These easy, no yeast, pan-grilled flatbreads are perfect for when you decide you want to eat fresh bread with your dinner but are just a little too late with that decision to wait for a yeasted dough to do what it needs to do. Or perhaps you’re stuck in a house with no decent oven, or perhaps you’re out of yeast or you merely find it impossible to find that elusive “warm spot” in your house that will let it do its magic. Whatever your reason, this dough comes together in no time and can be used straight away. 

Granted, store-bought is quicker, but right now, most of us will have the time to grill some bread for half an hour and as soon as you bite into one of these flatbreads, dripping with just-melted garlic butter, you will think maybe things aren’t so bad after all.

Ingredients for 8 flatbreads

for the bread:

400 g self-raising flour

small pinch of baking soda

4g salt

1/2 tbsp nigella seeds

300 g full-fat yoghurt (or 250g mixed with 50 g water if you’re using very thick Greek or set yoghurt)

1,5 – 2 tbsp sunflower (or other neutral) oil + more for rolling and brushing

for the garlic butter:

room temperature salted or unsalted butter (about 25g)

1 clove of garlic, pressed

black pepper

pinch of salt (if you’re using unsalted butter)

chopped fresh coriander or parsley

drizzle of olive oil

How to:

• Mix the self-raising flour, baking soda, salt and nigella seeds in a bowl
• Add the yoghurt and mix it in with a wooden spoon before continuing to knead a little bit with your hands to form a supple, sticky dough.
• Now, resist the temptation to add more flour, because it will be very sticky at this point. Instead, add the sunflower oil and knead it through. This will make your bread softer, and your dough so much more manageable.
• Heat up a griddle pan until hot, but not smoking. Even so, you might want to open a window.
• Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. My griddle pan can fit in two flatbreads at the same time, so roll out two pieces at a time.
• Again, don’t sprinkle your board or work surface with flour, but instead brush it with some more sunflower oil. This will make it really easy to roll them out thinly without the dough sticking to either the board or your rolling pin and means your bread-to-be is prepped for the pan.
• Grill for 4 minutes on each side on medium-high heat. They should be perfectly done on the inside and have some nice grill marks. Adjust the heat if it’s going too slowly or too fast (when they burn before cooking inside).
• Keep them warm under a clean tea towel as you repeat this for the other 6.
• Make the garlic butter by mashing all the ingredients together with a fork.
• Spread it on your flatbreads when they’re still warm and enjoy straight away!
• If you have leftovers, you can easily reheat them in a toaster.