Homemade Grilled Bread

At this month’s Cooking Club, I acquainted myself with a propane grill at a good old-fashioned barbecue in AWP’s backyard. My apartment building has a community grill on the roof, and I had not made much use of it – until now. Yes, the success of this bread has made me want to grill.

For Cooking Club, I selected to make Grilled Flatbreads; we will talk about them later. The toppings for the Grilled Flatbread were just gilding the lily – this bread is wonderful on its own and deserves its own post. It is thick and moist and, if I may, it tastes kind of like Papa John’s breadsticks. No joke. It puffs up a satisfying amount on the grill – I started my dough at about 1″ thick and after grilling it ended up 2″ or 3″ high (and it is not just a 2″ – 3″ high bubble inside!). Serve on its own or with a garlic dipping oil, or with any dipping sauce really, and enjoy.

Ingredients:
– 1 package active dry yeast
– 4 3/4 cups white flour plus more for dusting
– 2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
– 1 T kosher salt
– 1/2 c low-fat sour cream
– vegetable oil (like canola, for brushing)

How do I make it?

Dissolve yeast in 3 c warm water (100-110 degrees) in a large bowl (I use an enormous bowl with a snap-on lid) until it gets a little bubbly and/or foamy.
Add the flours, and mix with your fingertips until a shaggy dough forms.
What is a shaggy dough? I wondered myself, until I made the recipe the first time and the dough was … well … shaggy! Kind of stringy, I guess. I will tell you what it’s not: pretty.

Cover bowl with plastic wrap (or lid) and let rest at room temperature for 20 minutes.
Sprinkle salt over dough, then add sour cream. Knead with your hands until well incorporated – the dough should pull away from sides of bowl and hold together in a loose, wet ball (about 5 minutes). The dough will be very soft and wet.
Cover bowl with plastic wrap (or lid) and let dough rise at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Knead dough a few times to deflate. At this point, you can either:
- Cover and chill for up to 2 days. The dough will develop in flavor and continue to rise slowly in refrigerator. I have been using this method; even if it is just shifting the hours to another day, it is less burdensome to think of this as a one-hour recipe (that is ready to bake the next day).
- -OR- Let the dough stand at room temperature until doubled in volume, 3–4 hours. The warmer and more humid your kitchen is, the faster it will rise. Chill for 1 hour before grilling to make it easier to handle.
Divide dough into 8 equal portions. Generously flour a work surface. Working with 1 or 2 portions at a time (depending on how many flatbreads will fit on your grill), roll out dough or press with your hands. My dough was so elastic that I just used my hands and pulled it as thin as I could get it, which was a bit less than an inch. It does not have to be, and will likely not be, perfectly round.
To bake:
- Heat a gas grill to high. Brush grill rack with oil. Grill dough until lightly charred on one side and no longer sticking to grill, 2–3 minutes. It may help you to close the lid while you are cooking. Using a spatula, flip dough and grill until cooked through, 1–2 minutes longer. If it seems like the outside is done and the inside is not, put it on the top rack of the grill to cook the inside with indirect heat.
- -OR- Heat your oven to 450. Place the dough on a floured heavy baking sheet, and cook until browned (about 10 minutes). Flip, and repeat (it will be less time for the second side).
If you are not sure if the dough is done on the inside – and really, how would you be for your first batch? – make one of the servings the crash test dummy, and try it at various points to see how the baking is going.