Soft flatbread

I've tried making pita bread and naan before, and had OK-ish results, but they've always been drier and tougher than I'd like.

A couple of days ago I wanted flatbread for making shawarma wraps, and I found this strange but fantastic recipe on the King Arthur website, called "Soft Wrap Bread". It's a method I've never seen before - you pour boiling water over flour (more on that later), but it produced a very pliable dough, and the resulting bread is soft and flexible and sturdy, perfect for making wraps, or to eat with curry like a naan. 

3 cups flour, divided into 2 cups and 1 cup

1 cup boiling water, plus 1/4 to 1/2 cup additional water

1/4 cup potato flour or 1/2 cup dried potato flakes

1 1/4 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons oil

1 teaspoon yeast

This is more straightforward if you have instant yeast, but I can never find it, so I'm giving directions for regular active dry yeast.

Put 2 cups of flour in a large mixing bowl (or the bowl of your stand mixer). Pour 1 cup of boiling water into the flour and stir together until you get a ball of dough. Add a little more water if needed. 

Cover and set aside for 30 minutes. 

In another bowl, mix together additional 1 cup flour, potato flakes, and salt. When the 30 minute cool-down is done, dissolve the yeast in 1/4 cup warm water. Start your mixer on stir (with dough hook) and add in the flour/potato flake mixture, the dissolved yeast, and oil. Add water as necessary to get a cohesive dough. I ended up having to add close to an additional 1/2 cup. Knead in mixer for 5 minutes. Cover and let rise for 1-2 hours.

Divide into 8-10 pieces. 10 pieces yielded 7 inch circles for me, which was just right for the size of my skillet. If you have a larger pan and want bigger wraps, do 8 pieces. Take each piece and fold over on itself and pinch at the bottom to form a smooth ball. Cover them and let rest for 30 minutes. 

Lightly flour a surface and roll out thinly. Like with all bread products, if it's not rolling out well, go halfway, then leave them alone for 10 minutes or so and try again. I could only get them to about 4-5 inches on the first try, but after a rest, they rolled out nice and thin. 

Heat a skillet on medium-high. You do not need to oil the pan. Plop the dough circle into the skillet, making sure it's flat, with no folds. 

This is what it looks like after a minute and 10 seconds - bubbles have formed. 

Flip it over with tongs (or with your fingers, if you have blacksmith hands like I do)

After about 20 seconds it will start to puff. When it's fully puffed, it's done.