February 3, 2011 - 4:19pm
Last night's TFL Pita
So last night I set off on my first Pita adventure using the TFL recipe.
I like weight/percentages, so I weighed out the measured ingredients to develop a formula by weight. This is my conversion technique pretty much for all baking now.
The original recipe was much too sticky for me as well (worked out to ~68% total hydration for me); had to add 50g more flour to get a manageable dough, and even then it was a tad bit wet. Overall hydration of 59-61% seems to be in the right ballpark for pita.
The below recipe is ~60% overall hydration:
Makes 8 balls @ 105g each
- 346g AP flour
- 148g whole wheat flour
- 297g water
- 28g olive oil
- 22g honey
- 11g salt
- 7.1g instant yeast
What I learned:
- Hot oven is a must, 500F worked best for me, baking stone on center rack
- 2 to 2.5 minutes was perfect for me; I would go ~2 minutes, and flip for 30 seconds.
- The rolled-out pitas that I left to rise covered for 30 minutes gave the most even puff. It also could've been the 450F oven, though...at 20 minutes and 450F, only a few of them puffed up completely.
- Next time, I will try the skillet/stove-top technique for better browning. Also much easier to place & turn than a 500F oven + baking stone!
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Comments
all those pita breads, I'd be in diabetic collapse! Can't eat more than one bread item at a time.
They sound good though! Have you thought of using tongs to turn the pita?
Yes, that's a very good idea, especially long tongs for an oven flip. Don't know why I missed that...
Still I think I'll try the cast iron/stovetop method, I'm intrigued by the possible browning.
the stovetop effort, its much easier to turn than with fingers or a spatula. I bake baking powder biscuits on the BBQ in summer, and tongs are always to hand. Nothing like burning the fingers once to have one find something to distance the fingers from the heat. And with bread its much easier than with pancakes. Which I've also done on the bbq, there I used a long handled turner. Worked great, and the pancakes were supurb!
Cranbo, thanks for the easy pita recipe. Made them yesterday and they were a big hit with homemade hummus. I was rushing to take them for my platform tennis team and forgot to take pictures. The first 3 puffed up nicely in a preheated 500 deg oven. The next 3 seemed not to puff, so I lowered the temp to 450 and the next 3 were better. Delicious!
Salma
thanks, glad it worked for you! can't take the credit really, just translated a recipe into weights...ok, it did require a bit of testing.
enjoy!