Feta and Olive-Stuffed Flatbread

Not so flat flatbread

Hooray for successful bread recipes!! I have a love hate relationship with bread. I love to eat it, I love to bake it, but it hates it when I try to bake it. My successful bread recipes have only been successful when baked in the breadmaker.

I must not be a very good kneader, because it just doesn't rise and I end up with a big brick of a loaf or little rocks of rolls.

This time I tried something different with this Feta-Olive Stuffed Flatbread. I used the dough setting on the breadmaker (earthshattering, I know, but I've never used it before and I've had the damn thing for 2 years). Anyway, the breadmaker kneads better than I do, because the dough rose all the way out of the pan. It was very cool, and I was very excited.

So, enough about my baking failings, and on with the recipe. The dough was made with your typical yeast, sugar, flour, oil, water but also had some natural yoghurt added. It turned out lovely and pliable, and so soft. I just wanted to play with it. The filling was simple mix of crumbled feta, chopped olives, mint, coriander and shallots. My confidence was soaring thanks to the success with the dough (well, thanks to the breadmaker's success with the dough), so I deviated from the recipe and added half a smoked chicken breast. I'm a bit iffy with olives. I kind of like them sometimes, but I'm not a big fan - I don't know what it is. So I cut back on the olives and substituted the chicken. I broke out the food processor to chop everything, because I used 98% fat free feta and it just wouldn't crumble, and once I started I decided to do everything in there. I ended up with heaps of filling, way more than I needed.

I was called away just before it was ready to go in the oven, and was gone about 40 minutes. I came back and the bread had continued rising on its tray. I know that bread is supposed to do this, but my breads never have, and I got all excited again.

The flatbread turned out huge. Thinking back, I probably could have made two, splitting the dough and then used more of the filling. The only reason I made it the size it was was because it was as big as the tray. I'll think more about it next time.

It was very nice. I enjoyed it a lot. I made it for me because DD doesn't like olives and isn't a big fan of feta either, but he gave it a try. As it turned out, he really liked it. He had a piece before dinner and then, quite oddly, ate another piece with our French Dip Beef Roast, dipping it in the juices.

I had heaps left over though, and since I wasn't sure if it could be frozen, they had to be thrown out because I couldn't eat them quick enough. The pieces were great to take to work, they tasted best at room temperature and were a great snack. I will make it again, but I think I will try and halve it and research a bit to see if the pieces can be frozen.