By request from Jeremy, here's my current go to pita recipe:
2 teaspoons dry yeast
2.5 cups lukewarm water
5 to 6 cups flour (I usually use regular all-purpose, but try to mix in some whole wheat with it)
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
In a large bread bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water. Stir to dissolve. Stir in 3 cups flour, a cup at a time, then stir 100 times in the same direction to start developing the gluten. Cover this and let it rest at room temperature for at least 10 minutes and up to 2 hours (longer the better).
Sprinkle the salt over the sponge and stir in the olive oil. Mix well. Add more flour, a cup at a time, until the dough is too stiff to stir. Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 8-10 minutes, until smooth and elastic but not overly sticky. Clean and oil the bowl and return the dough to it. Cover and let rise until at least doubled in size, around 1.5 hours.
You can either cook them on a baking stone/quarry tile/inverted baking sheet inside the oven, or on a hot, flat surface on it. I personally just use an electric griddle. Either way divide the dough in half, and then divide the uncovered half into 8 even pieces (or fewer for larger pitas). Roll out each piece into a circle less than a 1/4 inch thick (diameter will depend on how you divided it) and cover until you're ready.
For the stove:
Preheat the oven with your choice of baking surface inside to 450ºF. Carefully place 2 or so discs onto the surface and bake for 2-3 minutes. If you've got them rolled out evenly they should balloon at this point.
For not in the stove:
Heat your griddle/pan/whatever to a decent heat. I go around 350-375ºF, which I believe would be a little over medium, maybe medium high. Place a round on the surface and cook for 15-20 seconds, then flip. Cook on that side for around a minute, at which point large bubbles should start to appear in it. Flip it back to the original side and cook until the bread balloons fully, or both sides are lightly browned.
Repeat this process with the rest of the dough. Keep the cooked pitas wrapped in a lightly damp towel to keep warm until you're ready to serve. These are generally best fresh, but probably keep for a couple days if they're in an air tight container.
As you get the hang of it you should be able to get your work rate up to a much faster pace.
I told Stew a couple days ago that I'd get a vegan safe pizza dough recipe up here, so here we go. This has a few more ingredients than a strictly traditional DOC compliant dough, but it's much easier to handle.
5 cups unbleached high-gluten or bread flour
1 tablespoon sugar or honey
2 teaspoons table salt OR 3 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon instant yeast
2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
~1 3/4 cups room temperature water
1. Stir together all the ingredients in a large metal bowl.
2. Repeatedly dip one of your hands or the spoon into room-temperature water, working the dough into a coarse ball like you were using a dough hook while rotating the bowl with your other hand. As all the flour is incorporated the dough will begin to strengthen. This should take about 4 minutes.
3. Cover the dough and let it rest for 5 minutes and then resume mixing for an additional 2-3 minutes or until the dough is slightly sticky, soft, and supple. If it's too soft and sticky to hold it's shape mix in more flour one tablespoon at a time. If it's too stiff or dry mix in more water.
4. Immediately divide the dough into 4 (or whatever) equal pieces. Round each piece into a ball, brush it with olive oil to coat, and place inside it's own container. I use tupperware for this.
5. Let the balls rest at room temperature for 15 minutes, then put them in the refrigerator overnight. You can also freeze them at this point for up to 3 months.
6. Take them out of the fridge ~2 hours before you plan to use them so they can return to room temperature, then use them to make pizzas as you normally would.
Alright, I'm putting this up because Stew asked for it. This is the pizza dough recipe I use most often these days, copied out of Peter Reinhart's book American Pie, though lately I've been in the habit of swapping out one cup of the regular flour for whole wheat flour.
Makes 4 10-ounce dough balls (I usually just divide it into two)
- 5 cups unbleached high-gluten or bread flour (I usually just use all-purpose. Most American all-purpose flours have a higher gluten content than European bread flours anyway)
- 3 tablespoons sugar or honey
- 2 teaspoons table salt OR 3.5 teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons instant yeast
- 1/4 cup olive or vegetable oil or solid vegetable shortening (I use olive oil)
- 1 cup whole or low-fat milk
- ~3/4 cup room-temperature water (Start with a little less. The amount of moisture that flour can absorb can be affected a lot by humidity. You have to kind of learn to eyeball when it's right.)
1. With a large metal spoon, stir together all ingredients in a large bowl until combined. Repeatedly dip one of your hands into room-temperature water and use it like a dough hook, working the dough vigorously into a coarse ball as you rotate the bowl with your other hand. As all the flour is incorporated into the ball, about 4 minutes, the dough will begin to strengthen; when this occurs, let the dough rest for 5 minutes and then resume mixing for an additional 2 to 3 minutes, or until the dough is slightly stick, soft, and supple. If the dough is too soft and sticky to hold it's shape, mix in more flour by the tablespoonful; if it is too stiff or dry, mix in more water by the tablespoonful. The dough should pass the windowpane test (i.e. you should be able to pull a small piece off and stretch it between your fingers thinly enough that you can see light through it. This tests elasticity.).
2. Immediately divide up the dough into 4 (or whatever) equal pieces. Round each piece into a ball and brush or rub each ball with oil. Place each ball in it's own zipper freezer bag (I use tupperware). Let the balls sit at room temperature for 15 minutes, then put them in the fridge overnight or freeze any pieces you will not be using the next day.
3. Pull them out of the fridge and leave them somewhere at room temperature around 2 hours before you plan to use them. They should keep in the fridge for a couple of days, or around 3 months in the freezer (I've never actually tested that).
