Makes 8 pitas
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cups warm water
- 1 teaspoon yeast
- 300 grams AP flour
- 200 grams bread flour
- 40 grams rye or whole wheat flour
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 3 and 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
Directions
1. Activate the yeast
Combine the water and yeast in a stand mixer bowl and let sit for 5 minutes.
2. Mix the dough
Reserve 60 grams of AP flour and add the rest to the bowl along with the oil. Stir the mixture on low until all of the flour is incorporated. Cover the dough and let it rest for 30 minutes.
With the stand mixer on low add the salt followed by the remaining flour 2 tablespoons at a time. The dough should feel tense, but soft. It should be tacky and pull away from the sides of the bowl.
3. Bulk rise
Pour the dough out onto a floured work surface. Tighten up the dough by tucking the edge of your hand under the dough and pulling it towards you, moving your way around the edge of the dough to keep tucking the edges underneath. This will help to smooth out the surface of the dough and ensure an even fermentation.
Add a little olive oil to a large bowl or tub, spreading it around using your fingers to coat the container. Place the dough inside and cover with a cloth or the lid, and leave to bulk ferment at room temperature on your kitchen countertop for 1 hour. After 1 hour stretch opposite sides if the dough over the center. Rotate the bowl a quarter turn and repeat, then flip the dough over and let rise for one more hour.
Repeat the stretching and folding one time followed by an additional hour of rise.
4. Cold rise
Tightly cover the dough and let it rise in the fridge for 48 hours.
5. Shape and final prove
Pour the dough out onto a floured work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll the pieces into smooth taunt balls and lay seam side down on a baking sheet. Cover the balls lightly with oil and then cover the whole sheet and let the balls rise for 2-4 hours until they’re pillowy.
6. Rolling out the dough
Immediately after starting the final rise, set a baking steel on the middle rack and turn on the broiled as high as it goes.
When the dough is ready lightly flour your work surface and gently grab a dough ball and briskly roll it out a few times along its length. Flip in upside down and rotate it a quarter turn and roll it our along its length again. Repeat this process until the dough has become a 7 inch round circle.
7. Baking
Carefully pick of the pita and drape it over your palm. Either by pulling the rack slightly out of the oven and dropping the pita onto the stone by upending your hand or by hucking the pita onto the stone, place the pita onto the stone. Watch the pita and after the pocket fully forms flip it using tongs and cook for another minute. Remove the pita and let it cool on a baking sheet covered by a towel.
Repeat this step for the remaining 7 pieces of dough