Magic Dough

24th October 2016

I've been desperate to bake bread again for a little while. I wanted to make flat breads or pittas - something a little easier than a loaf anyway.

Bread dough is basically the easiest mixture to create - strong flour, yeast, salt and water. I used my dough hook to get the mixture going, adding a little oil while it was mixing.

I worked this a little by hand in the bowl before tipping onto a floured surface. I kneaded this for a few minutes which surprisingly brought what looked like a really wet mixture together into a stretchy smooth dough. I found this quite fun and therapeutic.

I laced the bowl with a little olive oil and put the ball of dough back into the bowl, covered with cling film and left for an hour to rise. The warmest place in my house at the time was the airing cupboard which really helped the dough double in size.

I knocked the dough back by hand and split it into eight equal pieces. It felt very oily and I suspected I used a little too much in the bowl. The dough was really stretchy and springy and tricky to tear apart.

Each smaller ball was rolled out into very irregular flat shapes and placed on greased trays. I left these to rest a short while longer before putting into the oven to bake for 15 minutes.

In an attempt to create pitta breads I tried to wrap the bread in tea towels as soon as they came out the oven so the steam would create the pitta pockets. Some took and others stayed pretty flat. They smelled absolutely incredible and it tasted like I made real bread! I was really happy with these.