Podpłomyki: thin Polish flour-and-water flatbreads baked on a dry pan
One of the oldest breads in Poland: a dough of flour, water, a little oil and salt, no yeast and no sourdough, once baked on a stone by the fire and today on a hot pan. In two minutes the flatbread puffs, blisters brown and smells of grain. With butter and honey beside a mug of milk, with curd cheese, or instead of a tortilla around a goulash. Eight from 300 g of flour, in under an hour.
Your own work in that: 30 min.
- Kneading 5 min
- Dough resting 20 min
- Rolling 5 min
- Baking on the pan 20 min
Step by step
0 / 5 doneKnead the dough
Mix the flour with the salt (and the baking powder, if using). Pour in the lukewarm water and oil, stir with a spoon, then knead by hand 3–4 minutes into a smooth, fairly firm ball that doesn't stick to your palms. Too dry? Add water a teaspoon at a time. Too wet? A spoon of flour.
Ingredients: 300 g plain flour · 150 ml water · 2 tbsp oil · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp baking powder
TipThe oil is the only fat in the dough and it is what keeps the flatbreads soft instead of snapping like matzo. Without it they still work, only crisp.
A smooth, fairly firm ballLet it rest
Cover the ball with an inverted bowl and leave 20 minutes. The gluten relaxes and the dough rolls thin without springing back.
TipWithout the rest the dough springs back under the pin and the breads come out thick. Twenty minutes is the difference between a pancake and a podpłomyk.
Under a bowl, twenty minutesRoll thin
Divide the dough into 8 pieces and round each into a ball. On a lightly floured counter roll each ball into a disc 2 mm thick, about 18 cm across; light should show through. The shape needn't be perfect; these breads are irregular by nature.
Two millimetres, translucentBake on a dry pan
Heat a pan (cast iron or steel is best) without fat over high heat until a drop of water sizzles and vanishes at once. Lay in a flatbread: after 60–90 seconds bubbles rise and brown spots appear underneath. Flip and bake 45–60 seconds on the other side. Roll the next one while the previous bakes — all eight take about 20 minutes in total.
TipThe pan must be truly hot: on a lukewarm one the bread dries out instead of puffing. The bubbles are steam trapped in the dough, exactly the principle of pita.
Dry, very hot pan, bubbles within a minuteServe warm
Stack the finished breads and wrap in a cloth: the steam softens them and they stay pliable. Eat warm with butter and honey, with curd cheese and chives, or wrap them around goulash or pan-fried vegetables. The next day, reheat 20 seconds on the pan.
Ingredients: 40 g butter · 3 tbsp honey
In a cloth, so they stay soft
Before you start
With wholemeal flour
Half plain, half wholemeal rye or spelt: darker, more grainy flatbreads, closer to the ones from a village oven. You may need a spoon more water.
With herbs or garlic
A teaspoon of dried thyme or caraway in the dough, or a crushed garlic clove. After baking, brush with garlic butter: an instant bread for soup.
Hard as crackers
Rolled too thick and baked too long, or too little oil. Two millimetres, a minute a side, and straight under the cloth.
