The onion flatbreads I made earlier turned out to be absolutely divine. I said I have been honing my flatbread skills, but to be honest I use the Moro flatbread recipe and it’s a doddle. The hardest thing to remember is to start at least an hour before you want to eat them, as you have to give the dough time to rise.

For completeness, here is the recipe I used this morning:

Onion flatbread dough
450g onion bread flour*, plus extra for dusting (which can be plain bread flour)
1.5 tsp salt (or to taste, I tend to find this amount a bit salty)
1 tsp dried yeast
300ml tepid water
2 tbsp olive oil


  1. Dissolve the yeast in the tepid water, then add the olive oil and stir together.

  2. Put the flour into a mixing bowl with the salt.

  3. Make a well in the flour and gradually mix in the liquid. You can use your hands or a spoon. It is a bit messy, but when the dough starts to come together you’ll be using your hands to turn it into a ball anyway :)

  4. Put the dough onto a floured surface and knead for 5 minutes. I generally find it sucks up a lot of flour at this point before it stops being sticky, and that’s fine.

  5. Put the dough back in the bowl, cover it over with a tea towel and leave it somewhere warm for at least an hour to give it time to rise.

  6. Divide the dough into sections for your flatbreads. This amount should make 8 small pitta-sized flatbreads, or 4 larger ones. You can put any spare dough into the fridge for a couple of days, and you can also use it straight from the fridge if you need to (I have!).

  7. Roll each section out into a flatbread. Pete tends to manhandle his into shape with his knuckles, which gives them an artisan vibe. I roll mine with a rolling pin, which works very well if you want pitta pockets. Either way, they can be quite thin (for pitta pockets) or slightly chunkier for something you’re going to tear and dunk. They’re pretty flexible, it will just adjust the cooking time a bit.

  8. I cook mine in a fan oven at 180°C (200°C for a non-fan oven, 400°F or Gas Mark 6), with each one on a separate baking tray. They don’t stick. For thin flatbreads 8 – 10 minutes is good, depending on how browned you want them, and whether you want them soft on the surface (less time) or crispy (slightly longer). They puff up, and go slightly brown, which is how you know they’re done. For thicker flatbreads you’ll need to add a few minutes to make sure they’re cooked through to the middle.

  9. Under no circumstances do what I did the first time, which was to take one out of the oven and try to flatten it with my hands. Ouch, hot steam everywhere.

  10. Serve hot, according to your preferences. Ours is slathered with melted butter. The onion ones are AWESOME for a modern take on a ploughmans, they go very nicely with cheese and mango chutney. Just sayin’ :)

*We use Wessex mill, which is local, but other brands are available.