Somuni 2.0

Sat, 09 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Instructions Link to heading

Add the flour to a large mixing bowl.
Pour in the activated yeast starter, the remaining lukewarm milk, and the lukewarm water.
Mix with a wooden spoon or by hand just until all the flour has absorbed the liquid and no dry patches remain.
Do not knead yet.
Cover the bowl and let the dough rest undisturbed for 6–7 minutes.

Sprinkle the salt over the dough.
Add a tiny splash of water to help the salt dissolve.
Knead thoroughly until the dough becomes smooth, elastic, and still distinctly sticky.
Do not be tempted to add too much extra flour, the stickiness helps create the airy interior.
Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and let the dough rise for 1 to 1.5 hours, until doubled in size.

Gently turn the proofed dough onto a floured surface.
Divide it into portions of about 150–160 g each.
Shape each portion into a smooth dough ball.
Place the dough balls on a board and cover them with a tea towel while the oven preheats.

Preheat the oven to its maximum temperature, ideally 250–300 °C.
Place a small oven-safe cup of water on the bottom of the oven to create steam.
Flip a large baking tray upside down and heat it in the oven.
Gently flatten each dough ball with your hands or a rolling pin into a thin, even round, about 20 cm in diameter.
Use the edge of a plastic dough scraper or a knife to lightly press a checkerboard pattern into the surface.

Carefully place the shaped dough onto the back of the very hot tray.
Bake for 6–9 minutes, depending on how hot your oven gets.
Watch closely. The intense heat and steam should make the dough puff up quickly, creating the classic pocket, or džep.
Remove the somuni as soon as the tops turn mottled golden brown.

Immediately transfer the hot somuni into a clean kitchen towel.
Wrap them tightly and let them rest for about 10 minutes.
The trapped steam softens the crust and gives them their pillow-soft texture.
If using, brush or spoon the garlic, parsley, and olive oil glaze over the tops after resting.

The gold standard for flatbreads. Finding authentic Klas Tip 500 flour from Sarajevo in a local shop changed the game for this batch.

Starting with a full cube of fresh yeast. Real baking always starts with the basics.

Feeding the yeast with a pinch of sugar before the lukewarm milk goes in.

Lukewarm milk added. Now we wait for those first bubbles to appear.

Alive and active. A perfectly proofed yeast starter ready to bring life to the flour."

Combining the starter with the flour.

We'll let it sit for a few minutes before adding the salt to let the flour hydrate naturally.

Adding a generous layer of salt with a tiny splash of water to dissolve it into the dough.

Divided into ~160g portions and shaped into clean rounds. Time to let the gluten relax before rolling them out thin.

Pressed flat with the traditional checkerboard pattern. Ready to hit the back of a scorching hot baking tray.

The magic of high heat and steam. Watch them puff up into balloons right on the pan!

Prepping the twist: finely minced garlic and dried parsley waiting for the oil.

Floating in liquid gold. Letting the garlic and herbs infuse into the olive oil while the somuni bake.

Our garlic-parsley-olive oil glaze freshly brushed over the warm crusts. The kitchen smells unbelievable right now.

For version 2.0, I stripped away the yogurt and went back to the basics: water, milk, fresh yeast, and Sarajevo flour.