In this video, join Chef John as he brings ancient flavors to the modern kitchen with this Viking flatbread recipe. Inspired by traditional Nordic cuisine, this hearty and rustic flatbread is easy to make with simple ingredients like whole grains, herbs, and yogurt. Perfect for pairing with stews, cheeses, or as a snack on its own, this recipe delivers both taste and a touch of history.
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00:00Hello, this is Chef John from Foodwishes.com with Viking Flatbread.
00:08That's right, as promised, during our recent Viking Stew video,
00:12I'm going to show you my new favorite way to make flatbread,
00:15which, believe it or not, is based on a recipe that's over a thousand years old.
00:20And to get started, we will add some wheat flour to a bowl.
00:23And this would be more authentic if you used whole grain.
00:26But to honor a thousand years of evolution, I'm going to use all-purpose for a little bit of a nicer texture.
00:32And then to that, we will add a couple very ancient grains.
00:35Some spelt flour, which is a relative of wheat.
00:39And then last but not least, some rye flour,
00:41which probably would have been the most common flour used during the Viking times.
00:45And then what we'll do is add a nice big pinch of salt
00:48before we give our dry ingredients a quick mix with a spoon.
00:52And once that's been accomplished, we can pour in our liquid,
00:54which is usually water, but this time we're using buttermilk.
00:59Oh yeah, according to historians,
01:01the Vikings use something very close to modern buttermilk to make their breads.
01:06And what we'll do is start stirring slowly with our spoon,
01:09so as not to splash the milk out before this starts to come together.
01:13And we will keep stirring until we form what we call in the business a shaggy dough.
01:18And you could go a little farther if you want,
01:20but once I get to this point, I like to clean off my primitive wooden spoon
01:24and switch to my even more primitive fingertips.
01:27And we will basically pinch, squeeze, and press this dough
01:30until it all comes together
01:32and all the flour has been incorporated
01:34and the sides of our primitive wooden bowl are clean.
01:38And once we do eventually get to this point,
01:40we will transfer it onto a work surface.
01:43And then using just enough flour to avoid sticking,
01:46we will knead this very briefly,
01:48or just like a minute or two is plenty,
01:50or until we've formed a sort of smooth,
01:53somewhat elastic,
01:55relatively sticky dough.
01:57And in general, when we're making bread,
01:59we want to be careful not to work in too much flour,
02:02since that can result in a drier, tougher final product.
02:05Plus, by keeping our dough a little bit sticky at this point,
02:08we'll be able to use more flour when we roll it out,
02:11which is where I find the extra flour more useful.
02:14And that's it.
02:15Once we have a ball of dough formed,
02:17we will wrap it in plastic
02:18or cover it with some kind of animal skin,
02:21and we will let it rest on the counter for 15 minutes,
02:24and then attempt to portion this into six equal pieces,
02:27which I almost always do with a scale,
02:30even though I usually don't film it.
02:32But what you do is weigh the whole thing in grams,
02:34and then divide by six,
02:36and then simply make each portion that weight.
02:40And since that one was way over,
02:41I had to cut some off,
02:42and then cut some more off.
02:45And we'll simply keep deleting or adding
02:47until we're at the exact weight we want.
02:50And every once in a while, you'll get lucky,
02:53and you'll have the exact weight,
02:54which will be way more exciting than it should be.
02:58But anyway, the point is,
02:59we'll divide our dough into six equal pieces,
03:02at which point we'll roll each one into a ball.
03:04And so they don't dry out.
03:06Make sure you cover the ones you're not working with.
03:09And then to form each flatbread,
03:10we'll take one ball of dough and flatten it out.
03:13And then sprinkling on as much flour as we need,
03:16we will roll these out to at least an eighth of an inch thick,
03:20or possibly even slightly thinner.
03:22And ideally, we end up with some kind of roundish shape.
03:25Although that is optional,
03:28and these will cook up and taste exactly the same,
03:30no matter what shape you end up with.
03:33And since we did keep our dough fairly sticky and moist,
03:35we are able to use a generous amount of flour here to prevent sticking.
03:40See, if we'd worked too much in earlier,
03:42we might be adding too much at this point.
03:44And with almost all breads,
03:46the less flour you use, the better.
03:48And that's it.
03:49Once we have our dough rolled out,
03:51we will head to the stove,
03:53where we preheated a dry cast iron pan over medium-high heat.
03:57And we'll place our flatbread in,
03:59and we'll cook that first side for about a minute.
04:01And after about 30 seconds or so,
04:04you're going to see little bubbles form.
04:06All right, it's not super easy to see at this point.
04:09So let me poke it with my finger.
04:10And once we see that,
04:13after about a minute,
04:14we'll go ahead and flip this over.
04:16And we'll give the other side about a minute as well.
04:19And just like when we made pita bread,
04:21or Lebanese mountain bread,
04:23if you press down with your spatula,
04:25you will see the layers separate,
04:27as steam fills the pocket between the two layers of dough.
04:30And if everything goes according to plan,
04:32parts of it will puff up,
04:34sometimes all of it,
04:35which I'm going to show you in a minute.
04:37But anyway, once we've cooked our flatbread
04:39in a hot dry pan for about a minute
04:41to a minute and a half per side.
04:43And we've achieved some of those signature char marks
04:45here and there.
04:46We'll remove that to a plate.
04:49Oh, and you don't have to,
04:50but I do like to cover this with a dry towel
04:52as I'm working through the other ones.
04:54All right, that's going to hold the moisture in
04:56and help us achieve a more supple texture.
04:58And that's it.
04:59We'll go ahead and cook the other five.
05:01Oh, and once the pan is nice and hot,
05:03you might be able to back the heat down
05:05a little bit towards medium.
05:06But as usual, those kind of adjustments will be up to you.
05:10And by the way, if you can grab one of the other warriors
05:12or a shield maiden to help you with this,
05:15it goes a lot faster.
05:17Since while one person is rolling,
05:19the other person can be cooking, flipping, and stacking.
05:22And if you are able to do this with a couple of friends,
05:25you really can make a lot of flatbread
05:27in a relatively short amount of time.
05:29So something to keep in mind
05:30if you're planning a big feast.
05:32And generally speaking,
05:34the first ones you do are going to be the worst ones you do.
05:37And as that pan gets a little hotter
05:39and that dough rests a little longer,
05:41sometimes you will achieve full puff
05:43where the two layers filled with steam completely
05:46and you end up with a gorgeous puffy flatbread like this.
05:51Oh yeah, once again,
05:52that is way more exciting than it should be.
05:55And that's it.
05:56Once we have all those cooked and stacked,
05:58I like to leave them under the towel
05:59for about 10 minutes or so
06:00just to let them rest
06:02and continue to steam each other.
06:04And once the cooking and resting is done,
06:06we can move on to the eating.
06:09And for this one,
06:10I'm going to enjoy it like I think
06:11the Vikings would have most commonly enjoyed it,
06:14which would have been spread with butter
06:15and then drizzled with honey.
06:18And that, my friends, I promise,
06:20is going to be way more delicious
06:21than you ever expected.
06:22All right, sure, the butter and honey help,
06:25but that buttermilk we used
06:27is giving this kind of a sourdough vibe
06:29and that little bit of tanginess
06:30is absolutely perfect with those earthy grains.
06:34And I'm not sure why I folded
06:35when I probably should have rolled it.
06:38So let me do that now.
06:40And yes, it does taste better rolled.
06:42I don't know why.
06:44Although now it's trying to unroll itself.
06:47Look at that.
06:48That is so Viking.
06:50But anyway, if you just enjoy this
06:51with butter and honey,
06:52you will be very happy.
06:54But of course,
06:55I had to try something a little more complex.
06:58So I decided to apply some fermented cream,
07:01which the Vikings were very fond of.
07:04Oh, and I know that looks like a random pattern,
07:06but it's not.
07:07That is the Viking runic symbol for brunch.
07:11And then after that,
07:11I applied some cured salmon,
07:13which is something I'm sure
07:14they would have paired with their fermented cream.
07:17And then to add a little bit of tartness
07:19and a touch of sweetness,
07:20I applied some half blueberries,
07:22which are supposed to simulate the bilberries
07:25that they would have used,
07:26which were smaller
07:27and apparently sort of like blueberries.
07:29And then I also did a little bit of torn raspberry,
07:33which after placing over,
07:34sort of kind of looked like caviar.
07:37And that's it.
07:38I finished up with some fresh dill.
07:40And then because this was so beautiful to look at,
07:43I decided not to fold it or roll it.
07:45And I just bit right in.
07:47And that really was delicious,
07:49but also very strange.
07:52All right, all the flavors and textures
07:53definitely worked together,
07:55but it was an unusual flavor profile
07:57and kind of unexpected.
07:59So it did take a few bites
08:01to appreciate what was going on.
08:04And there's really no way to know exactly
08:05if they would have served it like this.
08:07But then again, why wouldn't they?
08:10But if you don't want to take any chances
08:11and you want to enjoy this bread exactly
08:14like they would have a thousand years ago,
08:16just boil up a big pot of meat, vegetables,
08:18berries, and herbs
08:19and enjoy it just like I did
08:21in the recent Viking stew video.
08:24But anyway, I don't think you're going to have
08:25any trouble coming up with ways to enjoy this.
08:28I mean, you are after all Eric the Red
08:29of what to put on this delicious bread.
08:32But no matter how you enjoy it,
08:34this is a very easy and fun flatbread to make.
08:37And I really do hope you give this a try soon.
08:40So please follow the links below
08:42for the ingredient amounts,
08:44a printable written recipe,
08:45and much more info as usual.
08:47And as always, enjoy.
08:51Enjoy.