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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.
This delicious, pillowy soft Turkish Flatbread is an easy, one-bowl-no-mixer recipe. It's perfect with hummus, tabouli, for wraps and more!
- 1 ¼ 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
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 3 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup finely chopped flat leaf parsley
- 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. Knead for 3-4 minutes or until dough is no longer sticky and springs back when lightly pressed. Sprinkle more flour onto the counter if the dough is sticky during kneading.
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 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 pan, oiled side down. Lightly brush the top surface with oil. Allow to the flatbread to cook for about 1 to 1 1/2 minutes, until top surface is covered with bubbles and 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.
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Ange says
Have made this 3 or 4 times now. Perfect every time. I use this now for souvlaki rather than buy the store bought ones. Always delicious. Family loves it. Thankyou. It is now a favourite go to recipe.
Nancy says
I don’t understand the use of so much extra flour. Could be the type of flour being used. I often make my own naan. This will replace that recipe. I do live in the UK where I have access to a huge variety of flour types, strong white, French, Italian. So maybe that impacts. I do use Greek yogurt. I also recommend a cast iron skillet for cooking.
Great recipe!!
Chris Scheuer says
Thanks, Nancy!
Glynis Rowntree says
Can I ask which flour you are using, please? I have been using plain flour – Bero and Whitworths. Should I use strong plain flour? I do have bread flour In the cupboard as I make sourdough.
Chris Scheuer says
Glynis, I’m not sure what flour Nancy used but I use all-purpose flour. I’m thinking that perhaps you live in England??? I do remember making biscuits when my daughter lived in London and finding that when I used the “plain” flour there, I needed a fair amount more than I used here in the US, using all-purpose flour.
Glynis Rowntree says
I have now made this recipe twice and, like others, have had to add a huge amount of flour as it was so sloppy. This recipe states Greek-style yoghurt – does it mean the very thick Total Greek yoghurt – I just wondered if that is where I am going wrong.
Chris Scheuer says
Hi Glynis, yes, it should be thick Greek yogurt. I use Fage.
Glynis Rowntree says
Tried it again and had to add loads of flour again. I have found several differing calculations for 3 3/4 cups of f flour – do you have the correct amount in grams. I used around 468 g. and it was nowhere enough. I really love the look of these flatbreads but am not doing very well so far.
Leah says
Delicious! Made it for my daughter and grandchildren. They loved it. I am definitely top on their list today. This will be great to put in lunch boxes with some hummus for dipping.
Chris Scheuer says
Thanks so much for sharing your results, Leah. I love that you’re on the top of the list. Sounds like a yummy lunch!
Deb Eckles says
Hi Chris, I just finished making your Turkish bread and it was “spot on amazing” I’ll treasure this recipe forever. I plan to serve for a large ethnic dinner party coming up this weekend…Thank You😋
Chris Scheuer says
Yay! So happy you enjoyed it, Deb! Sounds like a really fun party!
Michele says
Hi Chris, Michele again with an update. Well I used a tiny bit of oil to roll out and it worked great. They turned out fantastic, lovely chewy texture and nice and soft making it easy to roll up my tandoori chicken in them. Great recipe, however in still baffled as to why my dough was so gooey. Maybe next time you make them, could you put up a pic of how your dough looks? I’ll definitely make these again.
Chris Scheuer says
That is so strange, Michele that your dough required so much flour. It is a shaggy dough and yes, I will post a pic next time I make them.I’m so happy you enjoyed them in the long run!
Kath Poole says
I love making all kinds of bread and often buy Turkish flatbread. Made this today, had to use almost double the flour specified in the recipe as it was so wet and sloppy. The final result was utterly delicious 😋. Will definitely make again but just with lots more flour. They were gorgeous with the spicy lentil daal I had I had made yesterday.
Chris Scheuer says
Hi Kath, not sure why you had to use so much flour. I use extra flour on the counter but not a ton.
Michele says
Hi Chris
I’m making this right now, however I’ve had to add about 1&1/2 cups of flour extra. It was a blob on the counter. I wonder what went wrong? I’ve cooked many of your bread recipes before and excellent results. I think I might need to use a bit if oil to roll them out. Work in progress!!
Shirley says
Could you use sour cream instead of yogurt? I always have sour cream, but we don’t eat yogurt. Thanks.
Chris Scheuer says
Hi Shirley, yes, I think sour cream would work fine. Enjoy!
Preeti says
This bread is so yumm! It’s easy to make. I couldn’t make it as thin as shown in the picture but nevertheless came out cooked well and tasted great
Chris Scheuer says
Thanks, Preeti!
Richard says
Had my first bread rellated disaster. I followed the recipe exactly as above but had to use so much flour to get the dough to take, the mixture was so watery with the advised amounts. In the end i gave up and just dry fried the sticky blobs. They ended up ok’ish they were really fragile and not very soft 🙁 where did i go wrong?
Chris Scheuer says
Hello Richard, first of all, I’m so sorry you didn’t have success with this recipe as so many others have. It’s hard to say though what could have gone wrong without actually being there in the kitchen with you. The mixture shouldn’t be watery at all.
Joann Emms says
Hi can you tell me if these flatbread are salty please. I had flatbread in a Turkish restaurant and they served up some warm bread in a basket and it was sooo delicious. I forgot to ask what the bread was called. But it had such a lovely salty taste. I really hope that this is the recipe. Thank you so much
Chris Scheuer says
Hi Joann, I’m not sure if this is the bread you’re thinking of but it does have really nice flavor. If the first one is not salty enough, just add an additional sprinkle of salt as you make them.
Helena says
I made a batch yesterday and ate three while making them! My friends all loved them. I made 16 7” breads with this recipe, very easy and sooooo yummy. Thank you!
Chris Scheuer says
Haha! I totally understand how you ate 3 while making them, Helena. They’re so… good when they’re warm! Thanks for taking the time to share your results!