Pita Bread

This is modified from Laurel’s Kitchen Bread Book:

Mix to dissolve

• 2 tsp dry yeast
• 1/2 Cup warm water
• 1 Tbsp honey

Make a sponge of

• 2 1/2 Cups warm water
• 3 cups whole wheat flour (I fiddle with the kinds of flour almost each time I make it, substituting a little rye, oat, etc.)

add yeast mixture and stir well. Let rise until double then beat sponge 100 strokes with spoon and add

• 3 Cups white flour
• 2 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 Cup olive oil

Knead very well, adjusting water or flour to make a soft dough. Form into ball, smooth side up in proofing container. Cover and keep in warm place. After 90 minutes gently poke center of dough with wet finger, if hole does not fill or dough sighs, continue to next step.

Press flat, form into smooth round, let rise again, about half as long.

Preheat oven to 450 with pizza stone on floor of oven (I remove the shelves). Turn dough out, press flat on board and divide into 24 pieces and shape into smooth rounds (I work in quarters, leaving the dough covered in the bowl.) Protect the dough from drying as you move through these steps, a moist towel can help. Let the rounds rest, they should be soft. On floured board, roll rounds into circles about 6 inches across and as thick as a heavy wool blanket. If you roll too thin, or are too rough with the rolling pin the bread will puff in places but not form a nice pocket.

Pita breads cooling on stove-top rack

Place the rounds on baking stone. (My stone can hold 3 rounds at a time, so I stagger rolling rounds and baking to protect the dough as much as possible.)  Bake about 3 minutes, breads will have some brown spots. Remove with a long tongs place on cooling rack. Check the first batch to be sure the insides are cooked (moist but not shiny-wet).

cooked 12/18/11

Localizing this recipe

10/26/12  I’m taking the recipe above back closer to its Laurel’s Kitchen roots and localizing it by using 100% whole wheat from Harvest Ridge Organics. The oil was Camelina Gold from Old World Oils in Ritzville, WA. I like the honey as a sweetener and I think it gives the yeast a jump out of the starting blocks.

This time I mixed all the flour with the salt then added the wet ingredients into a well in the center of the dry and stirred to slowly wet the flour. When it was all moist I switched to kneading.

I’m finding that the Harvest Ridge flour is slower that white flour to absorb the water, so things are sticky, gooey when I start kneading. Resist the urge to add flour. I knead by hand and have learned to have a little plastic scraper to get most of the dough off my fingers at the end of kneading and then to “wash” my hands over the bowl with a tbsp more flour. The dry flour helps ball up the last of the goo on my hands. Let the dough rest while you wash up in the sink and then fold it several dozen times. I pull out a chunk from the side and fold on top, then rotate the bowl 90 degrees and do it again, stretching the gluten.

Honey Butter Oat Bread

I modified this from Laurel’s Kitchen Bread Book,

I do the mixing and proofing in a large plastic bowl with a lid.

• 2 Tbsp Honey
• 1/2 Cup warm water
• 2 tsp dry yeast

mix to dissolve yeast, let sit.

To large bowl, add in order, stirring each step:

• 2 Cups hot water
• 1/2 Cup raw rolled oats
• 1/2 Cup powdered milk or buttermilk
• 3 Cups white flour
• 3 Tbsp butter, cut into chunks

Make sure mixture is not too warm, add yeast, give vigorous stir, cover and let this sponge rise in warm place

When doubled, beat sponge 100 strokes with spoon then add

• 2 Cups whole wheat flour
• 2 1/2 tsp salt

Kneed dough well, using up to 3/4 Cup white flour to manage the stickiness.

Let rise again, divide and shape into 2 loaves, bake 325F about one hour.

cooked 12/30/11 – family likes this
cooked 3/17/13 using 100% sifted hard red from Harvest Ridge Organics.

Alternative Method

I’m trying an autolyse method (6/27/12) to see if I can get more gluten and a higher rise.

• 3 3/4 Cup white flour (all purpose)
• 2 Cup whole wheat
• 1 1/2 C water

Stir together, let stand as lumpy mess for 30 minutes. While waiting make yeast mixture

• 2 Tbsp honey
• 1/2 Cup warm water
• 2 tsp dry yeast

Add all then stir

• yeast mixture
• 1/2 Cup water
• 1/2 Cup powdered buttermilk
• 3 Tbsp butter
• 1 Cup cooked oats (left overs)
• 1 Tbsp more honey
• 2 1/2 tsp salt

This made a very gooey mess. Rather than kneed I’m going to try turning with a spoon every 1/2 hour. The result was more like a quick bread.  Very moist, OK crumb, not a great rise.  I added 1/2 C all purpose flour during the mixing and have now edited the ingredients to add 3/4 cup. Start with my amounts above and see if its too moist.

Sourdough Method

I’ve been playing with sourdough starter. The family wanted hamburger buns but it seemed they should be sweeter not sour. So, as an experiment I made a small batch of honey oat with only sour dough starter for leavening.

• 1 Cup+ starter
• 2 Cup more or less whole wheat
• 1 1/2 cup water

Make a sponge in a large covered bowl. I started at 8AM

At noon, Remove 1 Cup starter back to its pot, then add to remaining sponge

• 2 Cups+ white flour
• 3 Tbsp butter
• 1/2 Cup raw oats (dry)
• 1 Tbsp more honey
• 2 tsp salt

Stir/knead, mine was quite sticky and wet so I set aside for an hour for the oats to hydrate. If needed, add a bit more flour until you can knead a moist dough.  Let rise (I waited till 4PM). Shape into loaves. Let rise 30+ min. Bake 350 50 min for a loaf pan. 25 min for a hamburger bun.

Susan’s Variation on Nils’ Honey Oat Sourdough
You need an oversized bowl for the first rise. So start the sponge in a regular bowl and save the large bowl for the oat mix. Also, you do want to start this in the morning.

Mix together well and let the sponge sit about half an hour (it should bubble):
2 c starter 1 c warm water
2 T honey 1 t yeast (or 2 if your starter isn’t very active)
1 c whole wheat flour

Meanwhile mix, until butter melts and liquid is absorbed:
2 c hot water ½ c oats
½ c powdered milk 1/8 c potato flakes (optional)
3 T unsalted butter 2 t salt

Add the sponge to the oat mixture and stir in about:
3-3 ½ c all purpose, unbleached flour

Mix well. The dough should be sticky and still quite wet. Cover and let rise in warm place until double (a few hours).

Prepare your kneading surface with a lot (at least a cup) of flour. Pour the dough on to the surface. Knead for about 5 minutes, continuing to add flour (perhaps another cup) as needed, until the dough is smooth and tender and does not stick to your hands or the kneading surface. Let the dough rest and then shape into rolls or loaves. Put loaves in pans. Let rise again another hour or so.

Bake at 325 for about 50 mins for loaves, half that time for rolls.

Susan appends her recipe with:

The bread rose beautifully and has a wonderful crumb and crust, but if folks really want a good honey/oat taste, I think they’d need to increase both of those ingredients because the sourdough sort of counteracts them. To my prior recipe, which is a wonderful basic sandwich bread or an excellent base for herbs or other goodies, I would increase the salt to 3 t. It just lacks a bit of flavor.