If you are interested in seeing the inside of real Afghan bakery check out:

 http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=5965d69cb83a55ec117bc25fc5bb779365b4fb5d&rf=sitemap

Found on the NY Times website "An Afghan Breadmaker's Struggle."

 Flash video shows the inside of the bakery, fermentation steps in a bath tube, scaling the dough,  kneading and stretching technigues, getting the flat breads into a wood fire pit.

 Really exceptional shots of traditional bread making.

 Erik

Anyone know how to make a really good Persian Barbari bread? I so want to make my own. I long for the taste and smell of my Tehran days.

Does anyone have a good recipe for pocketless pitas, such as those that are used to wrap gyros?  I have tried simply not rolling out pita dough as thinly, but that hasn't worked too well for me.  I also found a recipe that seemed about right (under the name of Greek flatbread:  http://www.recipezaar.com/68272), and while it produced the type of bread I was looking for, but didn't wow me as far as texture or flavor.  Thanks!

I recently had some excellent Naan bread at an Indian restaraunt. The flat bread had a layered texture that was like a crossaint, only without all the butter. Does anyone here know how to get that layered texture?

I was wondering if anyone could point me in the direction of a great focaccia recipe. I like to think of myself as a pretty competent baker but every time I make one I am disappointed one way or another.  I lived in Florence for six months and was spoiled with focaccia that had a crunchy, oily, almost orange colored crust with a chewy, open crumb.  When I make one at home it usually comes out with a dry, dense crumb and uniform, small holes.  Does anyone have a recipe that comes close to that description or is this a pipe dream?

I just tried some high gluten flour for a pizza...

The results made me a happy pizza eater/maker tonight.

 I made a dough that was semi-transparent in most parts of the dough.

It made a delicious thin crust.

My next experiment is with a thicker crust.

 1 cup High Gluten Flour

1 TSP Salt

1 TSP Active Dry Yeast

1 TSP honey

 Enough water to make the dough semi-sticky.

 -Ray

OK! OK! OK...I had this idea to use pesto, olives, & cheeses, you know, yum Italian flavored stuff, in a bread loaf, and I thought I'd just use the rolled-out, then rolled-up technique, but then I thought of trying this:

About how much active dry yeast is needed for a regular 12-inch pizza made from bread flour? No over-night slow rising. Just a pizza dough that's intended to be used about an hour or two after rising.

*About 1 cup of flour 

-Ray

For the past few months I've been baking my family's bread--all of it. I love it and am happy to do it but lately I've noticed that the fo caccia that I've been making has been dense and rather flat. This trend has spilled over into my other breads that I make too, like my "toast" bread for the mornings and I'm starting to get bummed out!

1 cup Bread Flour

2 TSP Vital Wheat Gluten

1 TSP Salt

1 TSP Honey

1 TSP Active Dry Yeast 

 I used enough water to keep the dough somewhat sticky.  Small bits of dough would stick to the kneading surface, but would lift off when pressed against the rest of the dough.