Village bread Pan-cooked Yeasted

Bazlama in a pan

Name: Bazlama in a pan
Prep time: 80 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 110 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Turkish
Ingredients: 220 ml Lukewarm water; 7 g Dried yeast; 5 g Sugar; 500 g Plain flour; 150 g Yoghurt; 10 g Salt; 30 g Butter (for brushing)

A yeasted yoghurt dough 1.5 cm thick on a dry pan at 200 °C. A bazlama that balloons in the first minute is cooking on its own steam.

This page says how to make it For what it is, where it comes from and the mechanism →

Doughs and pastries · Turkish · Budget · Weekend batch · Freezes well

110 minTime

359Kcal / serving

2153Total kcal

Preparation: 20 min
Cooking: 30 min
Resting: 60 min
Difficulty: Needs attention
Cost: Very cheap
Season: All year

Where this dish comes from

Bazlama is the griddle bread of Anatolian villages, made in any home because it needs no oven. Yoghurt gives the dough a light tang and softness, and yeast makes the crumb open. On a hot dry pan the underside sets fast, the water inside turns to steam and the bread swells. That swelling makes the pocket in the middle and the tender crumb.

Method

Before the heat goes on

Warm the water to 35–40 °C.
Heat the pan over medium-high heat for 5 minutes.

You will need: A cast-iron pan or sac · A clean cloth

Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm water; add the flour, yoghurt and salt and knead 8 minutes. Prove at 24–27 °C until doubled, about 50 minutes.

Look for The dough should have doubled with bubbles showing on top.

Why The acid in yoghurt softens the gluten slightly and keeps the dough supple; water and yoghurt together give about 70% moisture, which is where the softness comes from.

Starch still asleep The granules are just floating there doing nothing. No body arrives before 62 °C.

A gluten web is forming Gliadin and glutenin hydrated into an elastic net. This is what will hold the gas. no way back

The yeast is working It is eating sugar and making carbon dioxide plus aroma compounds. Slow work, but this is where depth comes from.

Salt · 1.12% Right in the window. Flavours sharpen, bitterness retreats, water is held.
Divide into 6, rest 10 minutes and pat each into a round 1.5 cm thick and 18 cm across.

Look for The rounds should stay the size they are rolled.

Why The short rest relaxes the gluten so the rounds do not shrink back. 1.5 cm is about as thick as can cook through in five minutes in a pan.

Starch still asleep The granules are just floating there doing nothing. No body arrives before 62 °C.

A gluten web is forming Gliadin and glutenin hydrated into an elastic net. This is what will hold the gas. no way back

The yeast is working It is eating sugar and making carbon dioxide plus aroma compounds. Slow work, but this is where depth comes from.

Salt · 1.12% Right in the window. Flavours sharpen, bitterness retreats, water is held.
Cook in the dry pan at about 200 °C, 2 to 3 minutes a side; brush with butter as it comes off and wrap in a cloth.

Look for It should puff in the first minute with brown spots on both sides; the centre should reach 90 °C.

Why Once the underside sets, the steam inside cannot escape and inflates the bread. The cloth holds the steam leaving the crust and keeps the bazlama soft.

If it went wrong

If it browns but the middle is doughy, lower the heat, cover and give it two more minutes a side. If it will not puff, the pan is too cool: heat it two more minutes.

Starch gelatinised The granules soaked up water, swelled and burst into a network. It has thickened, and it will firm further as it cools. no way back

A gluten web is forming Gliadin and glutenin hydrated into an elastic net. This is what will hold the gas. no way back

The yeast is working Wrong temperature. Outside 24–40 °C it stalls, and past 55 °C it dies.

Maillard is running Amino acids have met reducing sugars. The crust, the roasted flavour and that smell all come from here. no way back

Frying dynamics Surface water is flashing to steam and pushing outward — that is the shield keeping the oil out. no way back

Salt · 1.08% Right in the window. Flavours sharpen, bitterness retreats, water is held.

Too much starch. It will set into a rubbery gel once cool — add more liquid.

What the model could follow

This recipe was run through the engine step by step — what goes in when, and at what temperature and for how long. The reactions above come from that run.

peak 200 °C · 103 minutes · engine 1.0.0 · confidence low

Servings

6

Ingredients

220 ml Lukewarm water
7 g Dried yeast
5 g Sugar
500 g Plain flour
150 g Yoghurt
10 g Salt
30 g Butter (for brushing)

What did you think

Who is eating

Everyone A baby under one Pregnant A child An athlete Someone living with diabetes

Safety No salt is added to food for a baby under one. Their kidneys are not yet able to clear the extra sodium, and the salt they need is already in breast milk and in the food itself. If the same pot feeds everybody, season the plate rather than the pan.

Safety No sugar is added to food for a baby under one. It is not only about teeth: a baby taught to expect sweetness learns to refuse what is not sweet. If something needs sweetening, use the fruit itself — not its juice, which becomes free sugar the moment it is squeezed.

Not about the dish — about the person

The infant feeding calendar

6 months

The first six months Context established

From birth to the end of the sixth month, breast milk and nothing else — not even water. This is a health recommendation rather than a kitchen rule, and it sits here only so the date is known while something is being prepared in a kitchen.

World Health Organization, Infant and young child feeding

6 months

Complementary feeding Context established

Around six months a baby’s need for energy and nutrients begins to exceed what breast milk provides, which is why complementary foods start — alongside it, not instead of it. Two to three meals a day at 6-8 months, three to four at 9-23 months.

World Health Organization, Infant and young child feeding

24 months

Breastfeeding continuing Context established

Breastfeeding does not stop when complementary foods start: it continues to two years of age and beyond. The 24 months is a floor, not a ceiling.

World Health Organization, Infant and young child feeding

12 months

Honey and infant botulism Context established

No honey until one year old. The Clostridium botulinum spores in it are harmless in an adult gut and multiply in an infant one. Cooking does not kill the spores, which is why the rule covers a cake or a pudding with honey in it too.

NHS, Foods to avoid giving babies and young children

5 years

Shapes that are a choking risk Context established

Whole nuts are not given below five years old — the reason is choking, not allergy. The same logic covers anything round and firm: quarter a grape lengthways, cut sausage along its length rather than across. The nut itself is not the problem; ground or as a butter it is fine from around six months. What changes is the shape, not the ingredient.

NHS, Foods to avoid giving babies and young children

Protein in a day

0.83–1.31 g/kg

Infants, children and adolescents Context established

Per kilogram the need is higher in a child than an adult, because growth wants protein too. There is no single number: it runs between 0.83 and 1.31 g by age. Which age takes which figure is not written here, because writing it without reading the table would be inventing it.

European Food Safety Authority, Dietary Reference Values for protein, 2012

What is done, and what is not: The four rules here are about food safety and run on every recipe. This baby's own development, allergy history and growth are not things a rule engine can know: the stages, textures and cutting shapes on the page are general, and fitting them to this baby is done with a paediatrician.

This choice is not stored anywhere.

Diets

Gluten-free Not suitable Flour
Vegan Suitable with a substitution Yoghurt, Butter Instead: Yoghurt → Tahini; Butter → Olive oil / Tahini
Vegetarian Suitable as it is
Lactose-free Suitable with a substitution Yoghurt Instead: Yoghurt → Tahini
Diabetes-friendly It depends Free sugar. What it does to blood glucose depends on the portion and on what is eaten with it.

This verdict comes from the recipe\u2019s own ingredient list. The label on a packaged ingredient is always the last word.

What a swap costs

Yoghurt → Tahini Stops happening: A gluten web is forming, The yeast is working, Starch gelatinised +133 kcal · +12.6 g fat · +3.4 g protein
Butter → Olive oil No reaction in this recipe is lost. +8 kcal · +1.0 g fat · -0.1 g protein
Butter → Tahini No reaction in this recipe is lost. -6 kcal · -1.4 g fat · +0.8 g protein

Computed weight for weight. A ratio per pair would be better, and there is no sourced table of them, so the assumption is stated rather than hidden.

Calculated nutrition

358.9 kcal
9.6 g Protein
65.8 g Carbohydrate
5.7 g Fat
2.4 g Fibre

Per serving, computed from raw weights as bought. Cooking drives water off and sometimes adds fat, and neither is accounted for.

Vitamins and minerals · per serving

Vitamins

Vitamin A 41.0 µg · 5%
Vitamin D 0.03 µg · 1%
Vitamin E 0.18 mg · 2%
Vitamin K 0.65 µg · 1%
Vitamin C 0.13 mg · 0%
B1 (thiamin) 0.13 mg · 12%
B2 (riboflavin) 0.08 mg · 6%
B3 (niacin) 1.2 mg · 8%
B5 (pantothenic acid) 0.52 mg · 9%
Vitamin B6 0.05 mg · 4%
Folate 32.7 µg · 16%
Vitamin B12 0.10 µg · 4%

Minerals

Potassium 137 mg · 7%
Calcium 45.7 mg · 6%
Phosphorus 119 mg · 17%
Magnesium 22.3 mg · 6%
Iron 1.0 mg · 7%
Zinc 0.85 mg · 9%
Copper 0.13 mg · 13%
Manganese 0.57 mg · 29%
Selenium 29.0 µg · 53%
Sodium 661 mg · 28%

% of daily need for:

Percentages are shares of the reference values printed on food labels (Turkish Food Codex labelling regulation, Annex 13 (identical to EU Regulation 1169/2011, Annex XIII)), not a personal requirement. For sodium the reference is a ceiling. Computed from raw ingredients; cooking lowers some vitamins. "~": not measured in some of the ingredients.

USDA FoodData Central SR Legacy · ANSES Ciqual 2025 · CoFID 2021 · Swiss FCDB 7.1

composition figures unsourced · held in the system

Nutri-Score

C Per 100 g of the raw mixture, computed with the published Nutri-Score algorithm (2023 update). Confidence: low.

Nutri-Score compares a food with others of its kind; it is not a health claim or personal dietary advice on its own. Cooking drives off water, so the cooked dish may score differently.

How it was calculated

Category: general food · Negative points 9 − positive points 2 = 7

Energy 977.2 kJ → 2
Saturated fat 2.07 g → 2
Sugars 1.45 g → 0
Salt 1.076 g → 5
Protein 6.26 g → 2
Fibre 1.53 g → 0
Fruit, vegetables, legumes %0 → 0

Salt = sodium × 2.5. Only ingredients plainly in the fruit-vegetable-legume group are counted towards that share; doubtful ones are left out, which can only make the letter worse. Values from USDA FoodData Central and Ciqual; 81% of the weight is a close rather than exact match.

After the heat goes off

Serving

Warm, with butter and honey or cheese, or beside menemen.

Keeping · 2 days

Once cool, two days in a bag at room temperature.

Cooling and reheating

Thirty seconds a side in a dry pan.

Freezes

Two months, with paper between them.

What is left

Stale bazlama is toasted in strips or turned into tirit.

For a child

From 9 months the soft crumb can be given in strips to hold. Honey is not given to a child under one (NHS).

Where to go from here

Deep frying The method this recipe rests on
Yoghurt What it does in heat, water and acid
Butter What it does in heat, water and acid
Yeast What it does in heat, water and acid
Pişi Similar method, or something that sits on the same table
Gözleme with spinach and cheese Similar method, or something that sits on the same table
Pide with minced meat Similar method, or something that sits on the same table
Budget Other recipes that answer the same need
Weekend batch Other recipes that answer the same need
Freezes well Other recipes that answer the same need

Taste profile

What it tastes like

The axes that define this recipe: richness 44, sweet 28.

Sweet 28
Salty 13
Sour 16
Bitter 13
Umami 30
Heat 0
Richness 44
Aroma 44

This profile is computed rather than measured: the role-weighted average of its ingredients’ taste vectors, shifted by what the cooking does. The thin line is the database average on that axis.

Computed similarity