Greek Cyprus Olive Rosemary Flatbread Eliopita Recipes

GREEK CYPRUS OLIVE ROSEMARY FLATBREAD (ELIOPITA)

Steps:

• Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Stir in the chopped rosemary. Make a well in the center and add the water, the 1/4 cup oil, the olives, and onion. Stir together until fairly well mixed, then gather the mixture into a crumbly ball.
• Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead, working in extra flour as needed, until smooth and elastic and no longer sticky, 10 minutes. Form the dough into a ball, cover it with a cloth, and let it rest on the work surface until beginning to rise and starting to feel spongy, 10 to 20 minutes.
• While the dough is resting, preheat the oven to 375°F Lightly coat a baking sheet with oil.
• When the dough is ready, flatten it out with your hands into a 10-inch diameter round. Transfer it to the prepared baking sheet and bake until slightly golden, 40 minutes.
• Brush the top and sides of the bread liberally with oil and sprinkle on the rosemary needles. Continue baking until quite golden, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on the baking sheet completely before serving.
• NOTES: Olive provides the acid element that is needed to activate the baking powder.
• In this recipe, the reason for sifting the flour is twofold; to ensure that there are no clumps of baking powder in the dough (the taste is not pleasant) and to lighten the flour for the weak leavening.
• VARIATIONS: Quick Olive Paximadia: Since flatbread starts out rather condensed in texture, elipita makes a fine hard rusk, especially to accompany hors d'oeuvres.
• You can top the rusks with a pile of finely chopped tomatoes, heap them with dressed sauted chickpeas, or spread them with taramasalata or other pastes. Since they are oven toasted rather than slow baked like traditional paximadia, they can be at hand quickly.
• Preheat the oven to 300°F Cut Olive Flatbread into slices 1/4 to 1/2 inch wide and 3 to 4 inches long. Place the slices on a baking sheet and toast, turning once, until light golden on both sides, about 5 minutes per side. Remove, and brush one side of each slice with olive oil. Or, to keep for later, cool the rusks completely on the baking sheet and then store them in an airtight container. They will keep for up to 6 months.
• Adventures In Greek Cooking.

GREEK FLATBREAD

Steps:

• Mix the flour, salt and yeast together and then stir in the warm water and olive oil to make a soft dough.
• Transfer to a floured surface and knead for five minutes until springy, using extra flour if it's too sticky.
• Shape into a ball, brush over a little more oil, cover and leave to rise in a warm place until it doubles in size.
• This should take about an hour.
• Knead again on a floured surface and divide into six pieces, rolling each chunk into a ball.
• Leave to rise for 10 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 240 C or 475 F.
• Meanwhile, roll the balls flat until they're only 3mm or 1/8 of an inch thick and about 17cm or 7 inches across.
• Place on greased baking sheets, cover with a tea towel and let rest for 30 minutes.
• Spray the dough with water and bake for two minutes.
• Check to make sure they haven't gone hard and if not, bake for a couple minutes more.
• You want them firm but not hard or brown.
• Remove from the oven and serve immediately with dips or as a wrap for all sorts of fillings.
• Great with kebabs!
• If you must serve them later, you can brush them lightly with oil and then reheat them by briefly heating them in a frying pan.