Formulas
Pita Pocket Bread
Prepare sponge with yeast, water and 7 lbs., 2 ozs. of the flour. Let sponge ferment 30 minutes to 2 hours. Sprinkle sponge with salt and oil. Mix remaining flour to form well-developed dough. Ferment until doubled, about 1-1/2 hours. Scale and round into 3- to 4-oz. units. Relax 15 minutes. Sheet or hand-roll 1/8" or slightly thicker. Spread out singly on cornmeal-dusted pans. Give sheeted units 3/4 proof, about 20 minutes. Heat oven to 460° to 500°F. Peel units directly onto oven shelf; bake until ballooned but not browned, 3 to 5 minutes. Do not overbake, as pockets will become brittle. Cool on towel-lined pans. Pitas will partially collapse when cool. To facilitate collapse, cover pans while pitas are hot.
Variation:
Whole wheat pita pockets: Substitute Progressive BakerŪ Whole Wheat Flour for half the weight of total flour.
| Ingredients | Weights |
True % |
Baker's % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Active dry yeast | 1 3/4 ozs. |
.45 |
.75 |
| Warm water | 9 lbs. |
37.43 |
63.25 |
| Progressive BakerŪ Spring Hearth Spring Patent Flour | 14 lbs., 4 ozs. |
59.26 |
100.00 |
| Coarse Kosher salt | 3 2/3 ozs |
.95 |
1.50 |
| Olive oil | 7 1/3 ozs. |
1.91 |
3.25 |
| Total | 24 lbs., 3/4 oz. |
100.00 |
168.75 |