CHEESY PESTO STUFFED FLATBREADS

These cheesy pesto stuffed flatbread are crazy easy for such a delicious snack. Coming together in well under an hour, you’ll be hard pressed to find a bread based recipe that’s this quick.

The filling is a flavour bomb mixture of cream cheese for body, mozzarella for melty cheese pull, pesto for garlicky herb to cut through it all along with chopped sun dried tomatoes for vibrant juicyness. Simply toasted on the pan until golden brown and cooked through, once cut open and bit into, the filling oozes out.

A few of tips to help:

  • Don’t overfill. Think “gentle hug,” not wrestling match. Too much filling makes sealing hard and leads to splits or undercooked centres.

  • Seal seams well and seam side down in the pan. Pinch edges firmly and press seams together. When frying or griddling, start seam side down so it stays closed while it first cooks.

  • Cook over low medium heat. High heat will char the outside before the middle warms and flip once or twice for even colour.

  • If your filling has a lot of cheese, pop a lid on the pan for a minute to trap heat and help the cheese melt without overcooking the exterior.

  • Cool briefly before slicing. Let the stuffed flatbreads rest a minute or two on a rack so steam redistributes.

  • Experiment with textures and herbs. Mix soft (cheese, mashed veg) and salty (capers, chopped olives) fillings for interest.

CHEESY PESTO STUFFED FLATBREADS

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CHEESY PESTO STUFFED FLATBREADS 〰️


Time: 40 minutes

Serves: makes 6 stuffed flatbreads

200gm self raising flour, plus extra for kneading

200gm greek yoghurt

100gm pesto

100gm sun-dried tomatoes, roughly chopped

125gm cream cheese

150gm mozzarella, grated

Garnish: extra virgin olive oil & rough chopped parsley leaves

In a large bowl add in the self raising flour and greek yoghurt and mix together with a rubber spoon. Once it becomes shaggy, knead the dough by hand in the bowl until it comes together. Dust a clean bench surface with flour and knead the dough for 5 minutes or until it’s a smoothish ball and is homogenous. Cut the ball into six even balls, place on plate with clean tea towel on top and pop to the side.

For the filling, mix together pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, cream cheese and mozzarella until all well combined. 

Re grab the dough balls and dust a clean surface with flour roll out the dough ball, flouring as you go, until the dough is thin. Add a sixth of the filling to the centre of the dough and then close the dough ball folding the dough in and pinching in the middle. Flip the stuffed flatbread over and gently push down and move around in small circles to help mould the flatbread disc. Repeat the process for three flatbread and then place a large pan on low heat. Place three stuffed flatbreads on dry pan pinched side touching the pan and then cook for 6-7 minutes, flip over and cook for 4-5 minutes and then flip again, place lid on top and cook for 2-3 more minutes to get some internal cooking of the stuffed flatbread.

Whilst the first batch of flatbread is cooking, batch up the remaining three before cooking those as well, once the first three are cooked. Once all cooked, place under clean tea towel to keep warm and then drizzle on some EVOO and fresh parsley before enjoying.