Ways to bake pita bread at home. Lavash for shawarma at home

09.07.2023

Fragrant and appetizing Armenian lavash is a bread with a very long shelf life. When dry, it does not deteriorate within a year. At the same time, at any time it is enough to simply moisten it with water and it will restore its original taste and elasticity.

Lavash is a national landmark of Armenia

In Armenia, when inviting someone to the table, they say “come eat bread.” Lavash has been an integral part of the Armenian feast for the third millennium. It is indispensable in many national cuisine recipes. Hot khorovats (shish kebab) meat removed from the fire is wrapped in pita bread so that the bread cakes absorb the meat juices and the aroma of the fire. Lavash is served with khash, covering the plate with it so that the broth does not cool down. Fresh herbs and cheese are wrapped in soft flatbreads. This dietary roll – durum – is the most popular breakfast and aperitif in Armenia.

Lavash is baked in special ovens dug in the ground and coated with clay - tonirs. The oldest woman in the family is trusted to knead the dough. Nearby, on a special low table, the daughter-in-law should roll out the flatbread. Then, to finally stretch the dough, toss it in your hands several times in a circular motion. Next, the raw pita bread is handed over to the mother-in-law, who sits at the tonir. She quickly stretches the dough onto a special pad. Then, bending into the thoroughly heated tonir, the woman sticks lavash to its walls. After just 30 seconds, the browned bread is pulled out using a long iron hook. Usually, several dozen pita breads are baked at once, stacked and stored in a dry room for several months. It is noteworthy that at each stage of preparation, Armenian lavash is marked with a cross.

Armenian bread flatbreads on our table

Today, lavash is known far beyond the borders of Armenia. It is often used to prepare rolls, pizza rolls and shawarma, which have become very popular recently, and replace pancakes and thin dough. Chips are made from pita bread. These bread cakes are ideal for dietary and baby food, and are suitable for a Lenten menu.

That is why it is worth preparing Armenian lavash at home, on your own. All you need is three very simple ingredients. No yeast. The dough is kneaded very quickly and then baked in a frying pan in just 1 minute.

Ingredients

flour 160 g
boiling water 75 ml
salt 1 tsp.

Recipe for making Armenian lavash at home

For lavash, it is best to use premium and first grade flour mixed in equal proportions. However, only one type of flour can be used. First, the sourdough is prepared. For it you need to mix 3 tbsp. l. flour and 2 tbsp. l. boiling water
Stir and leave warm until small bubbles appear.
Then put the leaven into the sifted flour with salt.
Knead the dough with your hands or with a mixer, adding boiling water one spoon at a time.
You should get a dense, elastic, elastic dough. You need to knead for 15–20 minutes so that the gluten of the flour is well activated. Leave the dough for 30 minutes to rest.
Then place it on a floured table.
Divide into 7-8 parts.
Roll out each part into a thin round cake with a diameter of 20 cm. If you have the appropriate skills, you can stretch the dough to the desired thickness by tossing it on your hands.
Shake off any remaining flour. Roll out all the cakes and only then proceed to the next step.
Heat a dry, thick-bottomed frying pan over medium heat. Place the tortilla on it and wait 30 seconds. The pita bread will begin to bubble and puff up.
Then turn the tortilla over and brown the other side.
Hot pita bread dries quickly in the air. To keep it soft, each cake should be generously sprinkled with water and covered with a damp towel.
Cooled Armenian lavash can be packed in a plastic bag and stored at room temperature for 3-4 days or in the refrigerator for 3-4 weeks. To prevent the bread cakes from becoming moldy in the package, you need to make several holes for ventilation.

Oriental cuisine dishes are especially popular; any housewife proudly serves unusual treats in the style of the East. Making lavash at home without yeast is easy for any housewife, because such a dish has a simple culinary technology and a minimal composition.

This oriental delicacy, so beloved by many, captivates not only with its simplicity, but also with its taste, which is very unusual in an oriental product.

Everyone is accustomed to preparing delicious Armenian lavash using traditional technology - with yeast. But few housewives know that you can get an excellent oriental delicacy without using yeast. This is an even more convenient and time-efficient cooking method.

When making pita bread without yeast, you just need to maintain the correct proportions of water and flour, and everything else is a matter of technique.

Ingredients

— 150-170 ml + -
— 300 g + -
- 1/2 tsp. + -

Making homemade yeast-free lavash

When you start rolling out the dough pieces into an even layer, don’t forget to grease the rolling pin a little with flour so that the dough rolls easier and doesn’t stick to it.

Let's start frying Armenian lavash: heat the frying pan without oil over medium heat. It is very important to fry the flatbreads in a dry frying pan and at the optimal temperature for this process.

Attention! If the flame is too weak, then the first pita bread may turn out without bubbles; if, on the contrary, it is too strong, then the flatbreads will burn. Therefore, do not be discouraged if the first rolled out ball does not work out during frying. You can tell that the temperature for frying has reached the required degree by the bubbles that appear (and then begin to grow) 30 seconds after you place the pita bread on a hot frying pan.

When one pita bread is fried, transfer it to a damp towel and start frying the next one. As soon as the next one is fried, do not rush to put it on the first toasted pita bread, first cover the first flatbread with a towel, and then lay out the next one. Place a layer of damp towel between all the pita breads.
As soon as you fry all the pita breads without yeast with your own hands, start preparing shawarma, or any other dish that is made on their basis.

All the flatbreads you prepare will turn out thin, tasty and soft. If you want to make them thicker, then do not roll out the dough too much before frying. But in this case, do not forget about an important rule: thicker flatbreads need to be fried longer, otherwise they will turn out to be raw.

Making lavash at home without yeast is possible not only with water, but also with kefir. The resulting flatbreads will be no less tasty and elastic.
In addition to a non-stick frying pan, you can also fry pita bread in the oven or on a baking sheet. The recipe for kneading the dough for cooking in the oven/baking tray is the same as for frying in a frying pan.
If desired, vegetable oil can be added to the yeast-free dough in small quantities (1-2 tbsp, depending on the amount of flour).
After kneading, no matter what you use to make the dough: water or kefir, let it stand for a little time. This will make the finished dough mass more elastic and pliable.

As you can see, making lavash at home without yeast is a simple and very exciting culinary activity. This process will not cause you any difficulties, because we have described step by step how to make flatbreads in Armenian in the recipe with photos. Be sure to add a homemade recipe to your cookbook, and let Armenian lavash take one of the leading positions in it among all other dishes with an oriental accent.

Bon appetit!

You will need:

Lavash for shawarma is a very thin unleavened flatbread, which in the East is prepared in a tandoor, but we will use a simple frying pan or oven. The flour must be sifted. The dough can be made with or without yeast. In the first case, it needs to stand for at least an hour, in the second - 20-30 minutes. After such a “rest”, the gluten will swell well, and the mass will become more pliable when rolled out.

The consistency of yeast dough should be airy and soft, while yeast-free dough should be stiff but elastic; knead it until the stickiness disappears.

Finished products are stored in plastic bags for about 4 days.

Choose the lavash recipe at your discretion, but you already know how to prepare shawarma at home.

Yeast

To prepare, take:

Whey (can be replaced with water) 250 g
Flour 500 g
Dry yeast 8 g

Mix flour and yeast, add a pinch of salt, pour in preheated liquid and knead thoroughly.

Divide the mass into several parts. Each of them needs to be rolled into a ball with a diameter of 5 cm, placed in a clean bowl, covered and left to rise for 40 minutes.

Yeast-free

There is no yeast in the original recipe, but this option requires certain skills. Required:

Warm water or serum 1 glass
Flour 3 cups
Salt ½ teaspoon

Heat the water so that it is warm, add salt and gradually add flour, while mixing everything with your hands.
The consistency should be thick and plastic. To prevent the dough from tearing when rolling, you should achieve maximum elasticity at this stage.

Leave the resulting mixture to sit for 20 minutes.

Simple

You can make lavash at home using a recipe that contains sunflower oil, which gives additional elasticity. The following products are needed:

Flour 3 tbsp.
Oil 2 tbsp. l
Water 1 tbsp.
Yeast 5 g
Salt 1/2 tsp
Sugar 1/2 tsp

Heat the water, add sugar and yeast to it. Slowly pour this mixture and butter into the flour and knead until you get a soft dough that does not stick to your hands. Then leave everything to brew for 20 minutes in a warm place under a towel.

Armenian

Armenian thin lavash is very easy to wrap and cook without yeast.

Flour 4 tbsp.
Water 330 ml
Grows. oil 2 tbsp. l.
Egg 1 pc.
Vodka 1 tbsp. l.
Salt 1 tsp.

Bring water with salt and oil to a boil.

In the sifted flour, beat the egg, give vodka, mix. Then gradually pour in hot water, stirring all the time. Knead with your hands so that the mass is well behind the hands. Put in a bag and leave for at least an hour. During this period, you need to get it once and knead it.
Once the dough has rested, divide it into egg-sized portions and roll it out thinly.

Jewish

Prepared from the simplest set of products:

Flour 3 tbsp.
Water 1 tbsp.
Salt 1/2 tsp.

If you are afraid that you won’t be able to roll it out thinly, you can add 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil.

Knead flour with salt with hot water and let stand for a while.

Cheesy

Let's not limit ourselves to classic recipes, because there are many variations of lavash. Try to cook delicious, tender cakes based on hard cheese.

Flour 1 tbsp.
Water 1/2 tbsp.
Yeast 10 g
Grated cheese 80 g
Butter 50 g
Salt 1/2 tsp.
Sugar 1 tsp.

Dissolve yeast in warm water with sugar and salt. Add soft or melted butter, cheese, flour, knead the dough and let it rise. Then divide into parts, cover with a towel and leave for 10 minutes.
On a floured table, roll out into a layer no more than 2-3 mm thick.

Pita breads turn out very cheesy; they can be used not only for shawarma, but also for rolls, burritos, or as an independent dish.

Tomato

Another unusual version of pita bread with tomato juice and spices.

Flour 0.5 kg
Tomato juice 1 tbsp.
Yeast 10 g
Salt
Any spices

Salt the juice, add spices (black and red pepper, dry herbs, etc. as desired). Add dry yeast, stir until dissolved. Then give flour, knead and place in a warm place to rise.

Punch down, divide into balls and leave for another 10 minutes. Roll out as thin as possible.

Lavash in Asia is the same as a loaf of bread in the European part of Russia - a popular oriental food in the form of a thin or thick flatbread, which, while the lavash recipe basically includes only water, flour and salt. Most often, this type of bread product is preferred by those who want to avoid eating yeast dough, but even more lavash is used for cooking (this includes homemade shawarma, various meat snacks with lavash, lavash pies, all kinds of rolls, and even khachapuri from lavash with cheese).

Nowadays you can buy lavash in grocery stores and in bakery stalls, but many housewives would like to bake lavash at home on their own, which is why in this publication we will talk about how to cook lavash at home and remember different recipes baking lavash, this is Armenian, Georgian, and Uzbek. After reading our selection, you will learn how to prepare both thick and thin pita bread at home without much difficulty from available products.

Basic rules for baking lavash at home

In the eastern culinary tradition, thin (in Armenian) lavash, like a sheet of paper, is baked from unleavened dough, and flatbread lavash is baked from yeast or fermented milk dough on a ripper, and both types are baked in a tandoor. Although modern household appliances offer their own version of replacing the legendary oriental tandoor.

The basic recipe for lavash is simple: flour, water (whey, kefir - options for thick flatbread) and salt. The yeast version of lavash requires the dough to stand in a warm place for at least 1 hour, and if it does not rise sufficiently, this time can be extended. The unleavened dough is allowed to sit for 20 minutes to allow the gluten to swell so that the dough becomes elastic and soft for rolling out thinner.

Making unleavened dough differs from its fermented milk version in that when only flour and water are used, the dough should be kneaded so hard until it stops taking flour; in the second case, you knead according to the rules of yeast dough so that it turns out soft and airy, so that The thick pita bread rose when baked.

Armenian recipe for lavash at home

To prepare thin lavash according to the Armenian recipe at home, you will need only three ingredients, which, as they say, are always at hand. And ready-made Armenian lavash in a bag can be stored in the refrigerator for up to three to four days, which makes it possible to prepare it in advance.

Considering that the diameter of the finished pita bread should be 25-30 centimeters, the size of the frying pan should be appropriate. To knead thick dough, you can use a mixer with the appropriate spiral attachment.

Ingredients:

wheat flour - 300 grams;
drinking water - 170 grams;
table salt - 0.5 teaspoon.

Prepare thin lavash according to the Armenian recipe as follows:

Boil water in a suitable container, dissolve salt in it and cool for no more than 5 minutes.
Pour the sifted flour into a large deep bowl and make a well in the center.
Pour hot water into this well while stirring with a mixer. The first impression is that there is too much flour and the lumps are too dry, but after 5 minutes of running the mixer you will get an unattractively uneven but thick dough that needs to be kneaded on a cutting board with your hands.
Let the resulting dough rest for half an hour, covered with film, and be ready for its quality for rolling out thin pita bread.
Shape the finished dough into a sausage shape, divide into seven equal parts, each of which is thinly rolled out into a round cake.
Thin flatbreads should be fried in a hot frying pan without oil on both sides. In this case, the heating temperature of the frying pan should be such that the cake does not burn at too high a temperature and does not dry out and crumble at an insufficient temperature.
Each finished pita bread should be placed in a damp (not wet) towel or (cloth napkin) so that it sits in a moist environment and does not dry out into a crumbly thin flatbread.

When the pita bread cools in a towel, it will become thin and pliable, but the remaining flatbreads must be stored in a bag and in the refrigerator.

Georgian lavash recipe at home

Georgian lavash differs from Armenian lavash in its softness and fluffiness, as well as its piquant salty taste. The preparation process for this recipe is somewhat more complicated, and the dough is prepared using both dry and fresh yeast.

Ingredients:

wheat flour - 300 grams;
granulated sugar - 1 teaspoon;
drinking water - 200 milliliters.

Lavash according to the Georgian recipe is prepared as follows:

Mix the sifted flour with all the dry ingredients and make a well in the center.
Pour water heated to 45 degrees C while stirring into the well in the flour and knead the dough until elastic and stops sticking to your hands.
Cover the dough on a cutting board with a bowl, covering it with a towel, and leave for 1 hour to rise.
Stretch the risen dough into a circle shape with your hands without using a rolling pin. Place the resulting circle on a greased baking sheet and make a hole in its center with your finger to avoid the cake from rising during baking.

Place the baking sheet with Georgian lavash in the oven for baking at 220 degrees C until ready. Place the baked pita bread on baking paper, cover completely with a towel until it cools, excluding the hard crust.

Uzbek recipe for lavash at home

The preparation of Uzbek lavash differs by the method of baking in a frying pan under a lid, which allows the product to be moist and not crumbly. Its dough recipe includes yeast and is baked in the oven.

The attractive thing is that such Uzbek lavash will be fluffy and soft, capable of replacing bread. This makes a medium-sized flatbread.

Ingredients:

wheat flour - 250 grams;
drinking water - 80 grams;
fresh milk - 80 grams;
butter - 2 tablespoons;
chicken egg - 1 piece;
dry yeast - 1 teaspoon;
sesame - according to preference;
salt - to taste.

According to the Uzbek recipe, prepare lavash in the oven as follows:

Sift the flour, mix all the dry products.
Heat the water mixed with milk, add the dry mixture into it and knead the dough, adding butter towards the end of the kneading.
Place the resulting lump of dough in a greased bowl, which is placed in a warm place, covered with a napkin, for half an hour.
Form the softened dough with your hands into a flat cake shape with a thinner center and thicker edges.
Cover the bottom of the pan with foil and place a flatbread on it, prick the center of it with a sharp fork, cover the pan with a towel and let it sit for another half hour.
Before baking, carefully, so as not to reduce the fluffiness of the flatbread, brush the top with beaten fresh chicken egg and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Cover the frying pan with lavash with a lid and place in an oven preheated to +200 C for 15 minutes, after which remove the frying pan from the oven.

If the cake is not baked enough, then briefly hold the pan in the oven without a lid for 1-2 minutes. Remove the finished cake from the frying pan and let it simmer for 15-20 minutes under a towel.

A simple recipe for thin lavash at home

According to this recipe, thin yeast lavash is prepared using butter, which is baked in a frying pan with flatbreads of the appropriate size.

Ingredient:

wheat flour - 400 grams;
drinking water - 200 grams;
yeast - 7 grams;
table salt - 1 teaspoon;
butter or full-fat margarine - 50 grams.

According to a simple recipe, thin pita bread is baked at home as follows:

Dissolve salt and yeast in heated water, stir 1 cup of flour and let the dough stand in a warm place for 10 minutes.
Melt the required amount of butter, let it cool, add it to the dough and stir everything until the mass is homogeneous.
Add the rest of the flour, knead the dough, which must be kept for half an hour in a warm place covered with a napkin.
After the last half hour, form the dough into a sausage, divide it into 7 equal parts to make it easier to roll out pita bread of the same size, and leave the dough in the form of seven balls for an additional 10 minutes.
Immediately roll the balls into the thinnest round sheets and bake them in a dry frying pan on both sides.

Place the finished pita breads on top of each other on a flat dish covered with a paper towel, immediately covering them with a cloth towel, under which they should cool without drying out. Lavash is served fresh; the remaining flatbreads can be stored in a bag in the refrigerator for a short time.

Recipe for thin lavash with kefir

From the dough according to this recipe, you can bake two types of flatbread: without oil in a dry frying pan - Armenian-style lavash, and with butter or vegetable oil - a ruddy and very tasty flatbread.

Ingredients:

wheat flour;
kefir - 1 glass;
oil - 1 tablespoon;
soda - 1 teaspoon;
salt - 1 teaspoon.

Lavash with kefir at home according to my grandmother’s recipe is prepared as follows:

Pour kefir into a suitable container, add baking soda and stir. Then add salt and oil and stir.
Gradually add sifted flour while stirring to knead the stiff dough until it does not stick to your hands.
Keep the resulting rough dough under cling film for 30 minutes.
Then divide the dough into 5-6 parts, roll into balls, cover with film so as not to dry out, and one by one roll into a thin flat cake and bake in a frying pan on both sides with or without oil.

Kefir-based lavash, baked without oil, immediately cover with a towel until completely cooled. If the cakes are dry, you can save them and restore their elasticity by covering them with wet wipes.

Homemade recipe for thin pita bread in the oven

If you need lavash with an increased area for preparing dishes from it (various rolls, shawarma, etc.), then an oven can help out, the baking tray of which is large enough, and the dough recipe for thin lavash is not particularly difficult.

Ingredients:

wheat flour - 350 grams;
drinking water - 150 milliliters;
butter - 3 tablespoons;
table salt - 1 teaspoon.

According to a homemade recipe, thin pita bread is prepared in the oven as follows:

Sift the flour and divide it into two parts.
Stir salt and oil in water and in this mixture, gradually adding flour, dilute the dough and knead it tightly. Cover the dough with film and leave for half an hour.
After this half hour, divide the elastic dough into suitable parts for baking on a baking sheet and roll them out thinly.
Bake the rolled out cakes one by one in the oven at +180 C for 2-3 minutes.
After removing each finished cake from the oven, moisten it in water in a convenient way for you, even holding it under running water from the tap.
Fold the wet lavash cakes into a stack and, covering with a towel, simmer them in this position for half an hour so that they become more elastic.

Such thin pita bread, baked in the oven, can be used to prepare all kinds of rolls and puff pastries. The shape of pita bread required for the dish can be cut with a knife or culinary scissors according to the configuration and size.

If you use whey instead of water when kneading dough for thin lavash at home, the taste of the finished flatbread will become more pleasant. The originality of the taste of lavash lies in its saltiness. For this reason, you should not reduce the prescription amount of salt.

Thick pita bread will be much tastier if before baking, brush the flatbread with water and sprinkle with sesame seeds or sunflower seeds/nuts. If you don’t have a large frying pan, you can use a smaller one and spread the edges of the cake along its sides, although the middle will bake more golden brown than the edges. Coating it with butter while hot will significantly improve the taste and aroma of thick pita bread. This method will also help out when drying out the flatbread in the oven.

Flour for lavash does not have to be only wheat; you can include rye flour in your home recipe, given that the latter does not contain gluten and for this reason you can add up to 40% of it. Ground oatmeal or bran is also suitable, which is also sprinkled on the surface of the pita bread before baking.

To prepare pita bread you will need:

2 cups of flour;
4 tablespoons oil;
A pinch of salt;
Half a glass of warm water.

This amount makes 8-10 pita breads, so if necessary, increase the proportions by two, three or more times.

How to make pita bread without yeast at home?

Take flour, add a pinch of salt, pour in vegetable oil and mix. Pour in water and knead the dough.

It should be elastic and not stick to your hands.

Place the dough in plastic or as I did it myself - cover it with cling film for 30 minutes. During this time, you can prepare the filling, for example, you can make it from smoked chicken with cucumbers and tomatoes.

After the dough has rested, you need to roll out the pita bread thinly. The size depends on where you will fry it; for me it’s a cast iron pan for pancakes. It is advisable to take the largest flat pan you have and then you can wrap it into a large shawarma.

The pita bread is fried for literally a minute on each side. As soon as you place the pita bread on a hot frying pan, it will immediately begin to bubble - this is how it is fried. Wait a little and turn over.

Do not rush to cool the finished pita bread; put it in a kitchen towel so that it retains heat longer. As practice has shown, in this case it becomes more elastic.

For greater elasticity, you can spray the pita bread with water from a spray bottle.

This is how you can quickly and easily prepare such delicious thin and everyone’s favorite flatbreads - lavash!

Cook with pleasure, and I, Myself, a Happy Housewife, will delight you with new and simple homemade recipes!