I get out my trusty old friend Uprisings: The Whole Grain Baker's Book, an artifact from my crunchy-granola college days. I make a sponge with two teaspoons of yeast, a cup of warm water, a tablespoon of honey and a cup of whole wheat flour. I let that sit for awhile, then stir it down and add about 3 and a quarter more cups of flour, a tablespoon and a half of oil and a half-teaspoon of salt. I knead that for awhile, then let it sit for awhile, then punch it down, roll it into about 5 balls, roll the balls into flat circles with a rolling pin and let the circles rise for about 45 minutes.
Now comes the tricky part. Pita bread has to be baked in a really, really, really hot oven, or the pockets don't pop. My recipe calls for 500 degrees -- the hottest temperature my oven is capable of. I don't think I've ever cranked up the oven to 500 degrees before. But I do it, placing a flat pan on the lowest rack to preheat.
The moment of truth: The oven light goes off and I quickly slip two dough rounds onto my preheated pan. I watch through the oven window: Yes! They're puffing up! Whoo-hoo! Another kitchen first for moi! I imagine myself pulling a Martha Stewart, smugly explaining to my admiring friends, "Oh, they look like they're a lot of work, but they're really quite easy and fast to make."
When the rounds come out of the oven I tap them on top. They sound promisingly hollow. But then I slice into one -- What has it got in its pocketses? -- and find...solid bread. I mean...it's a decent whole-wheat bread. But it's just...bread. Darn.
A serving of humility to go with my complex carbohydrates.
If anyone out there has ever managed to pop a pocket in your pitas, let me know how you did that. In the meantime, I think I need to go to Plan B...boughten bread.
Strange breadfellows
5 comments:
I think they look absolutely delicious, LC! Pockets or no pockets!
But what were you going to pop in the pockets for Communion???
Oh, it's just the idea that they didn't turn out exactly as hoped. We don't do buns for Communion.;-)
Actually, Plan B might be the recipe I've linked to over on the left margin, under Church Chat...it's what a lot of churches around here use when they're wanting an evocative looking round of bread for the Eucharist instead of wafers. And it's much easier to make. But...I wanted to experiment...I tend to take a science-project approach to recipes.;-)
Once the bread is broken, what is it supposed to look like? I think it looks just fine! My guess there is a stread of perfectionism in LC!
Now, if you will help me with a spelling dilemma on my blog.
Cathy
Cathy: Yes indeedy. Perfectionism and procrastination go hand in hand. (As I contemplate my inventory of not-quite-right blog entries languishing in "Draft" stage.)
Actually, since I have more loaves than I need, I'm going to do a little "pull" test tonight with the bread at room temperature. If it's too hard to pull bits off, I am going to try the Luther Seminary flatbread recipe...I'm baking cookies for a church thingie this week anyway, so I'll just do up a couple of loaves of that.
The more I think about it, there are a lot of variables to consider...how hard it is for the officiant and/or the communicant to pull pieces of bread off the loaf...how crumbly/messy the bread might become...the taste and texture factor...(and so the perfectionism rears its ugly head again...)
I'll check out your blog when I am not at work [shamefaced blush]
I've used all kinds of bread (but usually the bland wafers) for communion. It doesn't have to be flat. In fact, buns are just fine. One bakery here in town does a great sunflower seed rye in a round loaf that's fantastic. If the failed pita tastes good and doesn't break your molars when you bite down on it then use it.
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