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? overproofed pita dough - no pockets

MontBaybaker's picture
MontBaybaker

? overproofed pita dough - no pockets

Used Reinhardt's Whole Grain Breads pita recipe as I've done 4 times recently, with half Bob's hi-fiber cereal in the soaker, wild yeast starter instead of biga, reduced yeast to 1 tsp., and replaced some whole wheat flour with UB bread flour for my friends who aren't yet completely whole-grain   Have alwys fed starter and made soaker at night, made dough next morning,  45-minute rise before initial shaping.  Every time I've gotten 3-1'2" pocket rise on every one, great taste, no problems, soft for 2-3 days. 

This time I reversed the process due to appointments:  fed starter and made soaker yesterday a.m., made dough p.m., overnight in fridge for morning baking.  Also, to try and achieve even top/bottom crust thickness, per a forum suggestion I rested the rolled-out circles about 35 minutes instead of 15 per recipe so they'd be a little thicker and hopefully split evenly.  Used double stones,  which hasn't previously make a difference in crust thickness though they poofed quickly and had nice pockets.  

The pita gods weren't on my side today.  NO pockets, barely any poofing in oven. Due to the longer final rise they went in oven about 1/"2 thick instead of 1/4".  After 2 pancakes I gave up, rolled them wafer-thin, docked both sides, and called it flatbread (baked 1 minute).  Guess my starter is working well as they went in at maybe 1/16" and 1 minute later were close to 1/4".

Do pita only make pockets with a short initial rise?  Was it the overnight proof, and/or letting the circles rise get too thick before baking?  Otherwise, everything was exactly the same and my flatbreads taste fine.  

A separate thought?  Does the thicker bottom crust come from direct heat on the stone?  Has anybody tried flipping the disc over after 1 minute so both sides get direct heat?  That experiment had been my plan this morning until things went haywire.