Bad bread day!

stevie_wonder

I was expecting to have home made pizza for dinner the other night, my wife had made the dough (or so she told me!). She went to check it and realised that she had forgotten to put the water in, so it was just a bucket of yeast and flour! She's normally great, but something must have made her forget - oh well, happens to us all!¬

beemuzed

At least you know already what you've forgotten (and no I can't see a rescue here!) - I remember offering home made bread rolls very proudly on one occasion, didn't have one myself until much later.....when I realised I'd forgotten the salt. Foul tasting or what! No wonder people just had a small nibble. I lived with the embarrassment fo a very long time!

debtworrier

If you've forgotten to put the yeast in, and the dough isn't yet cooked, you could probably make chapattis with it.

Chapatti dough is quite moist, because it uses the steam for rising instead of yeast.

Method:
Put a heavy frying pan on a high gas to heat. Do not add any oil.

Pull off a bit of the dough about the size of a tangerine. Cover the rest of the dough with a damp cloth to stop it drying out.

Flour the worksurface and roll the bit of dough out until it's about an eighth of an inch thick and about six inches across.

Brush off any excess flour and plonk the dough circle in your hot frying pan.

After a couple of minutes, turn it over and have a look. That side should look cooked, with some small darker patches. You should see that it's thickened slightly and is now about a quarter of an inch thick. Let it cook, on its uncooked side, for another minute.

Light another gas ring and turn the gas up full.

Take your flat bread out of the frying pan and put it directly on the naked flame. It should almost instantly puff up like a pillow. Turn it over to 'toast' the other side briefly. Say a bad word as you burn your fingers.

Put the chapatti in a dish and cover with a napkin while you cook the next one.

I find that as I've got a bit more practised, I can roll out the next little ball as the first one's cooking in the frying pan.

Once cool, chapattis will store quite happily in an airtight box in the fridge for about four days. I believe you can re-heat them, but I never bother. I like the firmer texture.