Pita Bread

Seattle Times Pita Bread

Ken's Khubz

Makes 6

2 cups all-purpose flour (270 g)
1 ¼ cup whole wheat flour (170 g)
1 package active dry yeast (about 2 ¼ teaspoons)
1 ¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 ¼ cup water (300 ml)


1. In a large mixing bowl combine the flours, yeast, salt and sugar. Make a depression in the center and add water. Using a dinner knife, "cut" the dough until the water is incorporated and the dough looks shaggy. With your hands, combine the dough until it forms a smooth ball. Cover and place in a warm spot to rise until doubled (about 2 hours).


2. Turn the dough onto a heavily floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Roll into a 12-inch log. Cut into 6 equal sections and form into balls. Cover with a clean towel and let rise for 30 minutes.


3. On a well-floured surface, use a rolling pin to flatten each ball to a quarter-inch thickness, flipping frequently while rolling. Lightly flour and stack them on a large plate. (Parchment paper will help keep them from sticking.) Cover and let rise another 30 minutes.


4. Preheat a large (ungreased) cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. When it's hot, slap a single round into the pan. Cover with a lid to provide a steam chamber. (A glass lid helps greatly.) Gently flip with a spatula at the first sign of bubbles (this should take about 30 seconds) then cover and continue cooking. Use your nose to tell if the bread is burning and adjust the heat if necessary. Repeat the process, wiping the pan with a damp paper towel to remove flour if need be. Each round should take about 3 minutes to cook.

Notes:
30 seconds on the first side didn't seem to brown it or be enough. I had better luck with about a minute on the first side or by flipping it back to the first side after a minute on the second.  I would add a little oil to the pan to keep the finish from burning. The baking stone takes a bit longer at 500 degrees, and doesn't brown as well. They do brown if you toast them later.

These are quite large. The other recipes I have found make 8-12 rounds with the same amount of flour.

I found mostly the same instructions here at Smitten Kitchen for the skillet version plus oven versions as well. They recommend 20 seconds for the first side, flip and wait about 1 minute or until bubbly, then flip and wait until it balloons. These will not be brown, per the recipe.
Their ingredients for the basic dough:

3 cups plus a scant 1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (16 oz./454 grams)
2 teaspoons salt (1/2 oz./13.2 grams)
2 teaspoons instant yeast (6.4 grams)
2 tablespoons olive oil (1 oz./27 grams)
1 1/4 cups water, at room temperature (10.4 oz./295 grams)

Their baking instructions in a 475 degree oven:

Quickly place 1 piece of dough directly on the stone or in the skillet or on the baking sheet, and bake for 3 minutes. The pita should be completely puffed but not beginning to brown. The dough will not puff well if it is not moist enough. See how the pita puffs, then, if necessary, spray and knead each remaining piece with water until the dough is soft and moist; allow to rest again and reroll as before.* (However, those that do not puff well are still delicious to eat.)
* After my first pita didn’t puff well, and I realized I was too lazy to spritz and reroll and rise each remaining pita, I instead spritzed each rolled-out pita with water two or three minutes before baking it. It worked magically — all of the remaining pitas puffed perfectly. Try this method first if yours don’t puff, if it doesn’t work to you, revert to Beranbaum’s suggestion of kneading the extra moisture in.

Another basic recipe is here at www.thekitchn.com, with notes about the differences between baking and using a skillet in the flavor.

KitchenAid basic white bread

KitchenAid basic white bread.

1/2 cup low fat milk
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons butter or oil
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
5-6 cups all-purpose flour

AB5M Whole-Wheat Sandwich Bread cheat sheet

100 Percent Whole-Wheat Sandwich Bread

• 1 1⁄2 tbsp granulated yeast (1 1⁄2 packets)
• 1 tbsp plus 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup honey
• 5 tbsp neutral-flavored oil, plus more for greasing the pan
• 1 1⁄2 cups lukewarm milk
• 1 1⁄2 cups lukewarm water
• 6 2⁄3 cups whole wheat flour

Mix, let rise and collapse. Refrigerate. Grease 9x4x3 inch pan. Pull out one and a half pounds of dough (cantaloupe size) and shape with wet hands. Pan should be slightly more than half full. Let stand for 1 hour and 40 minutes. Slash top. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes until deeply brown and firm.

Makes 3 1 1⁄2 pound loaves.

Short form instructions adapted from Mother Earth News  Five Minutes a Day for Fresh-Baked Bread - Print version

AB5M No knead white bread

Master Recipe for White-Flour dough quick reference.

From Artisan Bread in Five Minutes

• 3 cups (24 oz) lukewarm water
• 1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast (can decrease to 1 tablespoon if you prefer the flavor of slower-risen doughs)
• 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons kosher or other coarse salt (adjust to your taste)
• 6 1/2 cups (32.5 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour

Mix, let rise and collapse. Refrigerate. Pull out one pound of dough and shape. Let stand for 40 minutes. Slash top. Bake at 450 degrees for approximately 30 minutes.

Notes: 

Short form instructions adapted from Mother Earth News  Five Minutes a Day for Fresh-Baked Bread - Print version

Use about half as much table salt as kosher salt.

I find this basic version fairly bland. There are variations in the Mother Earth News article.

No knead wheat bread

Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day~Whole Grain Master Recipe

From Former Chef:

A basic whole wheat no knead bread. Makes four one pound loaves.

• 1 lb, 9 oz whole wheat flour (5 1/2 cups)(720 grams)
• 10 oz. unbleached all-purpose flour (2 cups)(270 grams)
• 1.5 Tbsp granulated yeast (.55 oz)(15 grams)
• 1 Tbsp. Kosher salt (.55 oz)(15 grams)
• 1 3/8 oz  vital wheat gluten (4 Tbsp)* (35 grams)
• 4 cups lukewarm water (about 100 degrees F) (2 lbs)(900 grams)

Stir it up and let it rise and collapse. Refrigerate. Pull out a pound and shape. Let stand for 90 minutes. Bake at 450 for 30-40 minutes. Detailed instructions at the link.

Kidney bean toxin

Kidney beans contain a toxic lectin.

You need to cook most beans, especially kidney beans to minimize the toxin. Boiling for ten minutes is recommended for kidney beans. Slow cooking without boiling can be worse than eating raw beans. The toxin doesn't appear to be fatal, but can cause severe vomiting and diarrhea.

From the FDA via Wikipedia:

Toxicity

The toxic compound phytohaemagglutinin, a lectin, is present in many common bean varieties, but is especially concentrated in red kidney beans. White kidney beans contain about a third as much toxin as the red variety; broad beans (Vicia faba) contain 5 to 10% as much as red kidney beans.^[3]

Phytohaemagglutinin can be deactivated by boiling beans for ten minutes; the ten minutes at boiling point (100 °C (212 °F)) are sufficient to degrade the toxin, but not to cook the beans. For dry beans, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also recommends an initial soak of at least 5 hours in water, which should then be discarded.^[3]

If the beans are cooked at a temperature below boiling (without a preliminary boil), as in a slow cooker, the toxic effect of haemagglutinin is increased: beans cooked at80 °C (176 °F) are reported to be up five times as toxic as raw beans.^[3] Outbreaks of poisoning have been associated with cooking kidney beans in slow cookers.^[3]

The primary symptoms of phytohaemagglutinin poisoning are nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Onset is from one to three hours after consumption of improperly prepared beans, and symptoms typically resolve within a few hours.^[3] Consumption of as few as four or five raw, soaked kidney beans can cause symptoms.^[3]

Beans are high in purines, which are metabolized to uric acid. Uric acid is not a toxin as such, but may promote the development or exacerbation of gout. For this reason, persons with gout are often advised to limit their consumption of beans.^[4]

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Romancing the stone

I received a pizza stone for Christmas. I had considered acquiring one in the past but couldn't justify the cost. I don't do artisan breads with any regularity or pizza either. But now I have a stone. We are going through a period of adjustment.

I've done a couple of pizzas and a couple of bread baking sessions. I've read a good deal on the best placement of the stone.  I have tried upper third and upper quarter placement. The upper third has worked best so far. I tried a pizza screen with poor results. Parchment paper has worked best so far, as long as it is removed sometime after the dough has firmed up but before baking is done.

So what has worked? I did a boule of bread with a firm crust all around. It was a basic no knead white bread. These have always seemed pretty blah to me, all texture with little flavor. The bottom was much better than results I have had with a baking sheet, more on a par with a cast iron Dutch oven. I did a pair of pizzas using the Kitchen aid pizza dough recipe and an upper third oven placement. The crust was nicely crisp, probably the best crust I had ever done. I made some Poulsbo bread from a recipe I hadn't used in years.  I used bread pans on the stone. The crust was even all around, better on the bottom than I am used to getting with a bread pan alone.

What was the stuff that didn't do so well? I mentioned the pizza screen. This may be lack of experience, but it seems to be designed for failure by catching the dough in the screen. The upper fourth of the oven had the top of the pizza overdone before the bottom, and trying to fit a pizza to the 14"x16" stone with a 12" pizza peel was a mistake. I'll make one or two smaller pizzas next time.

All of the pizzas and the boule were done at 450 degrees. The Poulsbo bread was done at 350 degrees. I plan to try the pizza in a hotter oven later.