My family is originally from the Middle East (several generations ago) and it is pretty sad that every time I attempt to make Pita bread I do not get that classic hollow flat bread but instead I get something that resembles a puffy tortilla. Although there is nothing wrong with tortillas that is not really what I am after. What am I doing wrong? How do I get that classic pouch (for filling with falafel of course)? Does it have to do with the type of flour, or amount of time I knead it, or quantity of yeast? If anyone has any suggestions please let me know.

Also, if anyone has a great pita bread recipe please inform me of it. I recently made a sourdough starter and am wondering if it  is possible to make a sourdough pita?

Hi, everybody!

Maybe this is a bit silly, since I've already exchanged messages with a few of your wonderful selves and posted my own question about how best to bake bread on a Coleman camp stove - and I received so many fantastic ideas and suggestions - but I hadn't really given an Official Introduction; essentially, I'm a writer and stumbling but devoted baker living in Hungary, and I've been so enthralled by the whole Fresh Loaf community.  

My husband suggested I post a link to my blog here on the website.  Since I'm a writer, I end up posting largely a bunch of diminutive short stories, but some of these stories are actually inspired by bread, of all things (!), and I've posted recipes, including my rendition and a fiction for Moroccan khoubz flatbread, the Fresh Loaf pita recipe and the camp stove method I used for it (but with full credit and a link to this website, don't worry!), and most recently a fiction and my recipe for basic pizza dough with my own ridiculous pizza design and toppings.  

Here's a link:

http://erzsebetgilbert.blogspot.com

It's not really epical, I think, but it's got baking and some writerly absurdities, so if it lends anybody a few ideas or a bit of entertainment, I'll be glad enough... but in the meantime, I just have to give everybody at the Fresh Loaf a most enormous thank-you for all your generosity, help, ideas, and general virtuoso kitchen skills!  Until later, blessings,

Erzsebet

Hello, everybody!  

I'll begin with another thank-you to all those who responded to my previous/first post, my questions about baking while camping.  Using all the help, I'm planning upon trying bread-steamed-in-a-can, or crumpets, or English muffins quite soon.  Last night, however, I had success.(!)...

Browsing the Fresh Loaf I came upon the basic pita recipe, and reading somebody's comment on the possibility of outdoor grilling, as well as consulting 'The Bread Bible,' in which Beranbaum recommends the same.  I wasn't sure, but the Fresh Loaf user EJM posted a photograph of how she herself grilled stovetop pitas (thank you!!!) and that was that: was gyro night at our house...  I followed the forum's pita recipe exactly, except for the addition of 3 teaspoons vital wheat gluten (as far as I am concerned, that stuff is magic).  I was so surprised - the dough was like silk!

I planned upon grilling the pitas on a tava on our gas stove (the household parallel to the Coleman stove which shall be my only way to bake for 7 months living out of a VW bus!), but did have the oven on just in case.  When I tried baking in the oven, however, after 3 minutes the "sample pita" was still essentially dough.  Any ideas as to why?  So I turned wholly to the stovetop, just like camping, and I was so impressed with the results!

I had read instructions dictating a 3 minute grilling with a flip midway.  But I found after a few experiment pitas that the finest method for me seemed to be a 1 minute toast on one side, flipping it for another 1-minute grill, then flipping again for 1 minute, five times.  I'm not sure why this seemed to be the only way to get a perfect puff without dough or burning (any ideas?), but it worked wonderfully!  My husband claimed it was the best bread I'd ever made, though I disagree somewhat and think he was just really hungry.  

But in gratitude (from both of us) to everybody who's been so kind in their posting, I wanted to offer up his recipe for a gyro filling for the pitas - I know this isn't exactly a baking recipe, but it sure goes well with the bread!  

- Recipe: David's Yoghurt Gyros -

First, create your yoghurt sauce:

1. Dice 1-2 yellow onions, and brown in 1-2 teaspoons of olive oil under medium heat until very golden (about 10 minutes), stirring frequently to avoid burning.

2. Remove from heat and puree in food processor.  

3. Add 1-2 cups nonfat plain yoghurt.  Puree through.  Done with sauce...

Gyro filling:

1. Cut 2 turkey or chicken breasts into medallions (usually about 6-7 pieces).  Brown in 1-2 teaspoons of olive oil briefly over medium heat (1-3) minutes.  Stir in previously made yoghurt sauce.  

2. Reduce heat and simmer until meat is tender (10 minutes) and can be easily pulled apart with a fork to ensure the medallion is cooked through.  

3. Season with a basic gyro spice mix, typically available at most grocery stores or import markets, or, if none available, look online (haha!) or add in decreasing proportions, to taste: dried garlic, dried red onion, dried tomato, oregano, paprika, black pepper, ground caraway seeds, coriander, basil, ground bay leaf, marjoram, thyme, rosemary, sugar, and lemon juice.  We cheated and used the spice mix!

4.  Add lemon juice to taste, if desired.

5.  Serve with tomatos, lettuce, or other vegetables, and of course, always, your pitas!

Again, thanks to everybody, and I hope you enjoy this and every other kitchen endeavor!

I've been asked (via Messages!!) to post the recipe I used for Pitas.  I made two recipes, but I'll post the one that was designed as a Pita recipe.  Apparently just about any bread recipe will work, although I don't know about high-hydration doughs.

In my experimenting, I've become curious about the role of the yeast.  My conjecture is that the yeast just helps with the development of the gluten and of the formation of a gluten skin (as I think someone called it).  I don't think it has much of any role in the puffing up.

This recipe was taken from Beatrice Ojakangas' Great Whole Grain Breads.  It's on page 277 and is called "Whole Wheat Pita Bread".

• 1 package active dry yeast (I'm sure I used considerably less)
• 2 1/2 cups warm water (warm if you go the proofing-of-the-yeast route - I don't - instead, I go for long refrigerator rises, usually overnight)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons salad oil
• 5 1/2 to 6 cups whole wheat flour

I won't go into the details of making the dough.  Do it however you usually do it.  Develop it into a smooth ball, but it doesn't need to rise.  Ojakangas has you let it rest about 15 minutes after the mixing and before kneading 10 minutes on a board.  Then you cover it and let it rest 20 minutes.  Then you "punch dough down" and divide into four parts, and each part into four more, for a total of sixteen.  So the dough for a single standard loaf of bread will make about eight standard pitas.

Shape each piece of dough into a small ball and roll out to make a 6-inch circle.  I don't know how thick this is, but I suspect it's 3/16 of an inch.  In my subsequent pita trial, I used the special rubber bands for rolling pins and rolled them out to 1/8 inch, and they were quite a bit thinner.  Cover and let rise 30 minutes.

Here's where the Ojakangas narration gets confusing.  I'll adapt.  While the pitas are rising, preheat the oven to 500 degrees with a stone in place (for 30 minutes).  Arrange six pitas at a time on parchment paper.  With the assistance of a cookie sheet - a rimless one or a rimmed one turned upside down - transfer the pitas and the parchment to the stone.  Bake 4-5 minutes "or until rounds are puffed and tops begin to brown."  But don't wander off.  Turn on the oven light and sit on the floor to watch.  Mine started to puff up at about the two minute mark, and they were fully puffed up about a minute later.  Quite a show.

Rosalie

I was inspired by a question by someone in another bread forum and my own recent discovery and love affair with baking pita.  In the other forum, the person had frozen shaped bread dough and then was having problems reviving it.  I wondered if she could make pitas with it.  While that question remains unanswered, I tried a related experiment.

I picked a nice basic bread recipe - in this case, an adaptation of Bernard Clayton's Rosemary-Garlic Bread on page 464 of my edition.  The recipe calls for about half whole wheat flour and half white flour, and I, of course, used all whole wheat.  I also, as usual, used considerably less than the 2 packets of yeast - possibly a teaspoon, but I don't remember. And I'm sure I stuck it in the refrigerator for a good part of its early life.  It's been a couple weeks.  But that's my modus operandi.

I divided the dough into twenty-four equal balls, which would make them smaller than might have been called for (for about six cups of flour for two standard loaves).  I then rolled the balls to 1/8 inch thickness, using those rubber bands I found online (Fanta, I think) for my rolling pin.  And I managed to freeze them by placing them in the freezer on non-stick cookie sheets for a couple hours and then stacking them and putting them in freezer bags.  (A smaller quantity would have made the logistics of this step a bit simpler.)

I now take them out two at a time and bake them in my Oster countertop convection oven.  Today I had my greatest success so far.  I placed the frozen pitas between two sheets of parchment paper on top of the oven with an inch or so of space between the oven and the pitas.  I then pre-heated the oven to 450 (its top temperature) with my little toaster-oven baking stone in the middle for about half an hour.  Then I placed one piece of parchment and the pitas on the stone.  In less than two minutes the pitas were big round balls.

Sorry, no pictures.  All gone.  Maybe next time.  I still have plenty more from this batch to experiment with.

Rosalie

I made Pita!  My first time.  I had thought, maybe, there was some voodoo involved, but there isn't.

I used Beatrice Ojakangas' "Whole Wheat Pita Bread" recipe on page 277 of "Great Whole Grain Breads".  I stuck the dough in the fridge overnight, planning to pick up her instructions after the kneading.  But the recipe got confusing.  If I took her literally, I would "preheat" the oven to 500 after I stuck the rounds in the oven; didn't make sense since I was baking only for 4-5 minutes and in three batches.

I sat on the floor and watched through the oven window each batch bake.  After about the two-minute mark, they would start to fluff up.  By the end of the baking time, they were fully-puffed out.  I ate one and it was delicious!  Next time I'd probably make them a bit smaller, though.

Does anyone know of a pita-making video?  I think that might help.

Rosalie

Are there any types of bread you can cook directly on a grill/bbq without using the BBQ as an oven. I figure there must be types of bread in some cultures that have some nomadic roots that do this as who is going to lug about an oven.

I don't care about authenticity more that it's always good to have freshly cooked bread with a BBQ and cooking it on the same grill would be handy.

I imagine that you need to use a flat bread so it cooks fast so something along the lines of pita breads might be an option.

Has anyone tried it? can you cook directly on the bars of the grill or do you need a flat surface?

etc etc etc. 

This is my first post, as I have had no luck in finding a recipe for this.  I was lucky to have an Armenian bakery close to my college years ago, and besides having some of the best breads, they had some small, pita-like sweet breads, which if i remember correctly were called "amour".   They were about 8 inches in diameter and maybe 1/3 of an inch thick, very soft, and were marbled with cinnamon.  I've looked everywhere, but can't seem to find anything resembling them.  I would appreciate any help.

Great success first time, used one third wholemeal spelt and two thirds AP. Best I've ever tasted.