Our favorite seafood restaurant’s cheese and garlic biscuits are exactly like these mouthwatering ones. They’re quick to make and guaranteed to be a hit.
| Prep Time: | 40 mins |
| Cook Time: | 15 mins |
| Additional Time: | 1 hr |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 55 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 2 flatbread |
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup cold water
- 2 tablespoons cold water
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- ¾ teaspoon fine salt
- 1 quarter-sheet baking pan
- 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon cornmeal
- 12 tablespoons crescenza-stracchino cheese, divided
- 4 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
- ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt, divided
Instructions
- Place flour into work bowl of a large stand mixer; add both amounts of water, 1 tablespoon olive oil, and 3/4 teaspoon salt. Mix dough using stand mixer fitted with dough hook on low speed until it forms a ball on the dough hook, 5 to 6 minutes. Dough should be soft and elastic but not sticky.
- Turn dough out onto a work surface and form a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand on counter at room temperature for 1 hour.
- Lightly grease the quarter-sheet baking pan with 1 teaspoon olive oil; sprinkle with cornmeal. Dust a work surface lightly with flour.
- Move oven rack to center position. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F (260 degrees C).
- Unwrap dough and cut into quarters. Pat each quarter out on the floured work surface to a roughly rectangular shape. Roll 1 piece of dough out to about 3/8 inch thick, retaining rough rectangle shape, until dough is about 6×8 inches. Pick up dough with well-floured hands and gently stretch it, rotating as you go, until dough is almost large enough to fit over the prepared sheet pan. Pull and stretch dough so it overlaps the edge of the pan by about 1/2 inch and fasten dough edges to sheet pan edges; dough will be thin and membrane-like.
- Drop about 6 tablespoons of crescenza-stracchino cheese onto the stretched dough, spreading the dollops out evenly. Roll out another piece of dough as before, stretching to fit over the first dough sheet and cheese. Stretch, pull, and seal dough as before so the cheese is enclosed between the 2 sheets of dough.
- Roll a rolling pin over the edges of the dough to simultaneously seal the flatbread edges and cut the overlapping edges off. Roll the overlapping dough edges away from the pan so flatbread falls into the prepared pan. Press flatbread edges flat and roll slightly if desired to be sure the edges are fully sealed. Discard rolled-off dough edges.
- Pinch a small bit of the top dough between your thumb and forefinger and gently tear a small hole in the dough; repeat 2 or 3 more times to make a few tears in the top layer.
- Drizzle flatbread lightly with 2 teaspoons olive oil; sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt.
- Bake in the preheated oven until flatbread has many browned, blistered spots on top, bread has inflated, and the top is crusty, 6 to 7 minutes. Repeat steps to make a second flatbread using second half of dough as before. Drizzle 2nd flatbread with remaining 2 teaspoons olive oil and 1/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt. Bake second bread as before. Cut in breads into quarters and serve warm.
- Two cups of flour equals about 9 1/2 ounces by weight.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 186 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 24 g |
| Cholesterol | 8 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 5 g |
| Saturated Fat | 2 g |
| Sodium | 327 mg |
| Sugars | 0 g |
| Fat | 24 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Awesome. Made as directed, but had to use a different soft creamy cheese. This is a wonderful treat.
Made this three times now. Delicious. Still don’t have the hang of stretching the dough to the size of the pan, but good nevertheless. Is there any way to make the crust/bread I bit more crispy?
I made this today and it was fantastic! Thanks Chef John for a great recipe !!
Outstanding recipe. Made this weekend and the fam went crazy! Could not find the cheese-even in Italian cheese shops and was recommended to use tallegio. I also added bit of French feta to add some saltiness. I could not stretch the dough with my hands for the life of me so I just rolled it out thin. The first one I made per the directions and it was delicious. Served with honey and thin sliced prosciutto. The second one I assembled and stored in the fridge and cooked the next day. Though the dough looked a bit dried out, it cooked up beautifully. Added chopped rosemary ro the top with the olive oil. Next time I will try with white truffle oil.
Really good and simple. I used mascarpone and i served it with honeycomb. IT WAS SO GOOD. I need to learn how to stretch it super thin though
I had this at a restaurant in San Diego and loved it so much I had to find the recipie, which introduced me to the world of Chef John, for which I am very grateful. This recipe, just like all his other recipes are show stoppers! Thank you chef John!
I made this for the first time tonight and it was divine. No problems getting the dough stretched and the dressed arugula was a good counter to the cheesy dough. Served with a Spring fruit salad for a great meal.
Amazing!! Everyone loved it.
So good! It is quite difficult to stretch the dough thin enough without a corner or two tearing or slipping off the edge of the pan. Fortunately, patching works reasonably well. I wonder if a circular pan would be easier. Could not find the recommended cheeses anywhere, so I used half a container of Mascarpone cheese instead. I had no cornmeal so I used some almond flour on the pan instead since it seemed kind of gritty. I also had to cook a few minutes longer. Thanks Chef John!
Really easy and very good I used fresh Mozzarella and red sauce (sorry Chef John) 2nd half made a flat bread pizza with fresh tomatoes and basil. Darn good!
Fantastic!! Don’t let the technique deter you from making this (or if you don’t have the right cheese). It’s easier than it looks (the video is extremely helpful) and the dough is very forgiving and easy to work with. I used goat cheese since I live in a small town with limited options. I didn’t have a 1/4 sheet pan, so I used the small, rimmed cookie sheet (8″x9″) that came with my toaster oven (I halved the recipe and it still made two separate, small pans worth of bread ). It worked beautifully. It was a cheesy on the inside and crunchy on the outside. I added lemon juice to the greens and topped the greens with smoked salmon. It was excellent and my husband says it’s a keeper. I agree and will get a 1/4 sheet pan for the next time! Thanks, John, for another amazing recipe.
Fantastic!! Don’t let the technique deter you from making this (or if you don’t have the right cheese). It’s easier than it looks (the video is extremely helpful) and the dough is very forgiving and easy to work with. I used goat cheese since I live in a small town with limited options. I didn’t have a 1/4 sheet pan, so I used the small, rimmed cookie sheet (8″x9″) that came with my toaster oven (I halved the recipe and it still made two separate, small pans worth of bread ). It worked beautifully. It was a cheesy on the inside and crunchy on the outside. I added lemon juice to the greens and topped the greens with smoked salmon. It was excellent and my husband says it’s a keeper. I agree and will get a 1/4 sheet pan for the next time! Thanks, John, for another amazing recipe.
Delicious and not as complicated as it seems. This dough is very easy to work with and I had no trouble getting it stretched extremely thin. I made it with the recommended cheese and rolled out the extra dough trimmings for a small third focaccia filled with grated fontina and torn prosciutto. Served with eggplant caponata.
I little labor intensive, but well worth it. This is great to have in the freezer for a quick snack.
This is a lot of work for what you get out of it.
very yummy and super easy my first time making it and I had no problems it took longer than it said it would to cook but that depends on how hot your oven gets
Fun, simple, and delicious!
This was a terrific recipe! I’m not very good working with dough, yet I found this to be a very forgiving dough (stretches easily & easy to work with). I used the cheese I had on hand (ricotta & fresh mozz) but will try again with something tastier. I used a cookie sheet & needed to use all the dough to cover it. Hubby and I ate it with the arugula and thought it was delicious. My daughter ate it plain, loved it, and even rewarmed the leftovers for breakfast. I love Chef John – his recipes are straightforward & videos very amusing. More than once I’ve laughed out loud at his jokes 🙂 don’t listen to the haters.
Really liked the recipe and it is easy but wouldn’t use specified cheese. It is too liquidy. Instead I will use thinly sliced fontina or thinly sliced mozzarella (smoked) patted dry. Also used 1/2 tsp King Arthur Flour in dough.
Made this recipe today. Amazing! So good! I found the suggested cheese at Whole Foods (brand was BelGioioso), so if you have one in your area, check it out. I also Googled crescenza-stracchino cheese and found a couple of substitutions if you can’t find the suggested recipe cheese. The cheeses are Taleggio and Teleme. Flatbread came out looking just like the picture, blistered and crisp and was delicious with the added arugula. My only addition to the recipe was to add 1 teaspoon Italian herbs to the flour before mixing, which added nice flavor. I will definitely make this flatbread again.
I love Chef John and almost all of his recipes that I’ve tried so far. His voice is NOT annoying, and the half sheet pan I have works fine.