Stone-Baked Wheat Bread by Leandro Carreira

Name: Stone-Baked Wheat Bread by Leandro Carreira
Total time: 1 h 5 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: Fresh Yeast; Wheat flour; Salt; Butter

Learn how to make an easy and delicious five-minute Portuguese flatbread, known as bolo (cake).

In the Madeira archipelago street vendors serve it fresh and hot with melted butter or alongside regional dishes in restaurants.

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Excerpted from Portugal: The Cookbook by Leandro Carreira.

07 April, 2022

serves for

total time

1 HR 5 MIN

ingredients

Fresh yeast

20 g/. oz (1 1/3 tablespoons) fresh yeast or 5 g ¼ oz (1 2/3 teaspoon) instant dried yeast

Wheat flour

1 kg/2 lb 4 oz (8 1/3 cups) wheat flour, plus extra for dusting

Salt

10 g/ ¼ oz (2 teaspoons) sea salt

Butter

Garlic butter or salted butter, to serve

"Even though it is called bolo (cake), this is a flatbread. Cooked on a caco (basalt stone slab) over a wood fire, it has a thin, crunchy crust and a soft, airy crumb. In the Madeira archipelago, bolo do caco is sold by street vendors, eaten with melted butter, or served in restaurants paired with regional dishes."

Watch and learn how easy it is to master this flatbread in the video lesson and recipe below:

Step 01

Combine the flour and salt in a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment. Alternatively, combine in a large bowl.

Step 02

Put the yeast into a bowl, add 160 ml/5 ½ fl oz (2/3 cup) lukewarm water and stir until dissolved.

Step 03

Add to the flour and mix on medium speed for 15 minutes, or until a smooth dough forms.

Step 04

Cover the bowl with a damp tea (dish) towel and leave to rise at room temperature for 1 hour.

Step 05

On a lightly floured work counter, divide the dough into 4 equal balls, then flatten them with your hands to a disc, 2 cm / ¾ inch thick.

Step 06

Heat a plancha, flat grill or sauté pan. Dust the plancha with flour and cook the bolos for 6 minutes on each side, or until golden. Flip them around and cook around the edges, about 2 minutes.