Versatile and Thrifty Flatbreads - Sweet or Savoury, for Credit Crunch Munch

I've taken over as co-host of Credit Crunch Munch from Fab Food 4 All so thought I would share a frugal and delicious recipe that I used often over the summer holidays.

Summer School holidays are always tricky, there's the endless requests for snacks and occasional moans of boredom.  Children seem to suddenly develop appetites akin to ravenous, roaming packs of grazing animals.  Fear not! These flatbreads kept my children busy whilst making them and also fill ed them up.

You could make mini flatbreads for lunchboxes and freeze them once baked for low fuss lunches, or after school snacks/dinners when a quick and filling meal is needed before/after after school clubs.

I used all purpose plain flour instead of bread flour as it is much cheaper and works perfectly fine in this recipe.  We made 5 large savoury flatbreads and 2 sweet ones, all of which freeze well and were almost the size of a large baking sheet.  The cost of the dough was roughly 46p made up of 30p flour, 10p yeast, 4p oil, 1p each salt and sugar.  Toppings of course would be an additional cost, as would the energy used be the oven to cook the flatbreads.

Versatile and Thrifty Flatbreads

900g/6 cups plain all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

7g sachet instant dried yeast 

2 Tblsp oil

625ml/2 ½ cups lukewarm water

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl.  Mix until a soft dough forms then knead for 10 minutes by hand, or 5 - 7 minutes in a stand mixer, until the dough is smooth and elastic.  Put the dough into a lightly greased bowl and cover with cling film.  Leave to rest prove until doubled in size, this took about an hour in a kitchen that was 25C.  

Once the dough has proved, tip it out onto a well floured surface and knock it back by kneading for a minute or two.

I divided the dough into 5 equal pieces, you can divide the into however many you like depending on the size you require your flatbreads to be.  I rolled each portion of dough out to about 1cm thick then transferred to lined baking sheets.  Preheat your oven to 210C/190C Fan/425F/Gas Mark 7.

Add whatever toppings you would like then let the dough rest for 10 minutes or so.  We made savoury flatbreads by spreading some diluted tomato paste (2 Tblsp tomato paste mixed with 2 Tblsp water), sprinkling over chopped pepper, spring onion and sweetcorn, then finely grating over some cheddar cheese.  I made sweet flatbreads out of two portions of the dough by kneading through a couple of handfuls of sultanas and topping the bread with a little melted butter and cinnamon sugar.    

Bake the flatbreads for 20 - 25 minutes until golden around the outside and cooked through, mini flatbreads will take less time to cook.  When cool enough to handle slice the flatbreads and serve.  You can freeze the flatbreads for another day if you cannot eat them all in one sitting.

Now it's your turn!  

Credit Crunch Munch is a joint challenge run myself and Helen at Fuss Free Flavours.

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Here's a few ideas to ger you started:

Dishes using cheaper ingredients – cheap cuts of meat or vegetarian
Meals using leftovers
Meals using up the ends of packets
Substitutions of cheaper ingredients
Packed lunches
Meals that use less energy to cook
Pressure cooking
Slow cooking
Faster cooking – less oven time for example
Batch cooking for the freezer
Sustainable foods
Food you have grown yourself
Meals from reduced food in the supermarket