Rye Flatbread is an easy way to prepare bread and it’s traditionally served with meat and onion or cabbage.
You can typically get them at fair and folkloric markets or you can just make them at home. Even if you’re not skilled at making traditional Czech bread, this one is much easier.
This is how you can see oven-baked flatbreads at fair. Especially at winter markets, they will warm your body and soul. Now let me show you how to make the rye flatbread any time of the year!
Rye Flatbread with Meat and Onion – Recipe
You’ll need
(serves 4 large flatbreads)
For Bread
- 1 cup of plain wheat flour (see Czech Flour Guide)
- 1 cup of rye flour
- 20 g/0.7 oz of fresh yeast (half a cube) OR 1 tsp of dried yeast OR 1 tbsp of sourdough (recipe here)
- 1 tsp of sugar
- 2 tbsp of oil (sunflower or rapeseed)
- 3/4 cup of lukewarm water
- 1 tsp of salt
Other
- 400 g/14 oz of smoked pork or bacon
- 2 large onions
How to make Rye Flatbread with Meat and Onion
If you’re using fresh yeast, break it into small pieces and mix with the lukewarm water. Do the same if you’re using dried yeast. And if you have sourdough, you can skip this step and then just add the water and sourdough in the bowl with the rest of the ingredients. Stir in a teaspoon of sugar, cover the bowl with water and let the started get activated.
In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, oil and starter and knead until you have a slightly sticky dough. Sprinkle it with a little flour, cover the bowl and let the dough rise. The process might take a little longer than when you use just wheat flour, the rye flour is just like that. Be patient, the dough doesn’t need to exactly double in volume but try to get close.
While the dough rises, dice the meat and slice the onion (larger pieces are ok). Fry the meat first, especially if you’re using bacon, it will release grease, then add onion. If needed, add a little oil.
Once the dough has risen, split it in 4 equal parts (or more if you want smaller flatbreads), form balls, cover with a kitchen towel and let them rise for 10 more minutes.
Roll each piece out flat. Flatbreads would be traditionally made directly on the old stove but since we mostly don’t have those anymore, we use pans without any grease. You can also bake them in the oven, I’ll tell you how to do both.
If you want to bake your flatbreads, preheat the oven to 200°C/392°F and bake them for about 15 minutes.
I find they taste better from the pan so that’s how I make them. Place each flatbread on the pan, make until one side is done, then flip and make on the other side.
Put enough meat with onion on each flatbread and serve. Dobrou chuť!
