Alison Roman Sour Cream Flatbread

As promised in this post, today I present to you the Alison Roman Sour Cream Flatbread recipe, from her Dining In cookbook. We’ll also talk just a little bit about flatbread making in general – from different types of flatbreads to different ways to use flatbread in your home cooking. While my busy, dressed up photos here may suggest otherwise, the core of this sour cream flatbread recipe is the flatbread itself – it’s the anchor of this ship. I’ve made it several times now and have yet to top it the same way twice. But seeing as how it is, in fact, bread – it is, can, and SHOULD be the foundation of many other great things.

Alison Roman Sour Cream Flatbread

I like to employ the Alison Roman Sour Cream Flatbread recipe as the canvas for my fridge foraging finds. I simply rummage around in my refrigerator and pluck the things that strike my fancy (it does not have to be fancy, though) and pile them high atop the ever so puffy, delightfully pillowy sour cream flatbread.

This particular combination however, the one in these here photos, is my favorite to date (because it is ALL the things … hitting every flavor and texture note and knocking my most awnry cravings straight back on their asses): Sour Cream Flatbreads + Creamy Harissa Yogurt + Sopressata + Figs + Roasted Delicata Squash + Onion + Crunchy Chili Oil +Burrata.

Okay, so that seems like a lot of things. But the Alison Roman Sour Cream Flatbread recipe from Dining In is a high-level concept sort of thing. The bread itself comes with an exact recipe (below) but what you do with it is anything but. You can spin it however you see fit. You can use just about any cheese you like, as well as any veggies (raw or pre-cooked), dried fruits, and salty meat. Have some roasted chicken in your fridge? Use that. Or you could use sausage, prosciutto, pork tenderloin, bacon, etc … It’s all good here. Everyone is welcome to this easygoing flatbread party we’re throwing.

I did shmear some fiery, creamy Harissa yogurt on top of the flatbreads, to act as a sort of glue for the toppings. It’s a great two-ingredient condiment to keep around. Using pure Harissa might very well start a fire in your mouth that would prevent you from actually enjoying the flatbread itself. So, I temper its heat with some cool, creamy Greek yogurt (or Skyr, or just plain regular yogurt, or sour cream, creme fraiche, or even mayo). Once I pile my flatbreads with my desired toppings, I put them onto baking sheets and then into a 400-degree preheated oven for about 10 to 15 minutes. I just want to warm everything through and get a little crisp on the meat (in this case sopressata) and caramelization on the fruity element. In this case, figs.

Or. YOU CAN EAT THEM PLAIN.

What is flatbread?

Oh, I thought you’d never ask! Seeing as how flatbread is my favorite bread of all the breads, I’m pretty happy to wax on a bit about the need-to-know details of this lovably delicious, fantastically easy genre of bread making.

Okay, so for all intents and purposes, flatbread is any bread that is unleavened and (traditionally speaking) made without the use of yeast. We talked about this a little bit in our post about how to make restaurant style naan at home, in fact. Flour, water, and salt are the primary ingredients of a traditional flatbread. The cooking method of flatbreads is often distinctly different than that of leavened breads, and we’ll often see them rolled out flat and placed inside or even right on the sides of extremely hot brick ovens. For those of you who are just sitting there wondering, flatbread originated in Ancient Egypt (my daughter actually taught me this), but many cultures around the world have a type that they claim as their very own.

Different Types of Flatbread

Bread making can be a few things: it can be a tricky, time-consuming endeavor, thick with techniques to master and navigate, skills to wield, and frankly, multi-stage processes that may or may not wind up successful in the end. Sounds great, right?! Not to go underselling it, as I actually do really enjoy bread making when I have the time and patience, but I find that simple, more straight-forward, foolproof bread making projects, like homemade flatbreads, are way more my speed the vast majority of the time. Flatbread is the official bread of My Kitchen Little, as you may have surmised at this point, and my enthusiasm for the stuff is bottomless – I just love it.

When it comes to making flatbread at home, there are a few key types that I find almost always work beautifully and require little more than the simple dump-and-stir method that we’ll employ today with Alison Roman’s sour cream flatbread recipe. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Naan, as you’ll find in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India (traditionally leavened with yogurt, not yeast)
• Tortillas, like the ones you see in Central and South American cuisines
• Pita, as seen in Greece and around the Mediterranean
• Italian piadina (which I first sampled near Lake Maggiore in Italy and it was transcendent)

Ways to Use Flatbread

Let us count them, shall we? They’re infinite, I’d say, the ways to use flatbread. But if you’re seeking a little boost in the inspiration department, here are a few of our favorite ways to flex the muscles of a great homemade flatbread:

1. Pile on the toppings! We intentionally photographed the Alison Roman Sour Cream Flatbreads this way – with a veritable boatload of wonderfully sweet and savory toppings – just to demonstrate our favorite way to rock a flatbread: as an open-faced sandwich. Yes, we like to go all fork and knife style over here with our open-faced flatbread sandwiches, and the sky’s the limit when it comes to the fixins.
2. As the base for a pizza. I grew up eating the pita pizza at one of the local Main Street restaurants in my little home town, and it’s still on the menu today. So I have a special affinity for pizzas made atop a pita, both for nostalgic reasons and also because it’s maybe the fastest and best way to quickly assemble a wonderful homemade pizza in record time. In fact, you could swap out the store-bought pizza crust in our Crispy Potato and Burrata Pizza with Honeyed Tapenade and use pitas instead, creating individual versions of one of our most popular recipes. (Note to self … do this immediately.)
3. Sliced up as dippers. Dippers is a pretty un-cool word, no? Hmmm. Anyway, swapping out the usual cracker or chip for a wedge of fresh, warm and fluffy flatbread is a wonderful way to level up your, um, dippers dipping. We’re sharing a great whipped feta recipe soon, where we plan to do just that.
4. In place of bread for grilled cheese. Enough said.
5. In place of tortillas for tacos. Also, enough said.

Can you Substitute Yogurt for Sour Cream in Flatbread?

This is a question I’ve been asked so frequently that it warrants a quick note here, I think. Another aspect of flatbread making that bumps up its lovability factor is that you can make some pretty simple substitutions that won’t negatively effect the outcome of your flatbread itself.

In the case of this sour cream flatbread recipe, we’re not using the sour cream and/or yogurt component as a leavening agent (we’re actually using a little bit of yeast), and rather, we’re using them for the flavor and textural reasons, so a swap is just fine. If you’d prefer to use a plain (not Greek) yogurt here, if it’s what you happen to have on hand, you may substitute that for the sour cream and proceed with the recipe, no harm/no foul.

Can you purchase flatbread or pizza dough at the store? Yep. You sure can. But it’s not going to come with nearly as much flavor or satisfaction as this dough, and definitely not as much fluff and puff. Admittedly, that’s my favorite aspect of a flatbread – the poofyness or pillow-like quality that I just cannot seem to get enough of. I can live on these things, truly. And if nothing else, the pride that comes with making them yourself is really tough to beat. This simple, dump-and-stir type of recipe will leave you feeling better – more truly satisfied – than any bagged, store-bought dough could ever hope to do. Take it from Alison:

“Making your own flatbread doesn’t need to be an insane experience. This is not the Tartine Bread cookbook (although if you don’t own it, you should because it’s incredible), and while, yes, making it is a bit of a time commitment, with all the dough rising and whatnot, you should think of this as a casual thing, not a total project. There’s no kneading involved (just mixing), and the only tools you need are a bowl, a spoon, and your hands. 

This means that if you want to make the little skillet flatbreads for the turmeric-roasted lamb shoulder, you can. Or if you just want to bake up some larger pieces for topping with salty ricotta and oil-roasted mushrooms as a pre-dinner snack, you can do that, too. Or, you can decide to throw a grilled pizza party and use this dough as the crust. With a solid flatbread dough in your back pocket, you really can have it all.”

Alison Roman

Anyway. I could go on … but this book is great and I’ve loved every nook and cranny of it. Mostly, I think, what I love is the casual and somehow endearingly cavalier and almost (but not quite) too-cool-for-school way she talks about food. Highly recommend, guys. Enjoy this.

If you like the looks of the Alison Roman Sour Cream Flatbreads recipe, you might also want to check out:

The best homemade naan

Broken Yolk Chutney and Cheddar Baked Naan Sandwiches

Roasted Grape and Italian Sausage Flatbreads Agrodolce

Honey Cream Dinner Rolls

Alison Roman Sour Cream Flatbreads

Print Recipe

Pin Recipe

The sour cream flatbread recipe featured in Alison Roman’s first cookbook, Dining In. 

• Author: Lauren McDuffie via Alison Roman

Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

• 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast from one 1/4-ounce envelope
• Pinch of sugar
• 4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 2 tablespoon unsalted butter melted
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• Olive or vegetable oil for cooking, grilling, or baking

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in 1 ½ cups warm (warm – not hot!) water with the sugar. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the flour until no large dry spots remain. Cover the bowl with the plastic wrap and let it sit about 10 minutes. It won’t look much different here, you’re just letting the flour hydrate.
2. Add the sour cream, butter, and salt to the dough, and mix until all the sour cream is well blended – use your hands if you have to. You’re not kneading but just making sure everything is well mixed.
3. Cover the bowl again with plastic wrap and let it sit for 2 hours; this will relax the gluten and further hydrate the flour, making the dough easier to work with. Punch down the dough and cover. Let it rise another 2 hours in a warm, draft-free place (alternatively, instead of letting it rise at room temperature, you can refrigerate it and let it rise very slowly over 24 hours).
4. When it comes time to roll the dough, place it on a lightly floured work surface and divide it into 4 to 6 equal-size pieces, depending on how large you want your flatbreads. If it’s been refrigerated proceed as usual; the only difference is that it’ll be a bit stiffer, which actually makes it easier to work with. Oh, and when I say “lightly floured,” I mean it! You just want to prevent sticking, not add more flour to the dough which can dry it out.
5. Working with one piece at a time, roll out the dough. Using your hands, pick up the dough and lightly stretch it over the backs of your hands, like in the movies where people spin pizza. JK – you don’t have to do that, but you do want to make sure that this dough is as thin as possible, without creating too many holes, and actually picking up the dough and stretching it is the best way to do that.

    

   COOK ON THE STOVETOP

   1. Cooking the dough in a cast-iron skillet will give you a soft, fluffy naan texture without the extreme puffiness of pita. Once the dough hits the hot oil, it immediately starts to bubble, getting those blackened, Dalmatian-y spots. Be sure to monitor the heat levels and adjust accordingly. The more flatbreads you cook, the hotter the skillet will be, so you might need to turn down the heat as you go.
   2. Heat a large preferably cast-iron, skillet over medium-high heat. Drizzle a bit of oil (olive or vegetable) into the skillet and lay a piece of dough flat into it. Let it cook until it starts to puff and bubble up in spots. Check periodically to see that it’s browning and lightly charring on the underside like it’s supposed to, 3 to 4 minutes; if not, turn the heat up slightly. After a few minutes, flip the dough and let it cook on the other side (no need to add more oil) until baked through, another 2 to 3 minutes.
   3. Repeat with remaining dough, adding oil as needed.

Notes

NOTE: for grilling and oven methods, grab a copy of Alison’s book, Dining In.