Munchies

I bake bread several times a week, but it's certainly a time-consuming process, and although you can, with practice, manage long, slow rises by the careful use of refrigeration, there are plenty of times when you decide to cook dinner but haven't got time for the minimum several hours necessary to make a decent loaf of leavened bread. Of course, you could go to the store and buy a probably day-old baguette, or you could follow this simple recipe, which produces a delicious, moist, unleavened flat bread that resembles a cross between fresh pita and naan.

You will need just four ingredients and a good, heavy, skillet, preferably cast iron, but steel or otherwise (but not no-stick) will do. The ingredients are flour, water, softened clarified butter (or ghee) and salt--I should say, five ingredients, because it's best with a mixture of two types of flour.

I use a little over a cup of unbleached All-Purpose flour and little under a cup of white whole wheat flour. This I place into a deep ceramic mixing bowl. I add just a teaspoon of fine sea salt and a tablespoon of soft, clarified butter. Then, mixing steadily in a clockwise direction with one hand, I slowly pour in a cup and a quarter of room-temperature water.

As with any bread recipe, you will want to have excess flour handy, as the recipe makes a wet dough and you will need to work in more flour, a pinch at a time, as you work the dough. Use extra AP flour for this. Unlike a leavened bread, however, you won't need to do any heavy, table-top kneading. Simply continue mixing, working, and rolling the dough, adding more flour as needed, until it feels springy, stretchy, and comes easily unstuck from the sides of the bowl.

Wrap this dough in a moist towel and let stand at room temperature for half an hour.

When you are ready to cook, get your cast iron skillet very, very hot over a high heat. Unwrap the dough and pinch off enough to roll into a ball of a little under 2" in diameter. Rewrap the rest of the dough. On a well-floured board, using a floured, wooden pin, roll the ball flat, less than 1/4" thick. Place onto the hot skillet. It will quickly cook--usually just a minute or so to the side, and will develop some black, circular marks like naan. When it has stiffened and shows the scalds on its pan side, flip it over. When that side shows marks, remove it to a plate and let rest, uncovered.

Repeat this process with the rest of the dough. It will make five or six flat breads.