Lavash: thin Armenian flatbread from a frying pan
The Armenian bread on UNESCO's intangible heritage list, traditionally slapped onto the hot wall of a clay tonir oven. At home a very hot dry pan and patience with the rolling pin will do, because lavash must be almost paper thin. The dough is essentially flour, water and salt (a little oil and yeast just make it easier to work); everything depends on an hour's rest, after which the gluten has relaxed enough to roll out without tearing.
Your own work in that: 40 min.
- Dough 15 min
- Resting 60 min
- Rolling and cooking 25 min
Step by step
0 / 5 doneKnead the dough
Mix the flour with the salt and yeast, add the water and oil and knead 10 minutes, until smooth and soft but not sticky. Lavash needs no yeast at all, but three grams noticeably help it stretch and stop it tearing.
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour · 300 ml water · 1½ tsp salt · 3 g dried yeast · 1 tbsp oil
Rest it an hour
Cover the dough with an upturned bowl and leave 60 minutes. This is the crucial stage: gluten tightened by kneading has to relax, or the dough shrinks back after every pass of the pin and you will never reach the right thickness.
An hour under a bowl, no hurryingRoll it until it is translucent
Divide into 8 balls. Roll each on a floured surface into a thin round the size of your pan's base (about 26 cm across), 1–2 mm thick. Through a properly rolled lavash you should be able to make out the grain of the board. Dust sparingly but regularly. It is easiest to roll the next bread while the previous one is in the pan.
Ingredients: 80 g flour for dusting
TipA thin, long, handle-less pin works best. A thick kitchen roller does the job, but it is harder to feel an even thickness through it.
A millimetre or two, until the board shows throughCook on a very hot pan
Heat a dry, heavy (ideally cast-iron) pan on maximum heat for 5 minutes. Lay the bread on and cook 40 seconds, until it balloons and dark, almost black spots appear, then turn and cook 20 seconds. Less time than you expect. All eight, rolled as you go, take about 20 minutes in total.
TipThe dark spots are the signature of lavash, not burning. A bread with no spots means the pan was too cool, and it will end up dry as a cracker.
Forty seconds, big blisters, dark spotsKeep it under a damp cloth
Stack the finished breads and cover them with a slightly damp cloth. Lavash is so thin that in the open air it dries fast and turns brittle as a crisp. Under a damp cloth it softens within a few minutes, stays pliable and can be rolled.
A damp cloth, or it soon goes brittle
Before you start
What to use it for
Wrapping kebabs and grilled meat, dipping into hummus, or as a base for a quick pizza. In Armenia it is rolled around herbs and salty cheese and served with almost every meal.
Dried for storage
Dried lavash keeps for months. To revive it, spray with water and wrap in a cloth for 20 minutes — it comes back almost completely soft. That is the traditional Armenian way of storing bread.
In the oven
It can also be baked on a hot stone at 250 °C, 90 seconds a side. That bakes more evenly, but the blisters are smaller and less dramatic.
How it differs from pita
Pita is thicker and splits into two layers, forming a pocket. Lavash is a single layer and thinner — it is rolled around fillings rather than stuffed.
