Here’s a fun family recipe idea for a flag-themed flatbread or foccaccia to help you bake up some Memorial Day fun. It’s an easy and creative way to cook with your kids; and adults love it, too!
For me, the idea here started last summer on a family mountain weekend away for the Fourth of July. An easy play on focaccia, made super simple with several cans of large refrigerated biscuits , chopped cherry tomatoes, white cheddar cheese, pitted kalamata olives , sliced mozzarella cut into stars.
Flatbreads are More Fun with Friends
Adding to the fun for me was my sweet then two-year-old helper, our grandniece, Emory Parks. The idea for this holiday bread came from Emory’s “Ebby”, Debby Sacra. For years Debby and her daughter Kendel, Emory’s mom, had made a flag cake for the Fourth. An easy boxed sheet cake, frosted in white icing and decorated with blueberries and strawberries. It was cute and made for fun photo ops; but only problem was, it was too big of a cake for our little crowd.
Last year, as we joined our extended family for the Fourth of July weekend, Debby wondered if there was a way to make the longtime family tradition of a fun edible flag, as a bread instead of a cake.
Sometimes a Holiday weekend calls for a Shortcut
It would have been great fun to bake up a batch of focaccia for the holiday, but the truth is, baking bread is a process. It’s not hard, but it does take some time. Time we didn’t want to take away from the relaxing holiday weekend, and so we found a shortcut with a couple of cans of refrigerated biscuits.
So the “recipe” here is really right on the back of the can. But instead of baking whole biscuits we quartered them for this quick and easy focaccia and then put them side by side on a parchment lined baking sheet with sides.
For a half sized sheet pan like this one – that’s 18x13x1 if you are measuring – use 3- cans of large biscuits. If you use smaller biscuits you might need 4 cans. If you want to make a smaller flag focaccia, use a toaster oven sized baking pan and just 1-2 cans of biscuits.
Next come the toppings. For the Fourth, a flag was inevitable; and I’d do the same for Memorial Day this year. But I want you to make it your own, so change up the decor on your biscuit-based canvas as you would like.
Once you’ve got your design down, simply bake according to the package directions. Cool slightly. Use the parchment paper to slide your flag themed flatbread off the pan and serve.
A Flatbread Flower Garden
Then as we officially move into the summer season, play around with a version of the same using crescent roll dough. Years ago I taught a cooking class called 101 things ( almost) you can make with crescent roll dough. It’s a processed dough I don’t really use so much anymore; but when I found that the organic minded folks at Immaculate Baking Company made a crescent roll dough and refrigerated biscuits among their line up of products I felt so much better about my list of quick and easy ingredients. I love using their pie crusts when I don’t feel like making my own. Want some quick and easy summer pie ideas? Check out this previous posts.
The crescent roll dough flat bread was a good bit thinner than my original flag focaccia, but it was a great accompaniment to a glass of wine or two out on the deck. As you can see I added veggies, herbs and cheese; but it would be so easy to add on and kind of cured meat like ham, prosciutto, crumbled bacon. You could also add on rolled salami to make more of flower or keep it vegetarian and use sliced tempeh for the stems… the possibilities are only limited by your imagination.
Have fun and enjoy the Memorial Day Weekend Holiday.