flatbread

Simple homemade flatbread

Making tortillas

Roasting papadums

Making flatbrød ~ 1904, Norway

A flatbread is a simple bread made with flour, water, and salt and then thoroughly rolled into flattened dough. Many flatbreads are unleavened—made without yeast or sourdough culture, although some flatbread is made with yeast, such as flatbread made with whole wheat flour. There are many other optional ingredients that flatbreads may contain, such as curry powder, diced jalapeños, chili powder or black pepper. Olive oil or sesame oil may be added as well. Flatbreads can range from one millimeter to a few centimeters thick. Flatbread was already known in Ancient Egypt and Sumer.

Religious significance

The term unleavened breads can also refer to breads which are not prepared with leavening agents. These flatbreads hold special religious significance to adherents of Judaism and Christianity. Jews consume unleavened breads such as matzo during Passover.

They are also used in the Western Christan liturgy when Roman Catholics celebrate the Eucharist. On the other hand, Orthodox Church explicitly forbids the use of unleavened bread for Eucharist as pertaining to the Old Testament and allows only for bread with yeast, as a symbol of the New. Indeed, this was one of the three points of contention that brought about the schism between Eastern and Western churches in 1054. Protestants use wafers and ordinary bread, depending on denomination.

Examples

• Aish Mehahra (Egypt)—made with 5 -10% ground fenugreek seeds and maize
• Arepa (Colombia, Venezuela)—flat, unleavened patty made of cornmeal
• Bammy (Jamaica)—made from grated cassava root or cassava root flour and salt
• Barbari bread (Persian)
• Bazlama (Turkey)—made from wheat flour, drinking water, table salt
• Bhakri (India)—made primarily with oil, water, and flour
• Bhatura (India)—typically made with white flour, yogurt, ghee or oil, and yeast
• Bindaeddeok (Korea)—made from mung bean flour
• Bing (China)
• Bolanee (Stuffed flatbread) (Afghanistan)—a vegetarian flat-bread dish
• Casava (Haiti)—made from manioc (cassava root)
• Casabe (South America, Caribbean)—made from bitter cassava root
• Chapati (India, Pakistan)—made from atta flour (whole grain durum wheat), water, and salt
• Crêpe (France)—very thin, cooked pancake usually made from wheat flour
• Crisp bread (Nordic)—consists of wholemeal rye flour, salt, and water
• Dosa or dosai (southern India)—made from rice flour, urad flour and salt
• Flammkuchen (north east France)—thin bread dough rolled out in a circle or a rectangle and covered with onions and bacon
• Flatbrød (Norway)—barley flour, salt, and water
• Flatkaka (Iceland)—rye flatbread
• Focaccia (Italy)—baked dough topped with olive oil and a simple herb like rosemary or sage, and salted with coarse salt
• Roast paan (Sri Lanka)—bread mixture baked in a flat mold, producing, literally, a 'flat' bread
• Gözleme (Turkey)—folded over a savory filling and fried on a griddle
• Green onion pancake (China) —made with oil and minced scallions (green onions)
• Harsha (Morocco) —fried buttery bread made of semolina
• Hoggan (Cornwall) —made from barley flour containing pieces of green pork and potato
• Injera (Ethiopia, Eritrea)—teff flour and water
• Khanom buang (Thailand)—rice flour
• Laobing (China)
• Lavash (Armenia)
• Laxoox (Somalia)
• Lefse (Nordic)—potato, milk or cream (sometimes lard) and flour—cooked on a griddle
• Luchi (East India and Bangladesh)—fine maida flour with water and a spoonful of ghee
• Malooga (Yemeni)—water, yeast, salt, and flour
• Mandezi (Africa)
• Markook (Levant)
• Matzo (Jewish)—white plain flour and water.
• Naan (Central and South Asia)
• Ngome (Mali)—millet, water and vegetable oil.
• Opłatek (Poland)
• Pancake (Canada, United States, Britain and Ireland)—egg, milk, wheat
• Pane carasau (Sardinia)
• Papadum (India, Sri Lanka)—Salt, peanut oil, flour
• Paratha (India, Sri Lanka)
• Pesarattu (southern India)—made from whole moong, with green chillis, ginger, salt, and cumin
• Piadina (Italy)—white flour, lard (or olive oil), salt and water
• Pide (Turkey)
• Pita (Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East)
• Pizza is based on flatbread but normally contains yeast
• Podpłomyk (Poland)
• Puri (India, Pakistan)—prepared from dough of atta and salt
• Roti (Central and South Asia)
• Roti canai (Malaysia)
• Rieska (Finland)
• Sacramental bread (Roman Catholic and some Protestants)
• Sanchuisanda (the Qiang people of China)—wheat flour dough baked in ashes at side of an open wood fire. The finished loaf is covered in ashes which are blown and patted off. The name literally means "three blows, three hits" and refers to this post-cooking cleaning.
• Sangak (Persian)
• Taftoon Bread (Persian)
• Tortilla (Mexico and Central America)
• Tunnbröd (Sweden)—any combination of wheat, barley and rye.
• Yufka (Turkey)—wheat flour, water and table salt.
• Tortilla de Rescoldo (Chile), wheat flour based bread, traditionally baked in the coals of a campfire.

References

• Sanchuisanda is described in "Peoples of China's Far Provinces", by Wong How-Man, National Geographic, March 1984.

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