Sourdough flatbread with carrots

Use your sourdough discard to make this simple sourdough flatbread recipe with carrots in a no-fuss way in the natural living style. As in this kind of Finnish rieska (flatbread) recipe, we commonly use root vegetables, and it is easily prepared in the oven.

We Nordics tend to use plenty of root vegetables in breads. Carrot bread is one of my favorites in any form and this one particularly for it is truly a no-fuss recipe. Sourdough discard flatbreads are so easy to make. You do not need to knead or have any kind of baking skills or worry about whether the bread will rise or not. With simple ingredients, you can easily whip up a nourishing fresh bread.

Why you’ll love this easy recipe

• This is hands down the most forgiving bread dough. You can whip it up and bake it right away or leave it to ferment in the fridge for up to three days.
• This is an easy way to use up your sourdough discard!
• The sourdough gives a lovely tangy flavor that you can emphasize if you let the dough ferment longer in the fridge. On the contrary: if you want less tangy flavor let the dough just cool in the fridge for an hour or two and then bake without long fermentation baking.
• This is a perfect recipe to get homemade sourdough bread with ease, and it is so versatile! You can switch the carrot to other root vegetables or even zucchini to tweak it to your liking!
• You can use sourdough discard, which means an unfed sourdough starter, or an active starter to do this easy sourdough flatbread.
• This is easy to mix with a wooden spoon, but you can use a dough hook too if you have the machine on hand.
• This recipe is a quick way to do the sourdough flatbreads: do them directly to the baking pan, no rolling pin needed – this is truly my favorite recipe!

Don’t have a sourdough starter yet? Learn how to make a sourdough starter with the help of Strech and Folds‘s blog post.

What is a flatbread?

A flatbread is a bread that doesn’t necessarily need any rising agent to lift the dough, for the style of the bread is – well – flat. In Finnish cuisine, it is called rieska. It is a completely flat bread. The bread can be made in the oven, like in this recipe (I love it, less time next to a hot stove!), and how it is usually made in the Nordic style.

Another way is to make it on a cast iron skillet or other frying pan with some butter or olive oil. Then the point is usually to make the bread rise with the heat of the hot skillet to make it hollow inside.

These flatbread recipes that use rising agents are for example pita bread, which is common in Middle Eastern cuisine, and Moroccan batbout bread. Both are flat and hollow breads that can be cut open to be filled. Other flatbread examples are Indian naan bread, Moroccan harcha made with semolina, and Italian focaccia with lots of olive oil.

Ingredients you need for sourdough flatbread with carrot

• Sourdough discard, you can also use an active sourdough starter.
• Carrots, grated. Can be substituted with other vegetables like parsnip, kohlrabi, or even zucchini!
• Rye bran, can be substituted with other bran like oat bran, spelt bran, or oat flakes. I prefer to add a bit of bran to my bread dough to increase the fibers for better digestion.
• Wheat flour. You can substitute with barley flour, spelt flour, all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, or with half of the amount with oat flour or oat flakes.
• Honey, I used acacia honey but any honey goes perfectly.
• Sea salt, can be substituted with any other salt.

Tools you may need

• Large bowl, that fits in your fridge. Preferably with a lid or plastic wrap to seal airtightly
• Measuring cups
• Scale
• Peeler and grater for carrots
• Big spoon, for mixing the dough and measuring the dough in the oven pan
• Two baking pans and parchment paper

How to make the sourdough flatbread

Day 1

Step one: Measuring and mixing the ingredients

Peel and grate the carrots into a large mixing bowl. You can use a food processor with a grater head if you prefer. Pour the sourdough discard on the top and combine. Measure wheat flour, rye bran, salt, and honey. Mix until just combined. 

Step two: fermenting the dough

Cover the mixing bowl with the flatbread dough well and place it in the fridge. Let the dough rest and ferment overnight for at least 12 hours put it up to 3 days if you prefer a more tangy and sour flavor. Remember to cover it with linen or airtightly with plastic wrap so that the surface will not dry, especially if you plan to leave the dough for several days in the fridge. If you do not want to ferment the dough you can just cool the dough in the fridge an hour or two and continue to the next step.

Day 2

Step three: Forming the bread

The next morning or the next day preheat the oven to 275°C (527°F). Take the dough out of the fridge and give it a little stir. Take a spoonful of dough and set about fourteen small piles of dough, or dough balls on two baking pans with parchment paper. Try to make equal pieces of dough so that they will all bake same time. Sprinkle a little bit of flour on the top, dip your fingers in the flour too, and flatten the bread about half a centimeter thin (0.20 inch). If you make them too thick the surface of the dough will be cooked but the inside will remain raw.

Step four: baking the bread

When the bread dough is still cold enter the first baking pan in the oven. Let the bread bake for 5 minutes. Take the breads off and check that they have baked on both sides and enter the other baking pan in. Keep the sourdough flatbreads covered with a tea towel until serving. The best is to eat right away when they are still hot!

How to serve sourdough flatbread with carrots 

Enjoy with your favorite toppings! I think the best ways to enjoy a carrot flatbread are with some soft kefir cheese or with some chive cream cheese spread with cucumber slices and baby spinach! Sometimes I just put some butter to melt on the top when the flatbread is still hot from the oven, delish!

| RELATED: How to make Soft Kefir Cheese and Whey from Milk Kefir

Storage

Store airtightly couple of days and heat well before serving – I guarantee that it tastes so much better when heated up!

If you do not plan to eat that much following days, pack the sourdough flatbreads airtightly and stick them in the freezer. Stores for 6-9 months.

How to tweak this recipe

• Change the vegetable: try parsnip, potato, zucchini, sweet potato, or pumpkin.
• Swap the flours and use half of the oat flour or substitute entirely with barley flour
• Try to add oat bran or seeds instead of rye bran. (Notice that with seeds the bread stores only 3-6 months in the freezer!)

Do you prefer flatbreads or loaves of bread?

How is the way at your home? What is your go-to bread recipe and style of bread? Do you enjoy easy flatbreads or the work of kneaded

Bake some more