Medieval flat breads aka: "Griddle Cakes"

I'm getting ready for a demo at our local medieval faire, so I wanted to practice making some “griddle cakes” to pass out with the pottage I will be cooking. We make these breads on a griddle because in period most folks didn't have ovens at home, so they would have to either buy their bread or cook it on a griddle. 

This time I used 1 part home ground barley flour to 1 part whole wheat, though you can really use any flour you would like 1 to 1 with wheat flour to get a similar result. Often times griddle cakes are pretty dry, dense, and kind of crumbly so this time I used a high hydration dough to quench that standard and it worked out great!

Next time I want to try rye, but I was NOT about to pay $5 for one lb of the stuff at the grocery when I could get 1 lb of barley for $1.

Yield: 5, 9 inch flat breads

Ingredients:

¾ C whole wheat flour

¾ C barley flour

¼ C brown ale

½ C warm water

½ tsp salt

1 TBS butter

1 tsp yeast

1 tsp honey

Method:

1. Mix your warm water with honey and yeast, let it ride for a minute

2. Mix your dry ingredients up and work in the butter.

3. Pour your water mixture and your beer into the dry ingredients and knead for 5 minutes. It should be smooth and very soft.

4. Put your dough into a bowl and cover it with a damp towel, let it rest for 1 hour.

5. Pre-heat a griddle to med-high
6. Curt your dough into 5 pieces, roll them into balls then into flat rounds (see video below)
7. Cook it on each side until there are pretty little brown spots, but don't over cook it so it will stay nice and flexible. (Check the video out)

8. Eat them with some butter if you know what's good for you.   

Here's how I roll them out:

And the cooking process:

#bread #barley #wheat #griddle #medieval