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My Sardinian flatbread turned really hard and chewy. Ideas? I cheated and used the food processor and turned it off just when it "balled" up. Did I overdo it?

Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Dan Marek - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

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This event was on March 12, 2024

Join Chef Dan Marek in his virtual office as he welcomes all of your questions. This event was created for you and we encourage you to Ask Anything – from cooking techniques to course-specific questions, to how to turn your cooking passion into profit or simply hearing the perspective of a professional chef, Chef Dan is ready to answer them all.

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Question

Gay Attebury

My Sardinian flatbread turned really hard and chewy. Ideas? I cheated and used the food processor and turned it off just when it "balled" up. Did I overdo it?

Answer

You might have overworked the gluten in that flatbread. 'cause that's a very simple recipe that Sardinian flatbread recipe was taken from a grandmother and Sardinia, you know, like, and she did not have, uh, a food processor. I know this exact recipe because I helped design the, the Blue Zones Cooking course. Um, and that recipe's very simple. I would highly recommend not using a food processor and just doing it by hand. 'cause it sounds like what happened was it you overworked the gluten in the dough and it's becoming really hard now. That, and just to keep in mind, it is supposed to be hard. It comes out very much like a kind of a thick cracker, but it shouldn't have too much chew to it. It should break if you hit it with a fork or a knife or something like that as well. But try doing it by hand instead of using the food processor. And I think that you'll have a lot, uh, better results.

Dan Marek

Director of Plant-Based Culinary & Dev

*Dan Marek* is a chef educator who has been teaching vegan and vegetarian cooking for over 15 years. At Rouxbe, he is our Director of Plant-Based Culinary and Development where he helps develop content, classes and builds courses for many of our partners. Dan is a board member of Slow Food Austin, the Institute of Child Nutrition, and Conscious Capitalism. He has earned his BA in Journalism from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University and holds certificates in Nutrition from Cornell University. Prior to his role with Rouxbe, Dan worked with Whole Kids Foundation training teachers and food service at schools across the country on nutrition and culinary best practices. He also worked as a Healthy Eating Educator at Whole Foods Market’s flagship store in Austin, TX, was a personal chef for some of Austin’s elite business people, taught classes in culinary techniques at Austin Community College, The Natural Epicurean, and Le Cordon Bleu. Dan also regularly volunteers cooking or speaking about nutrition for the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, Marathon Kids, Health Alliance for Austin Musicians, and the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Austin and Central Texas.