Bread made in heaven

12 buns

Ingredients starter dough

450g White Flour

7g Salt

290ml Water (lukewarm)

5g Fresh Yeast (or 2.5g/ generous pinch dried yeast)

Ingredients main dough

500g White Flour

10g Salt

300ml Water

10g Fresh yeast (or 5g dried yeast)

Toppings

100g sun-dried tomatoes (finely sliced)

100g pecorino (finely grated)

6 cloves garlic (finely sliced)

50 ml extra virgin olive oil

1. The night before, combine the flour and salt in a clean big bowl. Crumble the yeast into the lukewarm water and stir to dissolve the yeast. Pour this liquid into the flour-salt mixture. Combine all the ingredients and knead the dough for 3 to 5 minutes. Don’t worry if you think the dough is too wet, do NOT add any more flour as still will leave you with try bread. Place the dough into an oiled bowl and cover with a lit or cling film and let it sit at room temperature for 12 hours (over night). Depending on the size of the container/bowl you used and the temperature in your house it can be that you need to knock the dough back after a few hours of fermentation so that it does not explode. Do not worry, this will just allow the dough to develop more flavour.
2. The next morning, combine the white flour and salt for the main dough in a large clean bowl. Again crumble the fresh yeast into the water and stir to dissolve it. Make a well in the flour-salt mixture and add the starter and the yeast-water mixture. Combine all the ingredients into a rough dough and knead the dough for 8 – 10 minutes. The dough will be wet, but resist the temptation to add more flour – the bread will thank you for it!
3. Place the dough into an oiled bowl or container. Cover the dough with a lit or cling film and let it rest at room temperature for 3 hours.
4. Knock the dough back and form into a ball. Place the dough again in the oiled bowl/container and let it rest for another hour.
5. Knock the dough back and start the shaping process. Divide the dough into even portions of approximately 125g each. Form into a little ball and let it rest on a well floured surface for 20 minutes.
6. On a backing tray lined with packing paper, place 6 dough balls. Stretch the dough balls until you receive a little round flatbread of approximately 10 cm wide and 2 cm thick. It is no problem if the flatbreads are uneven and some parts are thicker or thinner than others. Repeat this step for the other 6 dough balls.
7. Make little holes in the flatbread with your fingers (like you would do if you would make focaccia). Divide the slices of sun-dried tomatoes and garlic across all flatbreads. Drizzle the olive oil on top and sprinkle with pecorino.
8. Let the flatbreads rest for 30 minutes.
9. Preheat the oven to 240°C (convection) or just to its highest setting. Place a backing tray into the base of the oven.
10. Place the flatbreads into the preheated oven (middle rack) and pour boiling water in the baking tray in the base of the oven to create a burst of steam. Bake for 10-13 minutes or until golden brown. Keep an eye on these beauties, as depending on your oven it can really be that they are done at 10 minutes or even need a bit more than 13 minutes.
11. Eat warm or place in a container (will stay fresh for 3 days at room temperature) and reheat for serving. BON APPÉTIT!