How to make flatbreads plus 5 fresh topping ideas

The perfect flatbread dough recipe

Flatbread dough
This is my go-to flatbread dough, which, I’ll be honest, is really nothing more than a slightly more hydrated neapolitan pizza dough. It’s wet enough to puff up nicely in the oven but not so wet that you’re fighting with a sticky dough. It will happily sit in your fridge for a few days and freezes well, and you can cook it in a regular oven or a pizza oven.

How to stretch the dough

To stretch the flatbread, dust a work surface with fine semolina (or plain flour). Put one of the puffy balls of dough seam-side up on the work surface. Use your fingers to push the centre of the ball flat, teasing out the dough evenly but without squishing down the edges. Pick up the base [A] and, still avoiding the edges, hold the dough up and rotate it in your hands [B-C], allowing gravity to stretch it out thinner. You should be able to get it so thin it’s translucent, with a puffy ring around the outside (called the ‘cornicione’ in Italian pizza making).

How to cook flatbreads

For a conventional oven
Heat the oven as hot as it will go with a baking stone on a tray inside (or try The Double Baking Tray Trick, below). You want the cooking surface as hot as possible, so leave it in for about 45 minutes. When you’re ready to cook, use a pizza peel to put the topped flatbreads on the stone to cook for 8-12 minutes, depending on how hot the oven is. If you don’t have a pizza peel, carefully take the hot stone and tray out of the oven, put the bread on top then, as quickly as you can, add the toppings before returning it to the oven.

For a pizza oven
Fire up the pizza oven and aim to get it to 450°C – at this temperature it will cook flatbreads in about 2 minutes.

Tom’s top tips

Storing the dough balls
You can keep the dough balls, wrapped or covered in the fridge, for up to 2 days. Let them come to room temperature for at least 2 hours before continuing with the recipe. You can wrap and freeze dough balls before their second prove for up to 2 months. Unwrap and leave to defrost for 8 hours at room temperature. They will undergo their second prove as they defrost.

Getting the ratios right
Many bread doughs focus on ‘hydration’ – the ratio of water to flour. A 60% hydrated dough, for example, would have 600g water to 1kg flour. My flatbread dough is 65% hydrated (510 is 65% of 784) giving 6 x 220g dough balls. There’s a brilliant free app called PizzApp, which is a calculator that tells you exactly how much flour, water, salt and yeast you need. It’s a great tool if you want to play around with the hydration levels or proving technique until you find a dough that suits you best.

Easy swaps
‘00’ flour is finely ground Italian flour. It’s widely available but you can use strong white bread flour if you want. If you can’t get fine semolina, you can oil the tray/ bowls instead. I use olive oil for Mediterranean flatbreads and vegetable oil for the rest, as it won’t affect the flavour.

The double baking tray trick
A baking stone will give you the crispest base but if you don’t have one you can put two baking trays on top of each other to absorb more heat.

Five new flatbread topping ideas to try

Turkish-style lamb flatbreads
My love for Turkish lahmacun started my flatbread obsession. Thin bread is spread with a minced lamb and veg mixture, cooked until crisp, then topped with sumac-dusted onions. It’s normally a snack, but this has main event status thanks to a thicker, puffier dough that soaks up all that delicious fat from the richly spiced lamb.

Moules marinières flatbreads
This flatbread has a little pool of molten herby butter studded with plenty of plump, sweet mussels. It’s moules marinière in bread form! Tear off the crusts and dip them in the golden liquid for a quick trip across the Channel.

Mega mushroom flatbreads
This is a celebration of fungi – a base of duxelles is topped with assorted sliced mushrooms, which will crisp lightly in the oven.

The best-ever cheesy garlic bread
Don’t get me wrong – I love the baguette-style garlic bread of my youth, but this herby, cheesy number is better in every way. The bright green garlic-and-parsley butter provides a hit of colour, which shines through the molten double-cheese topping. I like to add a few chilli flakes to cut through the rich flavours (and if I have some to hand, a drizzle of hot honey works wonders)

Pork, peanut and chilli flatbreads
This might just be one of the best flatbreads I’ve ever made. The satay sauce hums with aromatics, pairing perfectly with the mini pork meatballs full of garlic, ginger and coriander. Finished off with fresh spring onions and crispy chilli oil, it will take your taste buds on a rollercoaster ride.

For more inspiration, including dozens of delicious topping ideas, check out our complete flatbread recipes collection.