Garlic Flat Bread

There's a great programme that BBC2 run on Saturday mornings if I'm unlucky enough to be up that's half cookery show, half documentary about the food. So not only do you get great recipes, you learn about the food that goes into it.

A few weeks ago, the show was about garlic and the obvious side dish was garlic bread. It looked delicious and I couldn't wait to try it out which I did but I forgot to photograph it until I remade it last night so here's the recipe and picture of my flat breaded garlic.



Ingredients

Bread

* 250 g strong flour
* 28 g yeast
* 1 tablespoon (15 ml) soft brown sugar
* 150 ml water
* 30 ml olive oil.
Garlic butter

* 110 g unsalted butter
* 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
* Cracked black pepper
* Rock salt.

Method

Bread

1. Mix the flour, yeast, sugar, water and olive oil together to form the dough. This works best if you have a mixer.
2. Using your hands, knead the dough well for about 10 minutes. Set aside in a bowl and cover loosely with cling-film. Leave to prove for approximately 20 minutes at room temperature. The dough should almost double in size. The cling film prevents a skin forming on the surface of the dough.
3. Knock back the dough. To do this, push some of the air out of the dough by gently punching the dough in the bowl a few times. Put the dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll it out to form a thin base. Dust your fingers with flour and then lightly press them into the dough to make dimples that will hold some of the garlic butter while it cooks.
4. Allow this to prove again (approx 20 minutes) – if you want to keep a thin base do this slowly in the fridge.
Garlic butter

1. Melt the butter in a pan and add the chopped garlic.
2. Remove the pan from the heat and add the salt and pepper.

Garlic bread

1. Place a baking tray in the oven and pre-heat the oven to 220°C/Gas Mark 7 (this will help create a crispy base to the garlic bread).
2. Paint the surface of the proven flat bread with a little of the garlic butter.
3. Carefully slide the bread onto the tray in the oven and bake it for approximately 10 minutes, until cooked through and looking golden.
4. Remove it from the oven and immediately pour over the remaining garlic butter. Serve warm.