- John, what are we making today?
- Today, we're making a loaded flatbread
with all of these delicious things
from your garden, fresh pesto that I made,
and amazing burrata on top to be so decadent.
Let's get started!
Into the bowl of my standing mix here,
I'm adding three and a half all-purpose flour,
a teaspoon of kosher salt,
half a teaspoon of baking soda,
and we're gonna give it a whisk.
Just to incorporate everything together.
Normally, when I'm making a cake
or a cupcake or something sweet,
I'm telling people not to overmix.
You don't wanna activate the gluten , right?
- Right.
- But today, since we're making a flatbread,
we do wanna activate that gluten
so we're gonna be running this for a bit
to really start pulling that flour together,
activate those proteins,
and then we're gonna knead it,
for like, five minutes.
So you're gonna have more of a bready bread,
not a cakey bread 'cause this time,
you want a little bit of chewiness to it.
- It's more elastic.
- Yeah, it'll make it a more pleasurable to eat, right?
- Mm-hmm
- Nice toothiness to it.
Okay, we're gonna add in about 3/4 of a cup of water,
you wanna kinda eyeball it though,
and make sure that's happening
while the mixture is running on low.
- Mm-hmm
(blender whirring)
- We're going to just scrape the bowl down
to help things mix up a bit
and then continue with the mixture.
- Thanks, mom.
- You're welcome.
- Add in a couple more drops of water here.
(blender whirring)
So, when you're adding in water for a bread,
it really depends on a lot of things like
if you didn't use grams to measure the flour,
that can throw things off, right?
- Mm-hmm - Because of how you pack
the cup changes things, the humidity.
- Yeah.
- Your altitude, everything comes into play,
so you can't give a definite amount of water.
You have to kinda feel it with your hands
and just see how it's going.
So right now, it's coming together.
You can see we have some nice...
- It's adhering together.
- Yes, a nice adherence,
but what we wanna do is make sure that...
- It gets into a ball.
- It gets into a ball,
so we're gonna add a couple more drops of water
and just see how it goes.
(blender whirring)
- Yeah
- Success! (laughs)
- So we require a lot of water.
- Okay, so about a cup of water later.
Okay, my mom is the kneading expert so, have at it!
I'll be watching.
(mom laughs)
- [Mom] It feels really good on your hands
- That's a nice technique there.
So what are you doing when you're kneading the bread.
- You just pull it away from you
and then fold it over and just keep folding,
and rolling it and folding it and pulling it.
All up in the gluten.
Like Play-Doh.
- We'll be back in five minutes.
(both laugh)
- It's a really great massage on your hands.
- Hmm.
- So don't hold back.
- My back is next.
(both laugh)
- I'm kidding. (laughs)
- Every time you do some rolling
on the palms of your hands,
it feels really great.
Try it, even if you're not baking.
- So this will make for kind of like
nice size flatbreads.
- Mm-hmm.
- And that's a good great,
like a great dinner to have actually
when it's hot outside
and you don't wanna be like really full...
- Mm-hmm.
- And like have a heavy meal,
this is a nice type of a salad
or um, you know, if you wanted to,
you can add meat on top too.
- Yeah, you can have some salami, sausages, um...
- Yeah.
- Cheese, sliced chicken.
- I wanna show you the bounce back.
See how it pops back into place?
- Mm-hmm.
- That's how you know your bread has been kneaded.
So normally, I use my bench scrapper
for decorating cakes,
but it's actually for cutting dough,
so I'm very excited to use this
for the purpose it was created for.
If you wanna know all of my fun kitchen gadgets,
there's gonna be a link at the top of the video,
click on that, and it's everything I use
to help me bake things with less frustration.
So good, right?
- Yes.
- [John] Okay, let's cut into four pieces.
Form them into little disks, I guess.
And then we're gonna let them rest for half an hour.
- [Mom] Mm-hmm.
- Do you know why we let them rest?
- Yeah, to develop the gluten.
It becomes more elastic and pliable.
- Yeah, you're gonna let that protein rest,
and then, it'll kinda relax a bit.
We used to have a pizza night like once a week
and my mom would make a fresh pizza.
- Huge pizza.
- Huge pizza 'cause we had four people
and it was two growing boys. (laughs)
- Lots of vegetables.
- And cheese.
- Yeah, everything was like nice and fresh though,
and it made such a difference.
We're gonna cover them with plastic.
- Yours were mysteriously different than mine.
- Yours were "mysterious" misshapen.
I don't know what happened.
(mom laughs)
- Thank you for fixing it.
I appreciate that. - You press, press, and roll.
Press and roll.
- Okay, press and roll, press and roll.
Got it.
- Okay, just like turning a road.
Just turning.
Okay.
- All right, I didn't know you were the flatbread mistress.
- Well, it's just relaxes by itself, you know,
it's just easy.
- She's like, "it's just common sense."
(John laughs)
- Okay.
- Okay, so those are all wrapped up,
and now we're gonna let them rest
for half an hour and then we'll be back.
- Preferably rosemary.
- My mom is obsessed with this flatbread
that she had in Rome,
but we're not making that flatbread,
we're making my flatbread today.
- In my imagination, I was expecting that. (laughs)
- In her perfect world she was like,
"well, we're making that flatbread from Rome," yeah.
- Next time.
- Next time. (laughs)
- All right, half an hour,
and then preheat your oven to 450
like 15 minutes in.
- John what are we gonna do next?
- Well, since you asked,
the doughs rest for half an hour
and I want you to feel the difference.
- Oh my, ugh!
It's lovely.
- So it's so much less tense.
Before, it was like a bodybuilder,
who's been working out,
like their body is super hard.
And now it's soft... - Very pliable
- And pliable, like mine.
(both laugh)
Okay, so we're gonna roll this out to be thin.
We want a thin bread, not like a tortilla,
but, you know, it doesn't need...
I don't think it needs flour.
I went and used the pastry mat
and it's really gonna hold together.
She doesn't trust me. (laughs)
So like an 1/8 of an inch-ish
is what you're aiming for.
Does it have to be a perfect circle?
- No.
- No, it's rustic, it's beautiful.
- Very organic.
- Organic with things from our garden.
- Free form
- Your garden, not mine anymore.
I don't live there. (laughs)
And then, you guys take a look, flip it over.
Oh it's so nice.
So our bread is nice and thin.
I can't read through it but it's pretty thin.
- Mm-hmm.
- And we're gonna brush it with some olive oil now.
I have a pizza stone in the oven
but you can use your grill if you wanted to
to have grilled bread.
- Mm-hmm.
- And just brush each side with olive oil.
And I'm kicking myself because I actually have
the big wooden giant one spatula for pizzas.
- Mm-hmm.
- So you can put on the stone
but I think I threw it away
or I don't know where it is. (mom scoffs)
It's in a box somewhere.
Since I moved the last time.
Okay this is ready to go into the oven
at 450 and I think five minutes each side.
So I put it in, flip it, and it'll be done.
Everything is so much fun when you're doing it
with somebody else in the kitchen.
Like, baking goes by so much quicker, right?
- [Mom] Mm-hmm.
- And we're not even talking about doing the dishes.
(John laughs)
Don't worry, she's leaving before that happens.
(both laugh)
Okay, the flatbreads are in the oven right now.
Almost done baking, they look great.
And we're gonna prep some of the toppings
we have for them.
I wanted to have like a salad feel.
Like, very fresh, a little crispiness
from the flatbread, and a lot of flavor
from the homemade pesto.
I have a link for the homemade pesto
in the text below so just feel free
to click that and make it.
It's so good.
I packed lemon into mine
which some of my people on Instagram were like,
"You can't put lemon in pesto!"
- Oh, absolutely.
- But I did anyways.
- I always do. - It's delicious.
And toasted walnuts, too.
Pine nuts are amazing but they're also so expensive.
(laughs)
I was feeling a little less luxurious
when I was making it so I was like,
"okay, so instead of the pine nuts,
I'll sub in some toasted walnuts"
and they were great, I highly recommend it.
So it's like a bastardized pesto for me.
- I always put lemon juice in my pesto and walnuts.
- Yeah.
- But lemon juice gives the pesto
a very... fresh taste. - Zingy, yeah.
- Rather than just so bland.
So I'm the opposite.
I would never do pesto without lemon juice
because it just gives it such a sparkle
and freshness.
- Okay, so now we have some beautiful fresh thyme,
and my mom is just taking the stocks off,
so separating the leaves.
And some beautiful rosemary, look at that.
- All organic. (laughs)
- It smells so nice.
It's like very fresh and healthy.
The plant looks very healthy, mom.
- Mm-hmm.
- Mm-hmm, lots of love.
- Lots of love.
- And we have some chives and...
- Fresh oregano.
- Some fresh oregano and also the chard.
Definitely there's gonna have be little bit
of chard mixed in there.
- Yeah.
- And I have some radishes, too,
which I'll be really, really, thinly slicing
to add on there for some extra crunch and bite.
- Smell the oregano.
- Mmm, yeah, very nice.
And we have some heirloom tomatoes
just for some colors and more taste.
- So fresh herbs, crunch radishes.
- That is a nice thin slice of radish, people.
- It is.
- When you're slicing things really thinly,
I always use my fingernail as a guide,
and you wanna have your fingernail
almost vertical to the knife's edge.
You're not gonna cut yourself,
but you're using it as a guide.
- [Mom] It's like parallel.
- [John] Yeah, exactly, for the knife.
So chop all of those herbs nicely.
- [Mom] Mm-hmm, 'cause they release the flavor and aromas.
- [John] Yeah, you're really crunching them up
and the oils are coming out.
- I find that very luxurious to have
your own fresh personal garden, all organic.
- So true.
- It's just like, wow.
The epitome of the gourmet cook.
- Nice thin slices, that way you get a nice bit
of flavor in each slice.
Nothing is overwhelming another flavor.
- [Mom] The chives smell so good.
You cannot get thin slices like that
if you don't have a sharp knife,
so sharp knives are our best friends.
- I literally just made a video
where I was talking about needing sharp knives.
(mom laughs)
- You just have to respect them really.
Lot of respect.
- Don't put them in the dishwasher.
- Mm-hmm.
- And just, you know, take care of them,
so sharpen them every once in a while.
- Yeah, you have to.
- So we have one of our flatbreads here.
We're gonna do a taste test before you go.
My mom is like, "I gotta leave.
I don't wanna be in Los Angeles traffic."
So I'm opening up... oh, and you haven't tried
this yet, have you?
- Mhm.
Ugh, divine!
Absolutely divine!
- Lots of flavor.
So this is the epitome of luxury for me.
Like do you see this burrata?
It's just...
- Fresh.
- It's like molten...
It's like this pure milk...
- Oh, so delicate.
- Pure cream inside.
- Yeah
- I love fresh mozzarella
but if you wanna go extra,
and if you're not worried about the calories...
- Indulge.
- A little bit of burrata is A-okay.
Okay, so let's assemble this, it'll be fine.
- So a little bit of pesto.
- [John] A little bit of pesto.
We'll just spread it on.
Now, we're gonna add our tomatoes.
- [Mom] Fresh herbs.
- [John] I almost forgot about my beautiful micro-greens.
This is arugula, just to give it some height
and texture and a bite.
Our radish slices.
Now, the fun part, I'm gonna burst my burrata a bit
and I'm gonna add a huge dollop of it
right here in the center.
So when I'm feeling super...
- Creative.
- Well, super decadent.
We're gonna just add a little bit of olive oil.
I love the color of it.
That's really what it's for.
And then, a little bit of pepper.
This is the decadent part.
Look at these beautiful flakes of sea salt.
- A little bit. (laughs)
- [John] I'm gonna put it on my side.
Just like that.
- Give me a few flakes.
- Oh, so she wants a few flakes now.
- I said a few.
I didn't want the whole handful.
- Okay.
These are sea salt flakes
and they're just giant so they really give you
like a huge crunch in like a bite of salt,
but you only use a few of them.
They're really beautiful.
- Don't you use it with chocolate or caramel?
- People do that too,
but I actually don't like them on my sweets
'cause it's too much salt.
I add like a little bit of salt on my sweets.
This is gorgeous, do you see this?
- Hmm, is that all for me?
- We're gonna split it in half
and have a fifty-fifty situation.
I really like it.
This is take number two.
We took a way too big bite the first time
so I was like...
(mimics chomping)
- I don't want to stop eating it.
- I'll do one.
It's so good.
The burrata is so creamy.
The bread has a nice bite to it, its chewy,
and the pesto is like lemony,
but tastes like summer.
- Hmm, amazing.
- You have to make this.
It's like a perfect like...
- Vegetarian, kinda.
- It's like a vegetarian dinner.
Salad on a plate.
Really fresh, perfect for summer.
- Yeah, bring the wine.
- The wine, I know.
Where is the wine?
- Thanks so much for watching.
Hit that like button. - Enjoy!
- Don't forget to subscribe.