Pita Breads and Flatbreads, Focaccia and Pizzas!!!

Flour, Water, Yeast and Salt

These are the only ingredients you need to bake a delightfully crusty, flavor packed flatbread or pizza. Call it as you like it, the flavor in this bread is in the technique and method you use to make the dough, not in the ingredient.

If you use the No time dough method to make the crust or focaccia, you will only taste the flour and salt, or some yeasty flavor of some sort, no deep hearty tones, something you cannot explain why you keep on munching on the bread even if there is nothing else there but the bread itself.

That's how good and excellent it is. What method? Simple. Fermentation.

It builds flavor, extends the shelf life, speeds up the mixing and proofing times, etc., etc.,

If you haven't tried making your bread using this method, you have to try!!! There are so many recipes online that you can find or simply just take a portion of the flour in your recipe, be it 1 cup or 2 cups, it doesn't really matter for a beginner. Add a bit of yeast and then water to hydrate it, then leave to ferment.

As long as that flour ferments for as little as an hour, (some bakers do it for less), to as high as 12 hours or overnight, you are good to go.

The biggest pitfall is gauging the amount of water to use on the dough stage. The dough stage is when you take that sponge or fermented flour and yeast and add that to the rest of your ingredients, mixing it is very tricky for beginners but the ideal consistency of the dough should be slightly on the sticky side.

A very high toaster oven will do the job for making small sized Pita breads.

Wait until it puffs up

Once the Pita puffs up, remove and stack them up.

If you want to make a Pizza using the same dough, dock the surface. Pitas do not get docking or else they won't puff.

For crustier flatbreads and focaccias, bake them on oiled heavy gauge baking sheets or pans, i use 400 to 450 F. Bake till golden brown and then immediately drizzle with your garlic and rosemary olive oil.

For commercial baking lessons, visit www.breadmakinglessons.com

or visit my facebook page and send me a message. Or text me at 09495705091.

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Comments

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