Looking to replicate a very specific type of Lebanese flatbread and I can't even get close. Advice please?
I'm looking to replicate a specific type of flatbread popular in the middle east where it's simply known as "khobz" (bread). It's frequently called "Lebanese bread", "mediterranean flatbread", "wrap bread" or "khobez".
It's similar to pita, but larger and flatter and softer.
I've tried many different recipes and cooking techniques but I still can't replicate the texture of the breads I buy from real Arabic bakeries and am looking for advice.
The ingredients of a popular and widely sold brand are listed as:
Wheat Flour (Fortified with Calcium, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Water, Yeast, Sugar, Salt
The texture I'm aiming for: is extremely flexible without being oily, slippery, plasticky or moist (like cheap tortilla breads can be). The bread folds and rolls up without any cracking at all. There is no flouriness or powder on its surface. It has two layers and can be carefully opened up and stuffed.
Whenever I try baking at home - even with the addition of fat - I end up with bread which is either too brittle, too doughy, too floury or too oily.
This is what it should look like:
And these images are what it should not look like:
http://imgur.com/a/urArk
So - any advice on what exactly makes a flatbread strong, flexible, soft and otherwise perfect, please?
I found several recipes that seemed to be what you are looking for. Here is one:
http://butterybooks.com/vegetables-sides-bread/khubz-arabic-flatbread-recipe/
If it is then it's a very thin large pita baked in seconds on a hotplate.
gas grill
Sounds and looks more like a crepe. Try starting with the flour.
For experimental purposes I would start with 100g flour 2g salt, 4g sugar, 1g yeast and add (slowly) almost equal weights of water stirring well to break up lumps (easier to do when thick) and adding more water as needed until it is like thick milk or cream. (Think more like thickening the water.) Mix or work the dough well to develop gluten. Let ferment. Pour out onto a medium to medium high heated surface like a pancake flipping once after the top is set. See if that doesn't get you a softer result.
I'm looking for pancake type marks on the bread but don't see any. Another idea might be to pour or pat out a soft dough onto a floured tray, dust and let it rest a little before patting off the flour and transferring to a hot surface to bake.
If it tears while flipping let it heat longer or add more flour to the batter. If the crumb is too tough, add more water. Remember to let the breads cool before testing a crispy crust, then tend to soften as they cool.
Stacking the bread after baking would hold in moisture and make the crusts soft or bagging them when cool and waiting. Found this video for rolling out a soft dough very thin. Wonder what is in the flour mix?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNGxHKnKF8Q
Thanks all. I have tried some of the "khubz" recipes but what usually happens is the bread doesn't brown with the distinctive golden spots you can see in my first picture. Instead it usually ends up with a big patch of hard and crispy overcooked middle like in this picture:
@Mini Oven: the breads are definitely not cooked on the stovetop. They're baked for just a few seconds in an open-flamed bread oven, which is probably the exact reason I'm having such a hard time replicating them using an at-home oven.
See this YouTube video for just how quickly they're cooked in a commercial oven:
Line 4_Baking of Khubz.AVI
This one also shows more of the production process. I notice they're rolled out incredibly thinly which is another key step I try to replicate (with difficulty):
Lebanese Pita Bread: How It's Made
Maybe I need to start looking into getting a pizza oven!
You will need a conveyor as well. I noticed that "thin" rolling was one secret. For the separation it is important to shape small balls of dough and let them rest a little bit before rolling out in one smooth step without folding or reshaping the balls. Getting the skin is important for the ballooning. That is one hot oven.
Have you thought about heating up two frying pans. Place the dough in one and cover with the other for top heat? If the top one is slightly larger than the bottom it won't compress the bread. ??? Or hot fry pan under the oven broiler?
@Mini Oven: I haven't tried that but it's a very good idea - thanks! It's next on my list.
So I ended up buying a portable catering-style pizza oven which I found cheap on eBay to try to crack the secret of this recipe. It has a thick stone base and reaches temperatures of over 450°C so I know it's hot enough.
This has definitely improved my bread-making, and I'm able to get nice soft flatbreads, but they're still not quite right.
Problems I'm still facing are:
1. The flatbread is still pale/white on one side despite the very hot oven temperature.
2. The flavour is very bland - probably a result of my choice of flour.
3. The texture, although quite good, is still not as pliable and stretchy as the store-bought breads.
I'm also finding it very difficult to roll these breads out thinly without using tons of flour which is probably having an adverse effect on the finished product.
Bread-making is tricky stuff!
Not long ago, I viewed a video on youtube of a woman making that kind of bread at home. She had some sort of special cooker. It had a bottom part that looked like a regular frying pan. The top looked like an inverted flat-bottom wok. It had an electric cord, so it was a heat source. I wonder if you could do the same in a very hot oven with a baking stone. (That's how I bake pitas.)
The recipes I have seen (and use) for pita say to immediately cover the baked pitas with a napkin. This keeps them moist and flexible. I usually freeze most of the ones I bake. I thaw and reheat them in the microwave, wrapped in wax paper. 10-15 seconds on full power. They come out very soft, flexible and almost as good as fresh baked.
David
I am familiar with this style of bread from Lebanese bakeries in Montreal. Now that I don't live there anymore I can't easily get it fresh anymore so I tried to make it myself. I'm still nowhere near the real thing (not as flexible and soft) but I did have some success getting the thickness that I wanted. I don't think it would meet khobz's standards but I thought I'd post for the benefit of anyone else looking for some tips.
I saw a video of someone making this at home (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3JP3IVW8LE) which gave me two insights: first, that I could just roll out the dough like normal, no special technique or equipment required, and second that I don't need to be afraid to move the bread while it bakes.
So I ended up using this setup:
and then I baked at 550F for about four minutes, flipping halfway through.
The bread that resulted was nice and thin, with a good pocket, and had distributed brown spots, not as evenly as the real thing but much better than just a big brown spot in the middle:
The dough formula I ended up using was very basic, just
King Arthur AP flour
2.5% yeast
2% sugar
1% salt
62% water
I rolled them up quite thin, similar to those shown in the videos already posted.
khobz, did you ever figure out how to make the result super-soft and flexible like the packaged ones?
Here are fixed photos of the process and the result
Thanks for the interesting reccipe
Lol, I know it's too late now to even reply. I hope you are still watching this forum and still making that bread.
Back in India, I came across something absolutely similar but it was made with just two ingredients. Water and Wheat flour. It was called "Phulka". The conveyor you mentioned in the comments act as a hot-pan directly on top of gas-stove. I found them in every house hold as it quite easy and quick to make. The trick is to ensure dough is neither too hard not too soft. Make the balls,roll them flat and simply cook them on the hot-pan. Once you see it getting a bit dry on the top side, flip it over so it cooks evenly and if you want to puff it up, simply remove the pan and using tongs, expose it to open flame so that air traps in between two layers.
I hope you find this comment useful!
My version:
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/68993/20210923-100-wholegrain-manoushe-clas
Yippee