profile we complain about when drinking it shines as a food ingredient.

This dough recipe is a staple one in the Perrine family and is very versatile. We use it to make pizza crust or to make flatbread. Not only is the dough flavored by beer (instead of simply using water, plus beer is a great leavening agent) but different beer styles contribute their own subtle flavors. Additionally we use a fast action yeast (simply a more concentrated microorganism count) called pizza crust yeast that eliminates the rise time for the dough. How do you like that?

For this post the recipe is halved quantity wise, mostly due to the fact that we had only one packet of pizza crust yeast left, but also because the flatbread was intended as one of three different items on our tapas style dinner menu. You simply need to double the ingredients for twice as many flatbreads or just get the full recipe here.

Adding a tablespoon of turmeric to the dough gives the flatbread a richer golden color and with the flavor of turmeric being so in tune with the general flavor profile of pumpkin ales it is a great touch. Promise. Try it.

About the hot honey drizzled over flatbread. Are you a fan? It is honey infused with heat from hot peppers (different varieties are used by different producers) and then the peppers are removed. I mostly love it with bread and cheese. We buy a brand called Mike’s Hot Honey (it is what the grocery store we shop at most frequently carries) and it is pretty good, so we haven’t looked for a different brand. But if you can’t find any, you could mix honey with a pinch or two (or three) of hot pepper flakes and let them spend some time together before drizzling over anything. This is what we used to do before we learned about the existence of hot honey and the presence of the actual seeds was quite welcome.

The choice of topping for the pumpkin ale flatbread is completely up to you. We had a couple of smoked chicken & apple sausage links so it seemed natural to supplement with diced apple, thyme, red onions and a drizzle of olive oil before baking the flatbread. And aged Asiago cheese shavings, which rounded off the flavors. When melted, Asiago tends to lose some of its pungency so a sprinkle of raw shavings at the time hot honey is drizzled is welcome.

Suggested Craft Beer Pairings for Pumpkin Ale Flatbread

We paired the pumpkin ale flatbread from this particular cooking round with a dunkel lager, the dark color of which achieved by the use of a Carafa malt (made from high quality spring barley), while the main part of the grain bill comprising of Munich and Pils malts. A single hop, Hallertau Tradition, balances the flavors and it is a crisp, flavorful fall/winter lager with ABV of only 5.2%. Such a pleasure to drink! Chris’ favorite style of lager too.

If you are not into Dunkels, then consider one of the following:

• seasonal pumpkin ale (naturally)
• Amber ale
• Oktoberfest/Märzen style amber lager
• Vienna lager
• Dunkelweiss

Pumpkin Ale Flatbread (with Apples & Smoked Chicken Sausage)

Yield: 4 servings

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Pumpkin ale infused pizza crust topped with apple, smoked chicken sausage, cheese and hot honey.

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Ingredients

• 2 cups flour plus more for dusting, use 00 flour for best results
• 1 packet pizza crust yeast, must use this type of yeast to make no rise dough
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 6 oz pumpkin ale, substitute with an amber ale/lager
• Toppings:, feel free to top with whatever you'd like, below is a suggestion
• 1/2 apple, cored, diced, skin on
• 2 chicken sausage links, diced
• 2-3 sprigs of thyme, leaves only
• 1/4 small red onion, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup aged Asiago cheese shavings, divided
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• hot honey, to taste

Instructions

1. Start by warming up the ale to 100℉ (do not let it reach a higher temperature as it will kill the yeast).
2. Turn the oven on to 425℉.
3. Place 1 1/2 cups of the flour with the sugar, yeast, turmeric and salt in the bowl of a stand-up mixer equipped with the dough hook. Mix them with a fork.
4. Add the warmed ale and mix on low until the ingredients are well blended together.
5. Continue to mix and slowly begin to add the remaining 1/2 cup flour until you observe the dough pulling away from the bowl and forming a ball.
6. Remove the somewhat sticky dough and place it on a clean and floured surface.
7. Knead for about 3 minutes, adding flour as needed.
8. Cut the dough into 4 equally sized portions and shape it into balls.
9. Using a rolling pin to shape four flatbreads.
10. Place them onto a (perforated recommended) pizza pan or parchment paper lined baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil.
11. Top with the toppings listed above (reserving half of the Asiago shavings for later) or your choice of toppings.
12. Place in the oven for about 10 mins or until dough appears cooked through.
13. Sprinkle the remaining Asiago shavings and drizzle with hot honey.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 4 Serving Size: 1 grams
Amount Per Serving: Unsaturated Fat: 0g

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