Swedish Flatbread (Tunnbröd) - Live Slow Run Far

Swedish Flatbread (Tunnbröd)

Flatbread in a pan on a wooden table.

To us, flatbread equals the perfect lunch or on-the-go sandwich bread. Filling options are endless, the rolls are extremely packing-friendly and they typically hold you over for a good while afterwards (extra plus when you’re out cross-country skiing or hiking).

And for those who have never taken to baking their own – the level of satisfaction when seeing the stack of perfectly imperfect rounds grow next to the hot pan is sky high. Yes, the process takes a little while as you need to cook them individually on the stove, but we think it’s almost meditative. How often do we find ourselves with such a calming, harmonious activity as flipping flatbread? Making sure no stress is involved and setting aside an appropriate amount of time are keys to it turning out that way of course, and that’s something we’re slowly learning. What’s up with us humans and always trying to speed things up? Why do we always think we’re in such a rush?

Anyway, ever since we committed to baking all of our own bread this year, we’ve been working on developing a foolproof flatbread recipe to share – and here it is! With regards to the flours, we love the combination of wheat and barley, and the latter is indeed what has traditionally been used for flatbread making up north in Sweden. If you find yourself with other flours at home, you can pretty much replace and substitute however you want, as long as the amounts stay the same. And before we let you go, a note on yeast: we typically use dry yeast, simply because it’s more practical for us to keep around as we do a few big grocery hauls per month rather than opt by the store every now and then. Fresh yeast does last a while, but just to be safe, we stock up on dry. With that said, you can use fresh if that’s what you have on hand. In that case, crumble the yeast in a bowl and add the canola oil + oat milk mixture in when at 37ºC and stir until dissolved. Add in the dry ingredients thereafter, and then follow the instructions below from step 3. And as flatbread is best fresh, we freeze them once they’ve cooled off.

För recept på svenska, klicka här: Mjukt tunnbröd i stekpanna

Makes 20 flatbreads

Ingredients

10 dl all-purpose flour (~600 g)
6 dl barley flour (~360 g)
1/2 dl sugar
7 g dry yeast
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 dl canola oil
7 dl oat milk

Instructions

  1. Mix all the dry ingredients (including the yeast) together in a medium bowl, reserving 2 dl of all-purpose flour for kneading.
  2. Stir together canola oil and oat milk in a pot, and heat up to 37ºC. Once the mixture has reached temperature, pour it into a large bowl. Add in dry ingredients, a little at a time, and stir until combined. 
  3. Tip the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 10 min, adding in the remaining 2 dl of all-purpose flour as needed if the dough is too sticky.
  4. Place the dough back in the bowl, cover with a tea towel and let rise in preferably a warm place for 1 hr.
  5. Again, tip the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for about 30 sec. Divide the dough into 20 pieces and place all but one underneath a tea towel. Roll out the first bread into a circle. Use a regular rolling pin at first, and finish off by giving the round a go with a notched one, creating mini holes across the whole top (you can use a fork if you don’t have one). Then, bake the bread in a dry pan over medium-high heat, about 2 min per side. Repeat until done.

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