This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, see our privacy policy.
This delicious, pillowy soft Turkish Flatbread is an easy, one-bowl-no-mixer recipe. It's perfect with hummus, tabouli, for wraps and so much more!
If you think you have to have a bit of Middle Eastern heritage to make great Turkish Flatbread, think again! This recipe comes together quickly, without a mixer and minimal kneading and rising. These delicious, tender, pita-type flatbreads are cooked in a pan on the stovetop in minutes.
What is flatbread?
Flatbread has become popular restaurant and grocery store fare in recent years, but it's definitely not a new invention. Rather, it has a long history, originating in ancient Egypt. Over the years, many other cultures, including India, Armenia, Iran, Uzbekistan, Afganistan, and Turkey have come up with their own version of flatbread, each one having slightly different characteristics. What's really fascinating, is that some countries, like Turkey, have numerous types of flatbread, each region of the country having its own distinct version.
In Turkey, flatbread is a staple and there are shops that exclusively sell this simple, delicious type of bread. The variety is staggering. I've read about Pide, Lahmacun, Gözleme, Yufka, Lahmacun, and Bazlama, to name a few. The main differences are in the shape, toppings and cooking methods.
The Turkish flatbread recipe I'm sharing today is Bazlama. Bazlama is similar to naan and, in Turkey, is often baked over an outdoor, wood fire. Bazlama is also known as "village bread" as it's often sold in stands at Turkish markets. One of the distinctions of Bazlama is that it's made with Greek yogurt, making the bread super tender and giving it a tasty tang.
The ingredient list for this Bazlama is, like most flatbreads, super simple: yeast, sugar, water, flour, yogurt, and salt. The dough is stirred up by hand in a bowl, then turned out onto the counter for a short kneading time. It's then covered and allowed to rest for 15 minutes and then it's ready to roll into circles. A short stint in a hot pan and you'll find these fragrant, tender flatbreads difficult to not devour, all by themselves. (Don't ask me how I know!)
I've made several batches of this Turkish flatbread, tweaking it a bit each time and finding more and more ways to use it.
Ways to use this Turkish Flatbread
- Eat it plain or with a spread of peanut butter and a drizzle of honey for a delicious snack.
- Divide the dough into 14 or 16 portions and make the flatbreads smaller. Serve them warm in a bread basket as a dinner bread.
- Spread a spoonful of hummus down the center of a flatbread. Top with grilled (or rotisserie) chicken, diced tomatoes, cilantro, Kalamata olives, crumbled Feta and a drizzle of Zoe's Copycat Dressing. Serve it as a wrap - delish!
- Make flatbread pizza. Just add toppings and bake for 5-8 minutes in a 450˚F oven.
- Stuff with scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast flatbreads.
- Use them in place of bread for your favorite sandwich.
- Heat a medium non-stick sauté pan over medium heat until hot. Add a small drizzle of olive oil and swirl pan to coat. Add a Turkish flatbread and cook until underside is golden. Flip to opposite side and continue cooking till also golden. Cut in wedges and serve as a delicious accompaniment to salads, soups or as an appetizer with hummus or spreads.
- Serve it with Grilled Chicken Swarama and Turkish Cucumber Tomato Salad - recipes coming!!
Café Tips for making this Greek Yogurt Turkish Flatbread
- You can make these flatbreads thicker or thinner by rolling the dough rounds bigger or smaller. I like a medium thickness and roll mine approximately 7 inches in diameter.
- Since every stove is different, you might have to experiment a little bit with the first flatbread. You want the heat high enough that bubbles appear on the top surface and the underside is getting a few golden spots after about 45 seconds to 1 minute. If you're not seeing the bubbles, increase the heat. If the underside is getting brown too fast, decrease the heat a bit. On my stove a heat setting slightly below medium is perfect.
- Brush the dough rounds lightly with olive oil. You want to cover the surface but you don't want greasy flatbread.
- I use whole milk Greek yogurt, but I think any variety of plain Greek yogurt will work fine.
- A tablespoon of kosher salt sounds like a lot, but it's divided between 10 large flatbreads. I tried it with less and the results tasted somewhat bland. However, if you use regular iodized salt instead of kosher salt, definitely use less. Here's a great conversion chart for kosher and table (iodized) salt.
- If you're not used to working with yeast, don't worry! The only trick with yeast is to use the right water (or other liquid) temperature. You want it to be right between 105-110˚F. If you test it with a finger, that's fairly hot, but not so hot that you'd pull your finger back. If you're not sure, use a thermometer to test the temp before adding the yeast and you'll be just fine.
Turkish Flat Bread (Bazlama)
Ingredients
- 1¼ cups warm water, 105-110˚F
- 2 ¼ teaspoons active dried yeast, 1 packet
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- ¾ cup Greek-style yogurt
- 2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 3 ¾ cups all-purpose flour, more as needed (see Notes below) and for the counter
- ¼ cup finely chopped flat leaf parsley
Instructions
- Combine the yeast, sugar, and water into a medium-large bowl and stir well. Allow to sit in a warm place for 5-10 minutes to activate the yeast. The mixture will be foamy and bubbly when activated.
- Whisk in the Greek yogurt olive oil and salt.
- Add flour and parsley and stir with a wooden spoon or sturdy spatula and until the dough comes together. Turn dough out onto a well-floured counter and turn to coat. (I use around a ½ cup extra flour (sometimes more) for the kneading process - I just keep sprinkling the work surface as I knead the dough.)
- Divide dough into 10 equal pieces, sprinkle lightly with flour, then cover with a clean kitchen towel. Allow to rest for 15 minutes.
- Preheat a medium saute pan to a medium-low heat. While the pan is heating, roll one of the dough portions into an approximately 7-inch circle.
- Brush the top surface lightly with extra virgin olive oil. When the pan is hot, pick up the first circle with your hand and place in the pan, oiled side down. Lightly brush the top surface with oil. Allow to the flatbread to cook for about 1 to 1 ½ minutes, until the top surface is covered with bubbles and the underside is golden around the edges and in spots.
- Flip to opposite side and cook for another 60-90 seconds until a few small golden spots appear. Don't overcook on the second side. Repeat rolling, oiling and cooking with remaining portions of dough.
- Sprinkle flatbreads with a bit more chopped parsley when finished, if desired. Stack flatbreads in a clean kitchen towel after cooking to steam a bit and retain softness.
- When cool, store in a ziplock bag. Reheat in a pan without oil for a minute or two on each side OR wrap flatbreads in paper toweling and heat in the microwave on low power until warm.
Notes
Nutrition
The Café Sucre Farine is a participant in the Amazon Affiliate Program. Affiliate programs are designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to products on Amazon. The price you pay as a consumer does not change, but if you make a purchase through one of our links, we receive a small commission - and we continue delivering delicious recipes to you!
Rebeca Berberyan says
It is so delicious Turkish bread thanks for sharing the recipe!! Merry Christmas and blessed New year!!
Lindsay @ The Café Sucre Farine says
Thank you, Rebeca! Merry Christmas!
Janell says
HUGE success!! This was amazing, thank you for the lovely recipe!! EVERYONE loved it! 😀 100/10!!
Lindsay @ The Café Sucre Farine says
Awesome! Thank you for the review, Janell!
anna says
SO GOOD!!! so easy. LOVED IT. don't pay attention to the annoying comments, you gave us an amazing recipe!
Lindsay @ The Café Sucre Farine says
Thank you, Anna!
Rosie says
Great recipe. Took a bit of practise but I am there. Make them all the time. They freeze well and I pull them out when doing a barbecue and use them instead of pitta breads. Good on barbie and toaster. The packet yeast I use does not need to be mixed with the warm water it goes straight into the flour. Adjustments have to be made. The more you do them, the better they get. Love them. I have made other recipes from Sucre farine. Good.
Lindsay @ The Café Sucre Farine says
Thank you for the review, Rosie!
Bruce says
Spent two years in Turkey. This tastes nothing like Turkish flat bread. Very bland. Where are the sesame seeds? Never had this bread without sesame seeds. Also used 3 cups of flour trying to get the dough to not be sticky. Couldn't do it. Disappointing. Hard to believe anyone tried this recipe before posting it.
Chris Scheuer says
Hello Bruce, so sorry you did not enjoy this recipe - so many others haves LOVED it. Also I do believe there as as many Turkish flatbread variations as there are beloved chicken soup recipes here in the US.
Kind regards, Chris
PS I just made this recipe for the umpteenth time with rave reviews from our guests.
Marion says
The metric recipe did not work for me at all. As someone in the comments said already, it ends up with 100% hydration! I think the type of greek style yoghurt used is a factor too, apart from the flour (I wish I had used bread flour instead of all purpose). Anyway, after measuring all the ingredients I had something resembling batter in my bowl. I added about 40% more flour, which threw off the rest of the ingredients (salt). If I get the courage to try making this again I will start mixing with only half the amount of yoghurt and water to start.
Chris Scheuer says
Hi Marion, I'm so sorry you had trouble with this recipe. I just made it recently, using the metric measurements. I needed a bit more flour but definetly not 40%. You may be right about the yogurt also making a difference as yogurt is different all over the world. Here in the US, it's quite thin,
Peg says
I had made this recipe before, but I recently found out I have to be gluten-free. I made the recipe again but this time with these substitutions: 1 cup oat flour, 1 cup chickpea flour, and 1-1/4 cups Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 GF flour. After reading other comments, I cut the water back to 1/2 cup. I also added about 1/2 teaspoon psyllium powder. The taste is wonderful! The breads aren’t as flexible as AP wheat flour of course, but tasty nonetheless. Gluten-free bread recipes using straight GF flour don’t have much taste and that’s why I subbed in oat and chickpea flour. Thanks for a great recipe!
Lindsay @ The Café Sucre Farine says
Awesome! Thank you for the review, Peg, I know others will find that helpful!
Arden says
Delicious but the dough was really hard to work with. Really sticky, I needed a ton of extra flour to roll them out. I'm thinking maybe I didn't kneed the dough long enough? How long do you usually kneed for? I noticed it wasn't specified.
Chris Scheuer says
Hi Arden, you didn’t do anything wrong. Every floor is different and it also depends on the humidity level.
That’s why I wrote the instructions beneath the recipe to use as much flour as you need. Some readers have made them without needing too much extra flour.
Mark Mawson says
Yes, they worked brilliantly. In the UK, I did add more flour, but worked well and actually rose with a prove really well. Left out the parsley but added chilli flakes and garlic for a kick. Super recipe thank you.
Lindsay @ The Café Sucre Farine says
Wonderful! Thanks for the review, Mark!
Charlotte says
I made this tonight. Excellent! I used it for gyros this time but it would make great naan or Wraps. This is going in my Arsenal. Thank you!
Lindsay @ The Café Sucre Farine says
Wonderful! Thank you for the review, Charlotte!
Kim W says
I absolutely love this recipe, and I have made it several times! It is my go-to recipe for naan. I added some flour while kneading it, really if you like to cook you just have a feel for what it needs. I love this recipe thank you so much for posting it! 😋👍💯♥️
Lindsay @ The Café Sucre Farine says
Awesome! Thanks for the review, Kim!
Axel says
Tried the metric measurements for these, and the dough turned out unbelievably sticky. I had to work in a ton more flour to make it workable. Makes sense with the water and a 10% yoghurt probably contributing to a nearly 100% hydration dough. The ratios are just off.
With an unspecified amount of flour the flatbread turned out nice. Rolled them small and thin to eat with a thick soup.
One question I have is what specifically AP flour refers to. For some it's a hard wheat baker's flour with a 12% protein content, for others it's a 6% protein soft wheat variety.
Chris Scheuer says
Hi Axel, flour can vary a lot, depending on the climate and the type of flour. So you did the right thing to add enough extra flour to make it work for you.
Others have followed this recipe to the T and have had good results with the proportions given.
I'm guessing that you don't live in the US as AP flour is the most commonly used and available flour here. It's a middle-range protein flour generally ranging around 10.5-11.7%.
I'm happy that you enjoyed the results of your efforts. Sounds like a delicious meal!
Andy says
I wish I had read the comments before trying this recipe. I had the exact same issue. I followed the metric measurements to a tee. the dough was unworkably sticky. I would estimate that I had to add about 30-50% more flour to make it workable.
The reason why is unclear but I have several hypotheses:
Firstly, is that the impreciseness of the volume based measurements before conversion to weights is part of the issue.
Secondly, Another potential issue could be any differences between US all-purpose and UK plain flour. However I've used them interchangeably in other recipes in the past and they seem to behave much the same.
Lastly, The other potential cause is the "well-floured counter". To me a well floured counter is at most 20g of flour. Maybe its meant to be significantly more, like 100g+? If that's the case I would add a separate line item to the recipe and ingredients detailing that intention. it mentions working the dough to make it less sticky, It could probably do with additional information that you're supposed to work additional flour in at the time and you're not just developing the gluten.
Either way, I managed to intuit that the dough required more flour, and I managed to get there but it took longer than initially planned and was more stressful than necessary.
In the end the flatbreads did turn out really well though
Chris Scheuer says
Thanks for your review, Andy. I'm going to make the flatbreads this week with metric measurements and will amend the recipe, if needed.
You're correct, the flour does make a big difference. My daughter lived in London for 8 years. Whenever I baked over there, I found I needed extra flour for my recipes.
Custodio Martins says
Indeed. The amount of water is way too much for the amount of flour, even if it were very strong flour. It has to be reduced by half
Lori says
These were amazing! Soft, delicious, easy to make! I used this for chicken gyros. Family approved!
Lindsay @ The Café Sucre Farine says
Awesome! Thank you for the review, Lori!
Angie says
Have you ever tried using wholewheat flour with this recipe? Thanks!
Lindsay @ The Café Sucre Farine says
Hi Angie, we haven't tested this with wholewheat flour, but I think it would be fine. I would go with 50/50 rather than all WW.
Vimala Rajkumari says
The proportions are definitely off. I had to add almost another 2 cups to get to the right consistency. Definitely not a recipe for a beginner
Chris Scheuer says
Hmm, It’s really difficult to say what went wrong without having been right there in the kitchen with you. So many others, if you read the reviews, have had great success with this recipe. As I mentioned in the notes, use as much flour as you need - as flours can vary a lot as far as the the type of flour, the moisture level and humidity -they all make a difference.I just made these recently and used the proportions given with good success.
Claudia Giurgiu says
It is first time when I cooked this flat bread and my family loved it! So do I ! Just beautiful and you can have this lovely bread beside everything!
Thanks for this lovely recipe! All the best!
Lindsay @ The Café Sucre Farine says
Awesome! Thank you for the review, Claudia!
Fernando Delgado Ayala says
1!This balzlama recipe is just deliscious, I really appreciate you sharing this great recipe whith us!
Lindsay @ The Café Sucre Farine says
Thank you, Fernando! So glad you enjoyed this!
Lorena says
Everyone absolutely loved this flat bread. I’m keeping this recipe, thank you!
Lindsay @ The Café Sucre Farine says
Awesome! Thanks for the review, Lorena!
Hannah says
Hi there, do you think this could be frozen and reheated?
Chris Scheuer says
Hi Hannah, yes, it freezes well. I just reheat them in a pan with a tiny bit of oil.
L Carter`` says
Re the nutritional ingredients, you say 705 mg of sodium. Is that for 10 pieces of bread? One piece of bread?
Many/most ppl in this country today are on restricted sodium diets or else should be restricted sodium diets, so the sodium content is important. If you are on a 1200 mg sodium diet, then 705 mg of sodium takes out a BIG BIG chunk of the allowed sodium for the entire day.
How about figuring a way to make the bread without adding any salt?????????
Chris Scheuer says
Hi L, Thanks for pointing this out. The nutritional info is per flatbread. However, I went back in and recalculated the nutrition and the sodium came out to 472. Not sure why there was a discrepancy. It could be that the original info was for regular table salt rather than kosher salt.
Of course, you can always lower that number by reducing the salt in the recipe, that's always a cook's choice.
Megan says
A great quick and easy flatbread. Really tasty and beagle approved. Added this to my food library.
Lindsay @ The Café Sucre Farine says
Thanks, Megan!
Susan Lance says
I can't believe I waited so long to try this recipe. I thought I had a good naan recipe, but this is so much better. I already shared this recipe with my sister, and it is often months before I have a new recipe worth sharing. The family went crazy over this incredibly soft delicious flat bread! Thank you Chris for so many delicious recipes I have saved and use often!
Lindsay @ The Café Sucre Farine says
Wonderful! Thank you for the review, Susan!