Flatbread with Roasted Peppers and Goat Cheese

September 2, 2014 Published by Dina

Pizza and flatbreads are nice to make any time of the year. With summer entertaining and perhaps casual foods on the menu, here is a flatbread recipe that can be used to serve as an appetizers with a glass of wine when friends come over. I make the dough in a food processor and bake it in very hot oven. It makes a chewy and crisp crust that is a nice base for many toppings. Roasted peppers and goat cheese is one of my favourite  topping for pizza-like flatbreads. You can also use some of the pickles zucchini from my previous post to top the flatbread, just drain it first.

If you are not in the mood to make the pizza dough yourself you can buy it ready made (but fresh). I am not talking about the frozen rounds of pizza dough, maybe they work, maybe not, I haven’t tried them. You can make additional shortcuts by buying the pizza sauce. I get the Williams Sonoma pizza sauce, it’s quite delicious and make the process of making pizzas and flatbreads quick and easy.

Ingredients:


Pizza dough

Pizza sauce

Roasted peppers

Goat cheese

Greens for garnish


 

Pizza dough:


Dough

3 cups white flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup water, lukewarm or as needed
1 teaspoon yeast
1/2 teaspoon sugar

2 tablespoons olive oil

Place water and sugar in the bowl of a food processor. Sprinkle yeast over the water and pulse once or twice to mix. Let rest 5 minutes to dissolve.

Add olive oil and pulse a couple of times to blend.

Add 2 cups flour and pulse a few times to mix the flour with the liquid ingredients. Add more flour only until dough forms a ball and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.  Don’t add more flour than needed to form a dough. Continue processing until dough pulls together and develops elasticity.

Remove to a floured surface and finish kneading by hand, adding more flour but not too much so the dough remains light.

Place ball of dough in an oiled bowl, turning dough to cover with the oil. Let rise until doubles, about 2 hours.

If you need more time then either deflate the dough and let it rise once more or place the bowl with the dough in the fridge until you are ready. Bring it to room temperature before proceeding with rolling the dough and shaping the pizza.

When ready to proceed turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and cut into 4 pieces. Keep the extra pieces covered while you work with each one. With a rolling pin or with your hands roll the dough into a rectangle. Keep the edges slightly thicker than the center.


Roasting the peppers:


Roasting red peppers

Roast the peppers whole over a gas flame using tongs to turn them so they are charred on all sides.

Alternatively, cut peppers in half, removing seeds and white pith.

Lay cut side down on a foil lined baking sheet and broil a few inches away from the broiler until blackened and charred.

Remove from oven, place in a dish, cover with a lid or plastic and let steam until cool enough to handle.

Either way you roast them, once they are cool enough to handle peel off charred skin and cut the flesh into wide strips.

 

 


 

Assembling the flatbread:


Lay the dough rectangle on a parchment paper, it makes it easy to transfer it into the oven. Brush with olive oil and then spoon a little pizza sauce over.

Arrange roasted papper strips over the flatbread

Scatter goat cheese pieces over.

Bake in a 450℉ oven until puffed and crisp.


Flatbread with roasted peppers and goat cheese

 

Roasted peppers

 

Flatbread with roasted peppers and goat cheese

 



 

4 Comments

  • bellini says:

    Making pizza dough is not something I take the time to do these days. On the way home from work there is an Italian deli on the corner of Benvoulin and KLO, Taviola has now opened as well…I wonder if they have dough? Nevertheless these flatbread sound perfect for tonights dinner!!

    • Dina says:

      Val, I have been to the Italian deli you mentioned. They have a nice cheeses selection but I didn’t check for pizza dough. Valoroso has frozen pizza dough (in balls) that I often buy. One makes two smaller pizzas and is very easy to work with.

  • Adri says:

    What beautiful bread. I bet those peppers add wonderful flavor and a nice meaty bite. And isn’t it something how well these breads come out when baked in a very hot oven. Brava!

    • Dina says:

      Hi Adri, thanks for stopping by. The biggest mistake I made when first making pizzas was to not cook them at very high heat. The dough needs the heat shock to rise properly.