Soft Sourdough Flatbreads
delicious flaky sourdough flatbreads
From the eastern Mediterranean, across central Asia to India, leavened flatbreads are a dietary staple. Those traditional flatbread have been adopted as an integral part of Australia’s multicultural cuisine too.
There’s no need for me to extoll the deliciousness of a spicy curry served with roti or chapati to mop up the juices, or garlicky charred lamb wrapped in a souvlaki pita , so the discovery of a recipe for Greek Flatbreads made with leftover sourdough starter in Emilie Raffa’s “Artisan Sourdough Made Simple” spurred me into action.
Slow fermentation transforms bread dough made with wheat flour into a delicious tummy friendly treat, but because Emilie’s original recipe only rests the dough for an hour before cooking I took the risk with my initial batch and bulk fermented the dough overnight. It was a great success and the quality suffered no ill effects.
Since that initial bake, I’ve refined and adjusted the original recipe in easy stages to suit my needs. I’ve halved the oil, eliminated the baking powder, and used bread flour instead of all purpose (plain) flour which means a greater volume of water is needed. Without hesitation, I proof the dough for a total of 20 hours before shaping and cooking. (**Up date** 1.07.18 I just made flatbreads from a batch of dough which had languished in the fridge for 40 hours. They were still light flaky and delicious.)
The changed recipe makes flat breads that are light, flaky, tummy friendly and totally delicious. They are soft enough to use as a wrap when made with thinly rolled dough and delicate enough to serve with a curry or tagine. This is no longer a recipe to use up leftover activated sourdough starter but a great reason to wake the starter up.
making delicious flaky sourdough flatbreads
Soft Sourdough Flatbreads
240g active sourdough starter
140g thick Greek yoghurt
60 mls olive oil
600 white bread flour
10g sea salt
30g castor sugar
200 mis filtered water
approx 60g melted butter
Weigh the active starter into a large non-reactive mixing bowl.
Add the yoghurt and oil and whisk the liquids until they are homogenous and smooth.
Add the flour, salt, sugar and most of the water to the bowl.
Mix into a shaggy dough adding the remaining water if necessary.
Cover the bowl and allow the dough to rest fro 20 minutes.
Lightly flour the bench then tip the dough out of the bowl.
Knead the dough until it’s smooth and elastic.
Clean out the bowl, lightly oil the inside then return the dough to the bowl.
Cover and rest the dough for 45 minutes.
Tip it onto the kitchen bench, no need to use flour this time, then stretch the dough out as thinly as possible.
Fold the dough back in on itself until you have a boule.
Return the dough to the bowl, cover and allow the dough to rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk.
Gently deflate the dough without removing it from the bowl, replace the cover then put the bowl in the fridge for 12-16 hours.
When your ready to cook the flatbreads, tip the dough onto the bench, shape into a square then divide it into 16.
Cover the squares of dough and allow it to relax for 10 minutes.
Heat a large pan over a medium heat.
Roll the dough out thinly then one at a time cook the flatbreads in the hot pan.
The top surface will blister and puff indicating it’s time to brush the surface with melted butter and flip the dough over to cook the second side. It needs only a few more minutes.
Remove the flatbread to a tea bowl covered cooling wire. Cover it with a second tea towel to steam.
Continue rolling and cooking the dough until finished.
Makes 16 large flatbreads which freeze beautifully.
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27 comments on “Soft Sourdough Flatbreads”
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Please Pass the Recipe by Sandra Gay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Please Pass the Recipe 
Can you make them dairy free by substituting or omitting the yogurt?
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I haven’t tried either. I think omission would be detrimental, especially to the texture.
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Hi, I would like to try this recipe without adding the sugar, do you know if it can be omitted? Thank you!
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Hi Sanz, it should be fine, good luck with it
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what i the longest you can leave it in the fridge for ?
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Good question. I usually leave it about 16 hours but have a batch there now that’s had 40+hrs. The rule of thumb is the smaller the amount of starter the longer you can leave the dough to prove. I’ll be cooking the flatbreads shortly so fingers crossed they are still OK
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The flatbreads made from the dough that was in the fridge for close to 48 hours have suffered no ill effects
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PS what’s a non-reactive mixing bowl?
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Plastic or glass, the acid of sourdough can react with metal mixing bowls, make them corrode. Baking SD is very satisfying, well worth starting starter
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This looks good. Thing is, I’m going to have to start a starter.
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Your right, nothing better than a good flatbread and this one looks to be great. I’m thinking I’ll give this a go using my rye sourdough starter. Thanks for a great recipe.
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You’re welcome Ron 😀
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Ooooh, yes! bookmarking this recipe. With multiple pots of sulky starter strewn around my kitchen, I can’t wait to refresh them all and try your light and flaky flatbreads.
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These flatbreads are a very good reason to get those sourdough starters working. Enjoy…
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These flatbreads look fantastic… if only I could pull one from the photo 🙂
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Thanks Moya, I’d be happy to share…
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These look the business! Thanks, Sandra, definitely bookmarking. Lx
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Thanks Linda. They really are great and it’s amazing the number of uses you can find for tender flaky flatbread.
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I was on an Indian cookery course a couple of weeks ago. We made chapati. A real delight when eaten fresh.
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Chapatis were my first experience making flatbread. The ingredients list here is a tad more complex but well worth it for the light and flaky result
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Those lovelies look like a West Indian roti waiting to happen 🙂
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Thanks Kate, univearsal flatbread…
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Exactly 2 minutes after reading your post, I received this in my email box
It is an omen, especially with the amount of spare starter we have.
Thanks.
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Seems like it. My flatbreads might now also be pseudo burritos. Thanks for the link 😃
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