Laffa

Ingredients

Dough

• 600 gstrong white flour
• 7 ginstant yeast
• 400 mlwarm water
• 2 tspsalt
• 1 tspsugar
• 3 tbspolive oil

To finish

• olive oil
• za’atar or sesame, optional

To serve

• shawarma
• falafel
• hummus
• salads

Directions

1. Make a wet, slack dough with the flour, yeast, warm water, salt, sugar and oil.
2. Keep the hydration high, around 65 per cent. A wet dough is what gives laffa its soft, pliable, slightly chewy character, and a stiff dough gives you a cracker.
3. Knead it 10 minutes; it will stay sticky and that is correct.
4. Prove for 1 hour 30 minutes until doubled.
5. Divide into six, shape into balls with oiled hands, and rest them 20 minutes covered.
6. Roll or stretch each ball out very thin, to about 30 cm across and 3 mm thick.
7. Stretch it thin but keep it even. Thin patches burn through and thick ones stay doughy, and a laffa has to survive being wrapped tightly around a filling.
8. Heat a heavy flat pan, a pizza stone or a taboon as hot as you can get it.
9. The bread wants a very hot surface and a short cook. A moderate pan dries it out and it will crack instead of folding.
10. Cook each bread for about 1 minute a side, until it puffs in patches and shows dark blistered spots.
11. It should stay pale between the blisters. Uniformly browned laffa has gone too far and will not roll.
12. Stack the finished breads under a cloth as you go.
13. Stacking them under a cloth is what keeps them soft. Left in the open they stiffen within minutes.
14. Brush with olive oil and scatter za’atar if you want it.
15. Serve warm, wrapped around shawarma or falafel with hummus and salads, or torn for dipping.
16. Laffa is larger, thinner and softer than pita and it has no pocket, which is exactly why it is used as a wrap rather than filled.
17. It came to Israel with Iraqi Jewish immigrants, who brought the taboon oven and the bread with them.

Technique

• It is also called Iraqi pita, though it has no pocket and is not a pita.
• It goes stale fast and is meant to be eaten within an hour of coming off the heat.
• A very hot pizza stone in a domestic oven is the closest thing to a taboon wall.

Substitutions

• A cast iron pan, heated until smoking.
• Half wholemeal flour, which is closer to the older version.

Variations

• Brushed with olive oil and za’atar and eaten alone.
• Made smaller, as individual wraps.
• Taboon bread, the thicker version baked on hot stones.

History

An Iraqi Jewish bread that displaced pita for street wraps because it holds more filling without tearing.

Frequently asked questions

What is Laffa?

Laffa is a bread & pastry from Israel: large soft flatbread baked on a taboon wall, wrapped around shawarma or falafel. An Iraqi Jewish bread that displaced pita for street wraps because it holds more filling without tearing.

How long does Laffa take to make?

Laffa takes 20 min plus 2 hr rising of preparation and 20 min of cooking. The recipe makes 6 breads. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Laffa?

Yes, within limits. A cast iron pan, heated until smoking. Half wholemeal flour, which is closer to the older version.

What is the most important thing to get right in Laffa?

The bread wants a very hot surface and a short cook. A moderate pan dries it out and it will crack instead of folding.