Barbecued Flatbreads

I have read a lot about cooking pizza on the grill, but I've never tried it.

But since this is the summer to broaden my barbecue horizons, I decided to try grilling dough. I started small with sourdough flatbreads. They were great with grilled corn, sprouted chickpea hummus and Greek salad.

I usually make these flatbreads on my cast iron skillet, but the barbecue added a smoky flavor that went exceptionally well with the za'atar I sprinkled on them.

This recipe makes a lot of flatbreads, but they freeze well. I put them in a freezer bag with wax paper between each one, and they defrost quickly in the toaster oven as a quick snack with hummus or salad.

It's important to start the dough for the flatbreads a couple of hours before you plan to grill them. The dough can then rest for up to 12 hours, so you have a lot of flexibility. I make it in my stand mixer, which frankly makes it far too easy to make flatbreads. You have been warned.

Barbecue Flatbreads with Za'atar

3 oz sourdough starter

1 2/3 cup white flour

5 cups white bread flour

1/2 tsp salt

5 tsp sugar

1 tbsp olive oil

za'atar (see below)

Combine the starter in a bowl with 3/4 cup water and 1 2/3 cups flour. Cover and let rest at room temperature until bubbly — about 10 minutes depending on the warmth of your kitchen and the vigor of your starter.

In a stand mixer with the dough hook, combine 5 cups bread flour, 1/2 tsp salt and 5 tsp sugar. Add 1 1/2 cups water, 1 tbsp olive oil and 2 oz (by weight) of the bubbly starter (otherwise known as levain). Return the rest of the levain to your sourdough jar in the fridge. It will invigorate what is there.

Mix to a stiff dough, then keep kneading with the dough hook for 5-10 minutes until it is smooth. Remove the dough hook and cover the bowl with a silicon lid. Let the dough rest for a minimum of 30 minutes, or up to 12 hours. It should puff up a little.

Prepare the barbecue (or warm a cast iron skillet over high). Pinch off a piece of dough the size of a plum and roll it out on a floured board until it is a rough circle of at most 1/3" thick — preferably thinner. Place the dough on the hot grill or pan. Cook about 2 minutes until it is spotted. Brush the top with oil, sprinkle with za'atar, then flip and cook the other side about 10 seconds. Remove from the pan and serve immediately or cover with a towel to keep it warm.

Makes about 12 flatbreads.

Za'atar is a Middle Eastern spice blend that is zesty and spicy and utterly irresistible. There are many recipes. This is the one I make: stir together 3 tbsp dried thyme, 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds, 1 tbsp ground sumac, 1/2 tsp dried oregano, 1/4 tsp salt.

Adventures with Sourdough

This is why it's important to keep your starter
in a jar with lots of headroom. When I
unscrewed the lid, the starter exploded out.

I grew a sourdough starter in my garden a couple of years ago, and have been experimenting with it ever since.

Recently my starter has been growing faster than we can eat the bread I make with it. When making bread, I refresh the starter with more flour and water, then return some to the jar in the fridge and use the rest. The amount in the jar never shrinks. In fact, it's currently growing at an extraordinary rate.

So this week I used some of my sourdough starter in muffins. When making muffins, I use the sourdough straight — no refreshing and returning to the jar. It's a great way to use excess sourdough starter.

Orange Sourdough Muffins

I was inspired by Ellen Buchman Ewald in her classic book Recipes for a Small Planet. She has a recipe for orange muffins made with whole wheat flour. They are raised with buttermilk, baking soda and sourdough starter. They are sweetened with a little honey, and make a dense healthy muffin.

Then I used her method to adapt my favorite lemon muffin recipe to sourdough. The muffins are made with white flour and sweetened with sugar. The sourdough, baking soda and kefir made them light. Yummy if not totally healthy .

Here's what I did.

Lemon Sourdough Muffins
2 cups white flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup sugar
1/8 tsp cloves
3/4 cup sourdough starter
1 egg, beaten
1 cup kefir
1/2 cup oil
zest of 1 lemon.

Whisk together the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients. Gently combine the two mixtures.

Pour into a greased muffin tin and bake at 375°F for 20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

For decadence, combine 1/4 cup lemon juice and 2 tbsp sugar and dip the tops of the warm muffins in it.

Makes 12 muffins

Lemon Sourdough Muffin