Whole Wheat Pita - I did it! I turned the heat up to 375 from

[alfredo]

350 and got the good pockets I wanted. On a small part of the recipe I added some garlic, and Oregano to the dough. After the egg wash I added parmesan cheese to the top.
I didn't have any seseme seed, but I will have some the next time. If you've ever hand pita with a generous coating of sesame seeds, you will know why I will make sure I will have them the next time.

Here's the recipe I found on the web.

Khobz, Whole Wheat Flat Bread

Serves: 16


Ingredients:

2-1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 x 1/4 oz sachet yeast

1/3 cup cornmeal

2 tablespoons sesame seeds

1 teaspoon sugar

1-1/4 cups tepid water

1 tablespoon oil

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground sweet paprika

1 egg, lightly beaten
 
Directions:

1 Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine 1/2 cup flour, sugar, salt, yeast and water in bowl. Stand, covered, in a warm place until foaming. 2 Sift remaining flour, paprika and cornmeal into bowl, add oil. Stir in yeast mixture. Mix to firm dough. Knead until smooth. Stand, covered, in a warm place 20 minutes. 3 Divide into sixteen, roll into balls, flatten into rounds. 4 Place on greased baking sheet. Brush with egg, sprinkle with sesame seeds. Stand, covered, until puffed. Bake 12 minutes



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Last night I put a yogurt, cucumber, green onion , and dill salad in it. Black pepper is really good in this. It doesn't need much salt at all.
Tonight it was a salmon salad. tomorrow homemade Hummus.


Home made pita is easy and so much better than that wimpy crap in the grocery store.

[yellerpup]

1. I have everything on hand except for sachet yeast.

Can the Fleishman's packs be substituted? This looks good!

[alfredo]

3. Yes. that will work.

[housewolf]

2. Yum! Sounds terrific!

May I have one? Please??? Pretty Please?

Just kidding, of course. :)

Congratulations! Glad you got it figured out.

[alfredo]

4. I'm going to try focaccia soon. Finding a good whole wheat recipe

shouldn't be too hard. I've never been much of a bread maker other than some killer cornbread, pan breads, and biscuits. Yeast breads are a mystery to me.

Maybe I should convert this to whole wheat. What changes, if any should I make to the liquids or cooking time/temp? I have no mixer other than my muscles and a wooden spoon.


Olive, Rosemary, And Onion Focaccia
Gourmet | September 1991
recipe
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/12784
ingredients

a 1/4-ounce package (2 1/2 teaspoons) active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
4 1/2 to 5 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves plus whole rosemary leaves
1/4 cup minced onion
1/2 pound Kalamata, Niçoise, or green Greek olives or a combination, pitted and cut into slivers (about 1 cup)
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt, or to taste
preparation

In the large bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook stir together the yeast, the sugar, and 1 3/4 cups lukewarm water and proof the yeast mixture for 5 minutes, or until it is foamy. Stir in 4 1/2 cups of the flour, the salt, and 2 tablespoons of the oil and knead the dough, scraping down the dough hook occasionally and adding as much of the remaining 1/2 cup flour as necessary to form a soft, slightly sticky dough, for 3 minutes. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, turn it to coat it with the oil, and let it rise, covered, in a warm place for 1 hour, or until it is double in bulk. Knead in the chopped rosemary, press the dough with lightly oiled hands into a well-oiled 15 1/2- by 10 1/2-inch jelly-roll pan, and let it rise, covered loosely, for 30 minutes. The dough may be made 8 hours in advance and kept covered and chilled.
Dimple the dough with your fingertips, making 1/4-inch-deep indentations, brush it with the remaining 1 tablespoon oil, and top it with the onion, the olives, the salt, and the whole rosemary leaves. Bake the focaccia in the bottom third of a preheated 400°F. oven for 35 to 45 minutes, or until it is golden and cooked through. Transfer the focaccia to a rack, let it cool for 10 minutes, and serve it, cut into squares, warm or at room temperature.

[housewolf]

5. To convert to whole wheat flour

The only change you need to make is to add some water. Whole wheat flour needs a little more water than white flour does.

How much more water? Well, I can't tell you specifically but the whole key to yeast bread making is to go for the correct consistency of dough. That's the key to making yeasted breads.

And what's that? You want a dough that it soft and moist but not sticky. A little tacky is good, but you don't want it to be sticky. What's the difference between tacky and sticky? Well, sticky means that gobs of dough pull away from the dough ball and stick to your fingers when you touch it. Tacky means that tiny bits of dough may stick to you fingers when you touch it, but most of it stays with the dough ball.

The biggest mistake people make when working with yeast breads is that they add too much flour to their dough and end up with something that is too dry. You need to knead the dough enough to get a really good gluten development, but the dough needs to be moist enough that it will rise well.

If you are new to yeast breads, I'd recommend you start with white flour recipes, because white flour is much easier to create a good gluten structure and you'll have more success more quickly than if you try to start out with 100% whole wheat flour. An excellent book for baking whole wheat yeast breads is "The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book". It teaches whole wheat bread baking step-by-step and will be a great resource for you.

Here are a few recipes from whole wheat focaccia, you might take a look at them and compare to your recipe.
http://www.squeezeoc.com/squeezeoc/stayingin/indoors/article_1068428.php (this one has a video demo)
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/bread/focaccia_onion.html
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_37531,00.html
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_11868,00.html (whole wheat variation is here:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_11869,00.html
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_18229,00.html

Hope this helps some...

[alfredo]

6. Thank you thank you thank you.

[housewolf]

8. You're welcom!

and I left you another note above.

[housewolf]

7. Oh and a "rest" part way through kneading is helpful too

Once you've got most of your flour kneaded in, it's a good idea to let the dough sit, covered, for 15 minutes or so. This gives the flour a chance to absorb the water and for some gluten to develop. This helps to avoid kneading too much flour into the dough, and it also assists the gluten development (thus making kneading quicker and easier). Particularly helpful when kneading by hand.

[alfredo]

9. Kneading is tough because I have some nerve damage and arthritis.

I'm still hurting from making the pita.

I'd also like to make free form loaves.

[housewolf]

13. May I suggest, then, that you find yourself

a bread machine? They are terrific for kneading yeast dough (after all, that's what they were designed to do). Even if you don't want to use it to bake loaves in, as long as the machine has a dough cycle you can use if for mixing and kneading the dough, then you can let it rise, shape, rise again and then bake in your oven. They are really great for this purpose and you don't need an expensive machine for it. You just need to be sure that you find one that has a dough cycle. Check out Ebay or Craig's List and I'm sure you can find an inexpensive used machine. Your hands and wrists will thank you for it, believe you me!

[alfredo]

14. What brands to buy or avoid?

[Warpy]

10. A friend used to do it one meal at a time

in a toaster oven set at 400. He'd just keep bread dough in the fridge to retard rising, take out enough for 2 pitas, roll them out and let them rise for an hour (the rolling bringing them up to room temperature quickly), and bake.

They were damned good, too.

[alfredo]

12. That's a great idea.

[hippywife]

11. Husband makes them once in awhile.

I make the hummus and falafel and he makes the pita. I'm just recently into baking, but he was making bread before we were married. Nothing like a good homemade wheat pita. Glad you finally had success!

[NMDemDist2]

15. I really need to try those

I've gotten pretty good at yeast doughs....

[alfredo]

16. Irish Soda breads are pretty easy and tasty.