Sourdough
Equipment Needed
Kitchen scales
Large mixing bowl
Oven gloves
Baking stone
Cooling rack
Ingredients Needed
Starter, fed and ready to use
Strong white bread flour – I like to use Bacheldre Watermill Organic Stoneground Strong Unbleached flour
Water – either boiled and cooled to room temp, or filtered
Salt – I prefer to use sea salt and not table salt
Olive oil
The Recipe
Sourdough Pitta Breads
500g bread flour
280g water
9g (sea) salt
20g sourdough starter (100%)
15g olive oil
Sourdough Pitta Breads
Make the dough by kneading all the ingredients in a free standing mixer for 4-5 minutes (by hand 8 to 10 minutes). Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave to rest for up to 24 hours at a cool room temperature (18 – 20°C / 64 – 68°F). 24 hours works perfect for me and my sourdough starter to get the right dough consistency and taste development. But every starter is different and can act different so you have to give it a few tries to find your own optimum.
For the next step you divide the dough in 8 equal parts (slightly over 100 g each) and shape into balls. Cover and leave to relax for 10 minutes while you preheat your oven as hot as possible. Some ovens go to 250°C, but if yours goes to 300°C, that’s even better. Make sure the stone or rack you are going to use is also in the oven while you preheat, because you want your bread baked directly on a hot surface. You need to get the oven as hot as possible and after that the hot air helps with the puffing up part.
Now take a ball of dough and gently shape it by hand to a disc shape. Take a disc and, with a rolling pin, roll out the disc to a circle of around two to three millimeters thickness. Always roll from the middle to the edges and turn the dough a few times, so it will be rolled out evenly and round.
Now ‘throw’ a rolled out disc on the hot rack or stone. Be swift so your oven does not drop in temperature too much. You can bake several at once of course, but it is best to do a trial version of one pita first and see how that comes out. Now watch how it puffs up (the fun part!) and take it out after 3 to 4 minutes. Repeat the process with the other dough balls.
You can keep the baked pitas warm between two tea towels (they will stay warm for quite a while this way). I think they are best eaten fresh and warm but you can freeze leftover pitas (no longer than a few weeks). Thaw them and give them a minute in your toaster. Still delicious!
I’ll add some photo’s of the whole process as soon as I remember next time I bake them.
Flour salt and water
Sourdough Bread Artisan Bread Bakery Blog
Made with the simple basic ingredients of flour, water and salt; there are three distinct stages to making a sourdough loaf (1) The Starter (2) The Ferment and (3) The Dough itself.
www.sourdoughbread.co.uk
A little bit about this site
I want to offer and share information, tips, techniques, recipes and tools for the home baker, with an above average interest in the art of sourdough bread making.