Despite its convenience and ever-presence on breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus, bread can chip away at your daily Points® Budget until there's no room for dessert. (Eek!)
Enter, two-ingredient dough, an exception to the otherwise valid complaint that baking can be laborious. A seemingly magical cooking hack, two-ingredient dough is made from combining equal parts self-rising flour and plain fat-free Greek yogourt—that's it! Because Greek yogourt is a ZeroPoint™ food, the only Points you need to count come from the flour (3 Points for 1/4 cup). And did we mention that the yogourt infuses your dough with extra protein for satisfaction?
On top of two-ingredient dough's simplicity, the recipe's main selling point is the fact that it can be used to make lower Points versions of staples such as bagels (typically 9 Points), dinner rolls (typically 5 Points), and wraps (4 to 6 Points). Yes, you can enjoy store bought versions of any of these. But a little creativity in the kitchen can help you make the most of your Budget—and feel like a bona fide baker!
Really, the sky is the limit. After all, two-ingredient dough can be used as a base to appeal to anything a carb-lover feels like eating. Fancy a cinnamon bun or a soft pretzel? Pigs-in-a-blanket? A pizza? Go for it! Most recipes simply call for combining the two ingredients, shaping the dough on a floured surface, then popping it into an oven heated to 375-degrees F—or sometimes, a pan on your stovetop—for about 20 minutes. The rest is on you!
To experiment appropriately, there are some staples to keep in your pantry: Sesame seeds can turn two-ingredient dough into stellar hamburger buns or dinner rolls. Everything bagel spice can make your homemade bagels taste like they were made in a professional bakery. And pizza fixings like tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese can turn your yogourt-flour combo into an Italian masterpiece. And don't forget that "bread" can also be flattened into a wrap and topped with grilled chicken and tadzhik to go Greek, or kneaded to form a Mexican "tostada" topped with refried beans, corn, and crumbled cheese. And two more words: Hot. Pockets!
Oh, and if you don't have self-rising flour for two-ingredient dough on hand, you can always make your own: Start with 1 cup of all-purpose flour (whole wheat or gluten-free alternatives should work just as well) and add 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. (The Points values should remain about the same, but if you have any doubts you can always use your app to create new recipes, then adjust Points for single servings based on your batch size.)
Now that you know an insider hack for maximizing your Points without sacrificing your favourite carbs, get creative! Trust us—making homemade bread, pizza, bagels, and more will make you feel like a professional baker. And once you try your hand at two-ingredient dough recipe, try again! Your bread-baking skills are only going to get better. So: Which will you try first? Here are some recipes to get you started: