Let’s talk about flatbread. Wherever you go in this little world of ours you find some form of flatbread. The Greeks have them, you’ll find them in the Middle east, in America and in Asia. You have your tortillas, naan bread, pitas, pizza and I could go on and on. You have soft breads, and e.g. in Scandinavia you have hard and crispy breads called knækbrød. Every kind you can imagine is out there. So what is there to talk about?
The short answer is “the crazy Icelanders” way of doing things, of course. Firstly, we don’t call our kind of Icelandic traditional flatbread a bread. The literal translation of our flatkaka is flat cake. That kind of makes you think about a sweet and soft or fluffy kind of bread, right? Wrong! It can be made sugar free, mine has only a little amount of malt syrup in it, which is more bitter than anything else, so no not sweet. Soft or fluffy, not so much. It is flat as a tortilla but more dense and compact. So definitely not a cake in my account.
Flat cake – what’s the deal?
The only thing that I can think of that could explain this naming is that it is not made with yeast. but that doesn’t make sense either because we indeed have a bread that we call a bread that isn’t made with yeast either, our rye bread. It is very sweet and fluffy and soft and most definitely is like a cake. Are you confused yet? Well that is kind of unavoidable in regards to Iceland and the lovely but a little crazy people that live there.
Why cook it when you can…
So how is our flatbread cooked? Baked, fried, grilled? No. We don’t fry it in a literal sense, but burn it straight on an electric hob. No frying pan or nothing, just straight on it. Have you ever dropped flour on an electric cooker? Remember the stench and the whole entire house stinking? That’s peanuts, compared to the stink of cooking these. That’s why we typically do it outside or in the garden or a open garage or someplace we can air out big time. Then we dunk them in cold water and wrap them up in a damp towel. Bear with me here, I know I’m not selling this but trust me they are so good. They are fun to make and delicious to eat.
You eat them with everything
The flatbread are neither sweet nor salty and provide a great base for everything from just some butter or cheese to fancy arranged smoked laks. It’s the Icelandic version of the danish smørrebrød. I personally like mine with loads of chilled butter and a little salt. Most Icelandic people think that a flatbread with our hangikjöt (smoked lamb) thinly sliced is a must at any family feast. If you have a spread it is kind of a must. My poor mother, who still lives in Iceland, has had to travel with obscene amounts of both to satisfy our needs in the past 10 years. Now at least I am off that list. Well no more flatbread for me, I haven’t mastered the smoked lamb as of yet.
Traditional Icelandic Flatbread
Equipment
- Large dough bowl
- Kettle
- Portable electric cooker
- Rolling Pin
- Bowl with cold water
- Some form of cooking utensils to turn the flatbread
- Kitchen towel – damp
- A plate or stencil that equals the size of your cooker/hob
Ingredients
- 2 cups plain flour
- 1/4 cup Manitoba flour
- 3/4 cup Ølands flour If you can get it, if not use either plain flour or Manitoba
- 1 1/4 cup rye finely ground
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour I use corsely ground
- 1/2-1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1/2 cup oats the same thing you use to make oatmeal
- 1+ tbsp malt syrup you can use whatever form of syrup or molasses ou want
- 2 cups boiling water
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil use a oil that is taste nutral
Instructions
- All dry ingredients, except oats, are measured and put into a bowl large enough to add water to and combine the dough in. Dry ingredients are mixed well together before any liquid is added.
- Boiling hot water is put into another bowl, adding malt syrup and oats, stirring until oats soften a little.
- The liquid is added to the dry ingredients, while it's still piping hot. Stir it together with a wooden spoon first and when it starts to come together, lightly knead it until the dough is uniform and just stays together. Don't over knead and if you need more water to combine the dry ingredients add a little more.
- Divide the dough into roughly 10-12 even pieces, forming them into balls. Leave for about 15 minutes so the dough softens a little. Dough normally needs a little time to "let go" after everything comes together. If you force it it can resist. I know this sounds funny but trust me. Because you want to flatten it out you want it to cooperate.
- Flatten each ball out like a tortilla until it is a flat round disc, about 2-3mm thick (about 0,08-0,12 of an inch – think tortilla). You can use your fingers, but I use a rolling pin. I try to make a perfect circle each time but I do use a plate the I know fits perfectly on my hob and cut off the excess. I put a lot of flour on both sides when I do this, as well as between them when I stack them so they won't stick together. It also eases the cooking process.
- Now comes the fun part. Set up your cooking station. You cook these outside or in an area that is extremely well ventilated like an open garage. You don't do it inside. Take your portable electric cooker and get situated on a table somewhere. Have your stack of flatbread on one side. On the other side you place a bowl of cold water and a damp kitchen towel folded over and on a plate. Now you are good to go.
- You turn the cooker on and wait until it is scolding hot. Then you place the first flatbread directly on it. At this stage your panic will set in. The burning smell and smoke goes against everything a cook knows as good practice, but trust me this is supposed to happen.
- You turn the flatbread after about 30 seconds and if it needs a bit more you just turn it again.
- When both sides are to your liking, or like the image shows you they should be, you do one more weird thing. Because you are quick burning these to cook them, you need to halt the cooking process just as fast. In order to do this you dip the whole thing in cold water. Go on don't be scared, really dip it in there, it can take it.
- After the ice bath the flatbread is kept inside the folded damp towel. Don't be afraid, the bread won't be soggy at all. They can handle this just fine.
- You will want to wrap the flatbread in something right away or else they will dry out. Get that sorted right away.
- The enjoy a warm flatbread with loads of butter and a few sprinkled saltflakes, or smoked lax or salmon. Just whatever you want. They are wonderful.