So this should be the Lavash recipe, but I decided to skip it. I am totally unfamiliar with it, it required overnight work, I still hadn’t gotten over my failed naan bread, and… it’s my blog and I’ll skip if I want to. I decided I can go back at any time. I’m taking a pass, kinda like in that one game show from years and years ago where if you couldn’t figure a word that would make the other person guess the clue, then you could say “pass.” I’m blanking on the name of that show. Match Game? Anyway, yeah…I’m taking a pass.
Pita seemed challenging. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but I went into it with an open mind. The recipe was fairly straightforward – 50/50 bread flour and whole wheat flour, oil, yeast, salt, sugar, water. Simple enough. The dough was a bit heavy though and a funny thing happened to my KitchenAid.
Wasn’t that awesome? That derailed me a bit. I wasn’t expecting the mixer to struggle let alone smoke. I called them later to talk about it. I hadn’t registered it, but seeing as how I’d purchased it in October 2018 and it was only December 2018, I was concerned. I still had some of the materials (not the registration card, of course…no idea where it is) and it clearly said if there was something wrong with it within the first year that they would replace it. After finally figuring out how to talk to a person — because their automated system insisted I type in a phone number on the registration and I hadn’t registered it – I finally got to a person. Felt like I was on hold for what seemed like forever. He suggested I let the machine cool off and then trying it again to see if it still smoked. He said that sometimes you can overheat them if you have them on too long. I had it on four minutes on the lowest setting (Stir) and an additional four minutes on the next setting (2). The documentation on the mixer indicates that you should never knead above a 2. So eight minutes is too much on a professional mixer with a bad ass motor? Okay then. I let it cool off and tried it out and it works just fine. What a relief. I think going forward I will probably just make sure it doesn’t get too hot and maybe not go above the stir speed for dough.
Back to the pita. Everything went according to how the recipe said it would. It doubled great. I weighed and preshaped the rolls. I let them rise again and then rolled them out. This time, I decided to try and make a video using my iPhone because I don’t have a video camera. Maybe I’ll get one. And some white lights because my kitchen lights are too yellow and everything looks more yellow than it is. This is the second video. In the first video, I did not like the way I looked without makeup so while the bread was resting before rolling, I legit went and put on makeup and did something with my hair. I still am not pleased with how I look on camera, but you know what? That’s me and what you see is what you get. Not that first video though. Nope.
Here’s what the final pitas looked like. I was quite pleased with them! I even calculated correctly to make one dozen. I finished them up and made a quick turkey salad (I had just roasted a turkey the day before) and brought that along with the pita for a catch up night with a friend. We met at one of those brew pubs where they sell their beer and then you can bring in your own food, play games, chill. Those pita sandwiches were so good. I will definitely be making them again.
The Pastry Hustle 