Flatbreads or Laffa

These flatbreads are not baked in the oven, rather they are baked on the stovetop in a good pan, not too flimsy so it properly retains heat. They are an amazingly delish bread on their own but go especially well with things like shawarma Chicken Shawarma or falafel Falafel From Scratch. In fact, this is the recipe I promised you in my Shawarma post, so here you go! They are quite fun to make and if the stack of flatbreads is more than you will snorf down in one meal, they freeze brilliantly so it’s worth making the whole batch.

By the by, these flatbreads can be used to make a fast pizza as well, just sayin’. K, so let’s get started!

Gather your ingredients:

As I always prefer to do, proof your yeast to make sure it’s alive and well. (Mind you, you can do this in a mixer as easily as in a bread machine. Follow all the instructions, just use your paddle to incorporate the flour and water with the yeast mixture initially and then switch to a dough hook.) So place the sugar, 1/2 cup of the total water and the yeast in together.

let sit covered for about 5 or so minutes and then a little yeast magic, the bubbling like so:

K. Now add the flour, salt and the rest of the water with the olive oil.

Now mix on dough cycle in bread machine or in mixer, mix with paddle and switch to dough hook and knead for about 10 minutes.

keep it going

and finally a nice smooth ball is formed

now cover and let rise till doubled in bulk about an hour. When doubled it should look like this:

Good. Now remove dough to a floured mat to form the flatbreads.

You should get about 14 balls of dough from this to form each flatbread.

Roll out about four or five flatbreads at a time so you can plunk them on the pan sort of assembly line style. Now take your good frying pan out. By this I mean a nice weighted non stick pan. This will heat up and retain the heat. K. Heat the pan UN-OILED! since you are “baking” them on the pan, not frying them, like so:

K now make sure it’s on medium high heat so it has enough time to cook without scorching. You will probably need 2-3 minutes per side approximately. You are flipping them over once they are browned (in a speckled way, not evenly browned, see below) Once heated, they will do one of two things. Either puff up bubbled a bit like this:

or puffed up beautifully resembling a pita. It can be a little temperamental but either way it will deflate and be cooked inside and that’s what you care about. Here’s the beautiful version:

Note the medium brown marks on top – that’s how it should be on both sides. After both sides are cooked and browned, turn out onto a plate. You will be stacking the flatbreads one on top of the other, quite deliberately. It’s necessary since they steam each other thereby keeping them soft and pliable.

They look like flattened large pitas but the texture is different, softer and more pliable. Note the top flatbread is folded just to show you the soft flexibility of the cooked dough. Now go forth and take your flatbread and scoop up hummus or tahini with it, or roll it around shawarma or falafel or just slather with butter and jam (sacrelegious, I know). Delicious and versatile!

Flatbreads or Laffa

1 tablespoon instant dry yeast
2 teaspoons sugar
2 cups (480 ml) lukewarm water
1/4 cup (60 ml) olive oil
6 1/2 cups (800 grams) all purpose or bread flour
2 teaspoons salt

Directions:

Place the yeast, sugar and 1/2 cup of the lukewarm water in a mixer or bread machine. Mix a bit and let proof (the yeast will bubble). Then add the flour, salt, olive oil and rest of the water to the proofed yeast, mixing together in the bread machine on the dough cycle with the lid down, or in the mixer with a paddle beater just till combined and switch to the dough hook. For the mixer, knead for about 5-10 minutes and let rise right in the mixing bowl, covering with a tea towel or plastic wrap. Let rise till the dough is doubled in bulk, approximately an hour (depending on the warmth of your kitchen). Divide the dough into 14 balls and place on lightly floured mat. Roll each ball into a not too thick circle (see photos above, they are not thick rounds) (I do it about 5 at a time since you will do it assembly line style, one after the other) and heat a nice heavy frying pan with NO OIL on a medium flame on the stovetop. Now take your dough circle and place on heated unoiled pan for 2-3 minutes or until bottom of dough is medium brown speckled and dough puffs. Flip over onto the other side and repeat till dough is speckled. Place flatbread onto a plate and continue to do this with all the rounds of dough, stacking the flatbreads one on top of the other. This caused them to steam each other and that’s how they remain soft and pliable. They can either be eaten right away, kept in a sealed bag for a couple of days but I find they do best if not being used immediately to place in a ziploc, remove all the air and freeze. They freeze beautifully and you can either zap ’em in a microwave to resuscitate or warm in oven or toaster oven. Filling and wonderful as is, with butter and jam, tahini, hummus, shawarma or falafel.