More kitchen carnage

[wombat1138]

(Yeah, I know. Translations. I'll get back to them, honest.)

Just tried out recursive's recipe for pita bread, with a few modifications. Used all whole-wheat bread flour, which seemed to require rather less than called for, but the dough was easy to work with and handle. Ran out of salt partway through, which may contribute to them tasting slightly bland imho, but this is really more of a methods note.

Instead of baking them in the oven, I popped them into a preheated and ungreased but thoroughly seasoned cast-iron skillet on the (electric) stovetop. IMHO this is definitely the way to go with these; no constantly opening/closing the oven door and everything stays at counter level. The only things to watch out for are that loose flour will char and smoke, so you'll need to keep the range fan on, and it may take the first few pita breads to get the stove setting right-- if the pan is too hot, the bread will cook through too quickly to bubble up (I still haven't gotten a complete perfect bubble, but then I've only made about five and put the rest of the dough away for later). As a bonus, it takes roughly the same amount of time for each one to cook as it does to roll out the next one; alternately, you can roll a stack of them out ahead of time but then the only thing you have to do while watching each one cook is eat the previous one with hummus, or whatever else you have on hand.

Actually, now that I'm rechecking, the recipe didn't originally call for the pitas to be flipped. I guess they don't have to be; they're thin enough not to stay raw on top. This suggests to me that the ideal burner setting may actually be medium-low; I started out at high for a quick preheat then scaled back to medium-high once flour started smoking all over the place. Also, I bet these would be real tasty with seasonings rolled flat into the top side-- sesame/poppy seeds? rosemary?

Also, since I made another batch of hummus today (having eaten the entire previous one already), the leftover chickpea broth went into making the initial yeast sponge for this. Dunno if it actually made much difference to the flavor, but it made me feel virtuous for recycling.

Comments

[recursive.livejournal.com]

Well, in the oven, there'd be not so much need to flip things, I think.