00:00Hello, this is Chef John from Foodwishes.com with Viking Flatbread.
00:08That's right, as promised, during our recent Viking Stew video,
00:12I'm going to show you my new favorite way to make flatbread,
00:15which, believe it or not, is based on a recipe that's over a thousand years old.
00:20And to get started, we will add some wheat flour to a bowl.
00:23And this would be more authentic if you used whole grain.
00:26But to honor a thousand years of evolution, I'm going to use all-purpose for a little bit of a nicer texture.
00:32And then to that, we will add a couple very ancient grains.
00:35Some spelt flour, which is a relative of wheat.
00:39And then last but not least, some rye flour,
00:41which probably would have been the most common flour used during the Viking times.
00:45And then what we'll do is add a nice big pinch of salt
00:48before we give our dry ingredients a quick mix with a spoon.
00:52And once that's been accomplished, we can pour in our liquid,
00:54which is usually water, but this time we're using buttermilk.
00:59Oh yeah, according to historians,
01:01the Vikings use something very close to modern buttermilk to make their breads.
01:06And what we'll do is start stirring slowly with our spoon,
01:09so as not to splash the milk out before this starts to come together.
01:13And we will keep stirring until we form what we call in the business a shaggy dough.
01:18And you could go a little farther if you want,
01:20but once I get to this point, I like to clean off my primitive wooden spoon
01:24and switch to my even more primitive fingertips.
01:27And we will basically pinch, squeeze, and press this dough
01:30until it all comes together
01:32and all the flour has been incorporated
01:34and the sides of our primitive wooden bowl are clean.
01:38And once we do eventually get to this point,
01:40we will transfer it onto a work surface.
01:43And then using just enough flour to avoid sticking,
01:46we will knead this very briefly,
01:48or just like a minute or two is plenty,
01:50or until we've formed a sort of smooth,
01:53somewhat elastic,
01:55relatively sticky dough.
01:57And in general, when we're making bread,
01:59we want to be careful not to work in too much flour,
02:02since that can result in a drier, tougher final product.
02:05Plus, by keeping our dough a little bit sticky at this point,
02:08we'll be able to use more flour when we roll it out,
02:11which is where I find the extra flour more useful.
02:14And that's it.
02:15Once we have a ball of dough formed,
02:17we will wrap it in plastic
02:18or cover it with some kind of animal skin,
02:21and we will let it rest on the counter for 15 minutes,
02:24and then attempt to portion this into six equal pieces,
02:27which I almost always do with a scale,
02:30even though I usually don't film it.
02:32But what you do is weigh the whole thing in grams,
02:34and then divide by six,
02:36and then simply make each portion that weight.
02:40And since that one was way over,
02:41I had to cut some off,
02:42and then cut some more off.
02:45And we'll simply keep deleting or adding
02:47until we're at the exact weight we want.
02:50And every once in a while, you'll get lucky,
02:53and you'll have the exact weight,
02:54which will be way more exciting than it should be.
02:58But anyway, the point is,
02:59we'll divide our dough into six equal pieces,
03:02at which point we'll roll each one into a ball.
03:04And so they don't dry out.
03:06Make sure you cover the ones you're not working with.
03:09And then to form each flatbread,
03:10we'll take one ball of dough and flatten it out.
03:13And then sprinkling on as much flour as we need,
03:16we will roll these out to at least an eighth of an inch thick,
03:20or possibly even slightly thinner.
03:22And ideally, we end up with some kind of roundish shape.
03:25Although that is optional,
03:28and these will cook up and taste exactly the same,
03:30no matter what shape you end up with.
03:33And since we did keep our dough fairly sticky and moist,
03:35we are able to use a generous amount of flour here to prevent sticking.
03:40See, if we'd worked too much in earlier,
03:42we might be adding too much at this point.
03:44And with almost all breads,
03:46the less flour you use, the better.
03:48And that's it.
03:49Once we have our dough rolled out,
03:51we will head to the stove,
03:53where we preheated a dry cast iron pan over medium-high heat.
03:57And we'll place our flatbread in,
03:59and we'll cook that first side for about a minute.
04:01And after about 30 seconds or so,
04:04you're going to see little bubbles form.
04:06All right, it's not super easy to see at this point.
04:09So let me poke it with my finger.
04:10And once we see that,
04:13after about a minute,
04:14we'll go ahead and flip this over.
04:16And we'll give the other side about a minute as well.
04:19And just like when we made pita bread,
04:21or Lebanese mountain bread,
04:23if you press down with your spatula,
04:25you will see the layers separate,
04:27as steam fills the pocket between the two layers of dough.
04:30And if everything goes according to plan,
04:32parts of it will puff up,
04:34sometimes all of it,
04:35which I'm going to show you in a minute.
04:37But anyway, once we've cooked our flatbread
04:39in a hot dry pan for about a minute
04:41to a minute and a half per side.
04:43And we've achieved some of those signature char marks
04:45here and there.
04:46We'll remove that to a plate.
04:49Oh, and you don't have to,
04:50but I do like to cover this with a dry towel
04:52as I'm working through the other ones.
04:54All right, that's going to hold the moisture in
04:56and help us achieve a more supple texture.
04:58And that's it.
04:59We'll go ahead and cook the other five.
05:01Oh, and once the pan is nice and hot,
05:03you might be able to back the heat down
05:05a little bit towards medium.
05:06But as usual, those kind of adjustments will be up to you.
05:10And by the way, if you can grab one of the other warriors
05:12or a shield maiden to help you with this,
05:15it goes a lot faster.
05:17Since while one person is rolling,
05:19the other person can be cooking, flipping, and stacking.
05:22And if you are able to do this with a couple of friends,
05:25you really can make a lot of flatbread
05:27in a relatively short amount of time.
05:29So something to keep in mind
05:30if you're planning a big feast.
05:32And generally speaking,
05:34the first ones you do are going to be the worst ones you do.
05:37And as that pan gets a little hotter
05:39and that dough rests a little longer,
05:41sometimes you will achieve full puff
05:43where the two layers filled with steam completely
05:46and you end up with a gorgeous puffy flatbread like this.
05:51Oh yeah, once again,
05:52that is way more exciting than it should be.
05:55And that's it.
05:56Once we have all those cooked and stacked,
05:58I like to leave them under the towel
05:59for about 10 minutes or so
06:00just to let them rest
06:02and continue to steam each other.
06:04And once the cooking and resting is done,
06:06we can move on to the eating.
06:09And for this one,
06:10I'm going to enjoy it like I think
06:11the Vikings would have most commonly enjoyed it,
06:14which would have been spread with butter
06:15and then drizzled with honey.
06:18And that, my friends, I promise,
06:20is going to be way more delicious
06:21than you ever expected.
06:22All right, sure, the butter and honey help,
06:25but that buttermilk we used
06:27is giving this kind of a sourdough vibe
06:29and that little bit of tanginess
06:30is absolutely perfect with those earthy grains.
06:34And I'm not sure why I folded
06:35when I probably should have rolled it.
06:38So let me do that now.
06:40And yes, it does taste better rolled.
06:42I don't know why.
06:44Although now it's trying to unroll itself.
06:47Look at that.
06:48That is so Viking.
06:50But anyway, if you just enjoy this
06:51with butter and honey,
06:52you will be very happy.
06:54But of course,
06:55I had to try something a little more complex.
06:58So I decided to apply some fermented cream,
07:01which the Vikings were very fond of.
07:04Oh, and I know that looks like a random pattern,
07:06but it's not.
07:07That is the Viking runic symbol for brunch.
07:11And then after that,
07:11I applied some cured salmon,
07:13which is something I'm sure
07:14they would have paired with their fermented cream.
07:17And then to add a little bit of tartness
07:19and a touch of sweetness,
07:20I applied some half blueberries,
07:22which are supposed to simulate the bilberries
07:25that they would have used,
07:26which were smaller
07:27and apparently sort of like blueberries.
07:29And then I also did a little bit of torn raspberry,
07:33which after placing over,
07:34sort of kind of looked like caviar.
07:37And that's it.
07:38I finished up with some fresh dill.
07:40And then because this was so beautiful to look at,
07:43I decided not to fold it or roll it.
07:45And I just bit right in.
07:47And that really was delicious,
07:49but also very strange.
07:52All right, all the flavors and textures
07:53definitely worked together,
07:55but it was an unusual flavor profile
07:57and kind of unexpected.
07:59So it did take a few bites
08:01to appreciate what was going on.
08:04And there's really no way to know exactly
08:05if they would have served it like this.
08:07But then again, why wouldn't they?
08:10But if you don't want to take any chances
08:11and you want to enjoy this bread exactly
08:14like they would have a thousand years ago,
08:16just boil up a big pot of meat, vegetables,
08:18berries, and herbs
08:19and enjoy it just like I did
08:21in the recent Viking stew video.
08:24But anyway, I don't think you're going to have
08:25any trouble coming up with ways to enjoy this.
08:28I mean, you are after all Eric the Red
08:29of what to put on this delicious bread.
08:32But no matter how you enjoy it,
08:34this is a very easy and fun flatbread to make.
08:37And I really do hope you give this a try soon.
08:40So please follow the links below
08:42for the ingredient amounts,
08:44a printable written recipe,
08:45and much more info as usual.
08:47And as always, enjoy.
08:51Enjoy.
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