Woodfired Coca
Woodfired Coca are a northern Spanish version of pizza but with no cheese – a fabulous flatbread with an endless variety of potential toppings. If you happen to be in the Santa Caterina market in Barcelona, check out the bread stalls for their cocas and topping ideas – spinach with onions and currants; roast peppers; slow cooked onions with olives, even peas and fresh mint. It’s National Allotment Week this week so what better way to celebrate our vegetables – delicious!
Woodfired Coca – Ingredients
500g strong white flour – we use Shipton Mill
10g fine seasalt
5g fast acting yeast
330ml cool water
Woodfired Coca – Equipment
We used our Alfa oven – but the cocas will work in any woodfired oven
Peel
Our Woodfired Flatbreads & Pancakes book of course!!
Woodfired Coca – Method
- Mix the flour, water, salt and yeast together in a large bowl to make a soft dough and knead without any extra flour on a clean work surface until it is soft and springy. Put the dough into a clean bowl, cover and leave to rise until doubled in size and puffy
- Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces and gently shape the dough to get an oval around 25cm/10” in length.
Dibbling the dough
- Add your toppings of choice (see below for some ideas) and drizzle with olive oil. Season well.
- Put the coca on to 2 well floured peels and shuffle them off the peels on to the oven floor. Bake for 5 minutes until the dough is cooked through. Serve hot or at room temperature.
Woodfired Coca – Alternatives
Alternative toppings for your Coca
Beetroot & Cumin with Dukkah
Whizz up 2 cooked beetroot with 2-3 tbsp cream cheese, 1 tsp ground cumin and the freshly grated zest of 1 orange in a food processor until smooth. Drizzle some chilli oil over the cocas before spreading with the beetroot mixture. Sprinkle with some dukkah. You can buy it or make it!
Cavolo Nero, Red Onion & Red Pepper
Take the leaves off the stalks of a head of cavolo nero and wilt in the oven with a thinly sliced red onion and 3tbsp olive oil. Stir in some cooked red pepper if you have some (not essential – we just had some in the fridge). Season well and use on top of your cocas.
Pea & Mint
Defrost 100g frozen peas and whizz until smooth in a food processor with 2tbsp chopped fresh mint and the finely grated zest of 1 lemon. Season well. Spread over the coca and drizzle with a little olive oil.
Red Pepper & Red Onion
Deseed and roughly chop 2 red peppers and whizz until smooth in a food processor with 2tbsp olive oil. Season well. Very thinly slice 1 red onion. Spread the pepper paste over the top of the coca and sprinkle over some of the red onion slices. Drizzle with a little olive oil.
Courgette, Lemon & Mint
Very thinly slice 1 large courgette (zucchini) into long ribbons – we use a vegetable peeler to do this. Toss the ribbons together with 1tsp salt and let them stand in a colander for 20 minutes to get rid of any excess moisture. Rinse and dry the courgette ribbons on some kitchen paper and arrange over the top of the coca. Very thinly slice a lemon and put some of the lemon slices on top of the courgettes. Sprinkle over some freshly ground black pepper and salt and drizzle over a little olive oil.
Carrot & Coriander
Chop up 3 large carrots and cook them very slowly with 1tsp ground coriander until the carrots are very soft. Whizz up in a food processor until smooth and season to taste. Stir in some chopped fresh chives.
We hope that this has given you lots of ideas – remember #itsnotjustforpizza !! Cocas are one of our favourite flatbreads and you can really get creative with your toppings.
Let us know how you get on and see you next week
Holly and David
Have a good week!