Soft Beer Flatbread

This soft beer flatbread is immensely enjoyable and requires just a little effort (unless you think of kneading as pleasure, then no effort). Grill outside or indoors using a stove top cast iron grill pan. You can also simply cook the bread in a cast iron skillet in which case it will not have the grate markings. Serve warm with olive oil for brushing, dates, caramelized onions and goat cheese. Pair with a malty brew.

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Beer flatbreads are stacked in a small heap and shown with caramelized onions, dates and goat cheese.

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About This Flatbread Recipe
What Ingredients Do You Need for Soft Beer Flatbread?
Choice of Beer
Steps to Make Beer Flatbread
Background Notes - Beer, Bread and Soft Beer Flatbread
Ways to Serve Beer Flatbread
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Recipe

About This Flatbread Recipe

To produce the aromatic flatbreads pictured in this post I scaled down a professional restaurant recipe for grilled soft beer flatbread that yields one hundred and sixty pieces per batch. It is Chris's and he uses it when people order a Mediterranean buffet for bigger events.

In addition, my inspiration to use a dark, sweetish ale was drawn by an ancient Mesopotamian practice to pay laborers a daily wage of 'beer, bread, dates and onions'. I have included more on this curious background under the section about serving the beer flatbread below. Enjoy!

What Ingredients Do You Need for Soft Beer Flatbread?

yeast - the star leavener, we are not relying on the beer's acidity to activate a chemical leavener which releases carbon dioxide. Regular active dry yeast is what you need.

beer, water, brown sugar - to help the yeast activate, gather strength and ultimately help the dough rise.

flour - all-purpose flour is ideal for this recipe as it contains just enough gluten to trap the carbon dioxide gas produced by the yeast.

salt - to flavor the dough and help trap the yeast produced bubbles.

olive oil - most of it goes in the dough, a little bit is used to brush the flatbreads so their surface does not dry out during the rising time.

Choice of Beer

To make this recipe a success you should opt for one of the beer styles listed below.

What you are looking for is a not heavily hopped (i.e. not too bitter) ale or lager, with well-pronounced malty, bready and biscuity notes. It can be dark or light.

I wanted to use a dark and sweet ale because the idea to make beer flatbread for the first time came to me as I was reading a book describing the very beginnings of beer brewing in the cradle of civilization (see background notes below).

There was no hopping thousands of years ago nor were there modern kilning methods so a brown ale brewed on the sweet side (not agressively hopped) was perfect.

The brown ale in partnership with the brown sugar in the recipe gives the soft beer flatbread a darker color.

So as you choose a beer for yours - go with something that is closer to the original brews of mankind, the ales the ancient Goddes of Beer Ninkasi brewed.

Suitable beer styles include:

Czech pilsner or German Helles lager
Vienna lager, bock lager, doppelbock lager
wheat ales (unflavored)
sweeter brown ales, porters
Belgian ales such as tripples

Steps to Make Beer Flatbread

A print ready summary of the recipe and ingredients is presented in the Recipe Card at the end of this post. Below is an image assisted description of the process.

Stage 1. Begin by activating the yeast in the bowl of a stand-up mixer. Combine the yeast, room temperature beer, warm water, brown sugar and about 2 tablespoons of the flour. Stir and allow it to sit in a warm place.

Once it bubbles up as shown add the flour, salt and olive oil. Mix with the dough hook attachment until the dough separates from the sides of the bowl and then knead the dough over a clean, lightly floured surface.

After kneading for about 3 minutes shape the dough into a ball and cut it in two. Then each half in two again and so on until you have 16 more or less equal in size and weight mini dough balls.

Flatten each one either by hand (by pulling to the sides while rotating) or using a rolling pin. Brush with oil, arrange over a baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap to keep warm. Allow the flatbreads to rise (about ⅓ over their original size) before you attempt to cook them. This can take anywhere from 2 hours to over 4, depending on the ambient temperature and the strength of the yeast.

NOTE: Only one rise is necessary when making this flatbread recipe.

To grill either use an outdoor grill on medium (about 2 mins per side, slightly less for the second side) or a grilling pan over a medium stove (same time per flatbread).

If you do not have a grill nor a grilling pan simply use a heavy bottomed pan such as a cast iron large skillet and prepare the flatbreads that way.

Background Notes - Beer, Bread and Soft Beer Flatbread

My urge to make soft beer flatbread originated while I was reading a book called A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage.

It takes you from the very first human settlements and the advent of the first civilized drink - beer, to modern day Coca-Cola and globalization.

The opening chapter on beer tells the story of the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt where beer was used as form of payment, was the reason for the emergence of record keeping (writing) and people used to greet each other by saying "bread and beer".

A typical wage in those times was recorded as 'bread and beer for one day" and ancient Mesopotamian texts revealed that state rations (the primary source of food for many people) were 'the standard issue of bread, beer, dates and onions, sometimes supplemented with meat or fish and with additional vegetables".

Ways to Serve Beer Flatbread

The mental image of indulging in a simple 'standard issue' meal of fresh flat bread, dates, onions and beer was so powerful that the spread shown above materialized.

I highly recommend that you try to make a complete meal out of the fresh flatbreads, dates sliced thinly, good olive oil for dipping, caramelized onions and good goat cheese. (They did domesticate goats and sheep in Mesopotamia and learned how to make cheese).

Otherwise serve as your heart desires - with Mediteranean themed salads and grilled vegetables, with roast lamb, grilled kofte or lamb meatballs.

NOTE: These flatbreads are irresitible. If I had to make a guess, I would say that while you are grilling flatbread number two (out of 16 the recipe yields) you will simultaneously be devouring flatbread number one. Almost impossible to resist the urge...

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