Cheese Stuffed Flatbread / Cheese Pita bread
Cheese stuffed flatbread or cheese pita bread is one of the most delicious flatbreads that we can make at home in a simple way.
Ingredients
For the bread dough
- 325 g Flour 2 1/2 cups (loosely packed)
- 200 ml Water (Lukewarm,ideally around 95 F) or 3/4 cup + 1 1/2 tbsp
- 35 g Butter (Soft unsalted) or 2 1/2 tbsp
- 25 g Sugar or 2 tbsp
- 6 g Salt or 1 tsp
- 3 g Yeast 1 tsp (if using Active dry yeast ,use 1 1/4 tsp)
For the filling
- 250 g Mozarella Cheese (Shredded) or 1.1 cup
Instructions
Prepare the dough
- In to a bowl, pour in some lukewarm water.Water which is not hot nor cold (ideally around 95 F).Then add sugar,salt and yeast .Stir and dissolve the ingredients.
- Add softened unsalted butter into this.Now add the flour .Mix and combine them all together to form a shaggy mass of dough.
- Now transfer the dough on to a clean work surface and knead the dough until you get a smooth and soft dough.A good bread dough will be very sticky to handle in the beginning but in about five minutes of kneading,it won’t stick to your hands.We may get tempted to add more flour in the beginning but don’t do that 🙂
Proof the dough
- Place the dough into a bowl that is been lightly smeared with oil. Cover with a clean dishcloth or plastic wrap and let the dough rise until it’s almost doubled in bulk, 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Divide and shape the dough
- Gently deflate the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured work surface.
- Divide the dough into equal pieces.I divided it into 8 equal pieces.
- Take each portion and tuck in the edges towards the center and roll it into a smooth round ball.
- Cover them with a damp kitchen towel to prevent it from drying.
- Take the first round ball that we shaped.Roll it out into a small circle of approximately 5 inch diameter.
- Fill the center with shredded mozarella cheese (about 2 tbsp).
- Cover it with the dough and then pinch the ends to seal.
- Using a floured rolling pin, roll it again into a circle 6 inches wide and about a quarter inch thick. Lift and turn the dough frequently as you roll to make sure the dough isn’t sticking to your counter. Sprinkle with a little extra flour if its starting to stick.If the dough starts to spring back, set it aside to rest for a few minutes, then continue rolling.
- Repeat with the other pieces of dough.Cover the dough pieces and shaped pita breads with a damp kitchen towel to prevent any chance of drying.
Final Rising
- Let the final shaped dough(dough disks) rest for 15-20 minutes or until they rise and puff slightly and gain their shape.This final rising of this cheese stuffed flatbread will help to make the cheesy bread more light and airy.We need to keep the shaped cheese stuffed flatbreads in a large baking tray and keep them separated so that they will not stick to each other.
Bake the cheese filled bread
- How to bake cheese stuffed flatbread in the oven?Before shaping the pitas, heat the oven to 450°. If you have a baking stone, put it in the lower rack of oven to heat. If you don’t have a baking stone, place an oven safe large baking sheet on the lower rack to heat (five minutes prior to baking).3-4 pita breads can be fitted ,if you use half-sheet pans. Since we are going to bake one baking sheet at a time, we will need to roll and place the other pita discs on a baking paper/sheet .Once the oven reaches 450 Fahrenheit,gently lift a pita disc, with your fingers or a large spatula, and flip it onto the hot baking stone (if your stone is large enough you can bake more than one at a time). Flip the dough so that the side that was resting on the counter is now facing up. You want the the side that has been exposed to air (the dry side) to be down on the baking stone and the side that is more doughy and moist to be facing up – this helps the pita puff up. If you bake one or two and they aren’t puffing, spritz the top of the pita round with a light mist of water before baking. Baking Temperature and DurationBake at 450 F for 3-4 minutes. The bread should all puff up in the initial 3-4 minutes of baking. If not, bake for another minute. If at 5 minutes the bread still doesn’t puff up, your oven is probably not hot enough and you may want to increase the temperature to 500 Fahrenheit for the next batch.When the pitas are all puffed up, transfer the baking sheet to the middle rack or a higher rack (a little more closer to the heating coils) and bake for another 1-2 minutes, or until the bread turns golden brown.If we don’t take the pitas to the upper rack,then the pita’s won’t get browned and the longer they stay in the bottom rack,the pitas get harder.Remove the baked cheese stuffed bread and wrap with a kitchen towel to keep them soft. Repeat the baking steps with the rest of the dough discs.
- How to bake cheese stuffed flatbread on the stove top?Warm a cast iron skillet over low-medium heat until a few bead of water sizzle immediately on contact. Drizzle a little oil in the pan and wipe off the excess.Lay a rolled-out pita on the skillet and bake for 1 minute, until you see bubbles starting to form. Flip and cook for 1-2 minutes on the other side, until large toasted spots appear on the underside. Flip again and cook another 1-2 minutes to toast the other side. The pita should start to puff up during this time; if it doesn’t or if only small pockets form, try pressing the surface of the pita gently . Keep cooked pitas covered with a clean dishtowel while cooking any remaining pitas.
- Enjoy this Cheese Stuffed Flatbread while they are fresh and warm :)
