Olive & Rosemary Flat Bread

Gluten-free bread that actually looks and tastes like real bread. This flatbread uses a blend of brown rice flour, corn flour, and cornstarch bound with xanthan gum to create a dough that rises, holds its shape, and bakes up with a satisfying crust.

Chopped black olives and rosemary get folded directly into the soft dough, so every slice carries salty, briny bites and piney herbal flavor throughout. The dough is softer than wheat-based bread dough, more like a thick batter, and gets spread into rounds on parchment paper with a rubber spatula rather than shaped by hand.

The garlic-egg yolk glaze is a clever technique. A whole garlic clove sits in the beaten egg yolk, infusing it with garlic aroma without adding raw chopped garlic that would burn in the hot oven. You discard the garlic pieces before brushing the glaze on.

Slashing the risen dough with a razor blade in a diamond grid pattern lets steam escape evenly and gives the loaves their artisan look. Use a quick up-and-down motion instead of dragging, or the soft dough tears.

Chef Tips

• Let the yeast mixture double fully before combining with the other ingredients. This confirms your yeast is alive.
• Don’t skip the xanthan gum. It replaces gluten’s binding function and is what holds this bread together.
• Heap the dough slightly higher in the center of each round. It flattens as it rises and bakes.
• These are best eaten the day they’re baked. Gluten-free bread dries out faster than wheat bread.

Variations

• Use green olives or a mix of green and black for a milder, more buttery olive flavor.
• Add sun-dried tomatoes alongside the olives for a Mediterranean combination.
• Swap rosemary for thyme or oregano for a different herb profile.