This is a thrown together recipe that I made last year. For the life of me I can't remember how I got the idea to dry fry a ball of bread dough but the result is something between a roosterkoek ( griddle cake I guess?) and a panini. It always turns out right and smells amazing when 'baking'
These flat breads are made from a basic bread dough left to rise once.
Ingredients and Method:
Into a mixing bowl
4 Cups of flour ( I used 3 cake and one maize , specifically Creamy Maize pap because it's really fine. But you can use 4 cups of the same flour)
Add half a teaspoon of Salt.
Make a well in the flour and sprinkle 7g yeast over the flour.
Dissolve 2 tsp sugar in
1 cup warm water with
30 ml oil
Pour into the well so the yeast and sugar water have time to start working. Give it 5 minutes, it should start making foam. ( I believe the correct way to test if the yeast is alive is to add it to the water to see if it reacts. However, on some yeasts packaging they say to just add it straight in with the flour and mix it up. My way is a compromise between the 2 methods. If I don't get a reaction I sometimes add a second batch of yeast. The recipe can work without the yeast, your bread will just be harder and flatter. Basically like a wrap/ tortilla)
Mix and then knead all together till it makes a nice soft but not sticky dough.
Mixing tip- I use a wooden spoon to swirl the liquid around in the flour so that the liquid takes a bit of the flour 'wall' each time the spoon comes past. Do not dig down and mix it like a dog digging for a bone because you will definitely be left with lumps which take forever to get out. You need to use the same technique as you would in making pasta.- Just taking a little bit of flour off the sides until the liquid thickens. It's the least amount of effort and makes for a smooth dough every time.
Let it rise till doubled in size. This amount of time would vary according to the temperature of your house and the freshness of the yeast. It usually takes about 1-2 hours.
Cut into 6 and then one at a time roll into balls, flatten like a pizza-base in your hands or break out a rolling pin. The pizza spinning option is more fun in my opinion and you spend less time fighting an elastic dough that's bent on staying in in't original shape...
Dry fry in a hot, heavy-based non-stick frying pan with the lid on. Alternatively use a cast iron skillet with a tiny bit of oil.
( Dry fry= think steak. )
The steam makes the bread crispy. Turn over when the bottom looks done and fry until brown on top.
Serve warm as a panini or with soup.
They freeze well and are great for making small pizzas in a hurry.
Plop on some pizza toppings of your choosing and pop onto a 200 degree Celsius oven from frozen.
I like putting pineapple on. Don't judge.
Pineapple also freezes well by the way.
There you have it.
You could also let this dough rise again after forming it into 8 balls instead of 6 and deep frying them in oil, thus making Vetkoek. ( Which is amazing with mince) My South African brain isn't making the connection of a Vetkoek with anything else in the world now....hmm.... Wikipedia- help me out bro:
"Vetkoek is a traditional Afrikaner fried dough bread. It is either served filled with cooked mince or with syrup, honey, or jam. It is similar to the Caribbean "Johnny cake" and the Mexican sopapillas."
Directly translated it means 'fat cake' since it's like a biscuit fried in fat/oil.
Hmm, vetkoek...