Test cook Erin McMurrer shows host Bridget Lancaster how to make Pita Bread.
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PiTTa.
The Arabs have the best bread
New subbie here. Can’t wait to try this recipe. Can pitas be frozen prior to baking?
This looks amazing !
and something I will likely never make….unless time is no object
Beautiful.
What are the measurements if one wished to use whole wheat flour? Will this recipe work with whole wheat flour? PS I’m really impressed with the outcome of your recipe. Beautiful perfect pita bread!!
14 and 2/3 ounces???? What's that in English?
WAY too much oil.
We all know this is an American presentation. But since YTb is international, and most bakers the-world-'round use metric, or, at very least, use decimal places rather than divisible fractions as actual scales do.
I'm actually American, and yet I am way over the whole ancient Amer-Brit means of weights and measures.
Maybe at least do the conversions and put them in notes below the video so everyone else in the world can easily get things right.
Thanks.
Im not sure if anyone else ran into this problem, but Ive tried the recipe twice now and the same thing happened. When mixing for 6-8 min on medium after adding the salt, it would not form a dough ball. To fix this I slowly added 1 cup of white wheat bread flour to the mixer, and an additional 3/4 cup of white bread flour. This seemed to make a perfect sticky dough ball after about 3-5 minutes. The reason I used white wheat is because you can add less to thicken it up, plus it adds a wonderful flavor to the pita 🙂
PLEASE GO METRIC – especially for baking!
I was surprised at the amount of kitchen science there is when making proper pita bread with pockets. Thank you!.
“Decrease water if not using KA flour…” Um, why? That statement makes no sense without explaining why.
$2500 of equipment to make a $0.25 piece of bread.
Metric measurements and baker's percentages:
416g bead flour (100%)
7g instant dry yeast (1.7%)
298g water (71.6%)
28g honey (6.7%)
53g olive oil (12.7%)
5g salt (1.2%)
ATK!! Please oh please at least give the metric measurements as well for the bread bakers! .. It's laudable that you encourage weighing ingredients, but utterly laughable that you then use extremely 'inaccurate' ounces, cups and teaspoons!! .. When the scales you recommend measure in grams, and provides ounces in decimal places and not fractions!!!! .. Btw .. please get it right .. instant yeast fermentation barely contributes to flavor development. It's principal function is to produce lots of gas .. Also, salt doesn't "inhibit gluten formation" .. if anything, it regulates/moderates yeast activity, which is what you claim to be looking for, so best to include with the dry ingredients .. "Autolyse" involves just flour and water, as a method of hydrating the flour, kickstarting gluten development and conversion of starch into sugars, and creating extensibility in the dough .. the adding of olive oil creates a smoother textured crumb, but inhibits gluten development .. Good for nice soft pita breads, but the opposite of what you claim your were trying to achieve by delaying the salt .. . For that smoother more extensible dough that will produce a nicely puffed pita, without the need for an overnight retard, better to first do a regular autolyse (flour + 90% of the water) for 30-60 mins, then mix in the remaining water and ingredients .. and add a bit more salt for more flavor .. 8g (1.9%) should be enough ..
Major issues with this video — Biggest gripe, in the words of the guest chef: "we are going to start with 14 and 2/3 ounces of King Arthur flour…" (00:52 time stamp).seriously what is 2/3 of an ounce? This is neither professional nor common sense in the real world. Frankly, 0.3 ounces (about 20 gram) of flour make no difference in this bread making process. Similarly, the water measurement 1:00 time stamp) , as she says: "if you have a different brand" on "you want to decrease by one ounce." The use of U.S./Imperial measurement system (historically referred to as "avoirdupois" is from the 13th Century and still used in a few countries (United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and some "colonies" should be discontinued IMHO. Our world operates on a METRIC system. How about we start using instead of 100 pennies in a dollar, 212 "pennouncies" for a dollar? (yes I made up my own coinage term) and instead of given a grade in a class "84%" we begin using "ouncades" (another term I made up) where a B score is 178.08 out of 212 for the equivalent grade 84/100. How about 12 inches in a foot? How much sense is that? All scientific numerical calculations in engineering, physics, material sciences, medicine is in a base 10 system. An angstrom is a unit of length equal to one hundred-millionth of a centimeter ot 10^−10 meter. How is that expressed in inches? With all due respect to Americas Test Kitchen folk, I request that you standardize your measurements consistent with the world we live in today. Please provide metric values for all your recipes as other comments have noted. I also have a gripe with making your YouTube recipes dependent on a subscription to a monthly paid service. I guess I will remake this recipe one day using metric and providing the ingredients and values as part of the video. Besides that, the video could use some the guest chef to enunciate her words carefully as I had to listen to her talk about the water quantity many times to understand the "ten and a half ounces" all the while the glass measuring jar showed the metric volume marks(!) Not to mention her spilling a bunch of water as she poured the ice water through a strainer into the glass measuring jar–on the scale I might add! Why not weight water as well?
"As soon as yeast meets water fermentation begins." This is not true. If that were the case simply adding yeast to water would create alcohol, and as we all know there's a lot of yeast floating around in the air so streams, rivers, the ocean, and even rain would contain alcohol. What they meant to say was that as soon as yeast meets sugar in an appropriate liquid solution fermentation can begin. It's actually even more complicated than that, but that's the basic concept.
Get with the (greatly superior) metric system! 416g flour, 310g water, 28g honey, 54g oil.
The overnight ferment adds a lot of flavor that many recipes lack. High heat over 400F is also needed for a good puff, whether in the oven or on the stove. I prefer the stove, but this is a good recipe either way. I have some in the fridge right now to cook tomorrow!
The best recipe so far for pita bread that tastes like heaven. I started to make bread when covid-19 started. I love pita bread like any other Middle Eastern person. I tried 6 or 7 recipes, all of which were OK, but this is more than OK. The taste, not just the texture, is much better; it is like a cookie. I think it is the slow fermentation process because of the ice-cold water and the placement in the fridge for 17 hours.
Thank you for sharing. This is the first recipe I use from America's Test Kitchen.
Grams please! Thank you!
As internet is filled with thousands of recipes you guys are still hiding your recipes for only paid members. i will get the measurements from somewhere else for free.
Every link to the free recipes are met with give me one dollar and your email. How can ATK get away with stating "for a copy the free recipe go here" and there is NO free recipe. ATK speaks with forked tongue.
What a bs! Get off from YouTube if you want to get paid! There are more reasonable ways to profit from ideas and recipes!
Making a very simple process complicated ICE WATER? HONEY? REFRIGERATION? Why not bring a true Lebanese pita bread maker to show you how it’s done ladies
As a 22 year fan of the show I'd like to thank them for teaching me so much.
The largest problem I have other than the cost and availability of ingredients that most small towns can't come close to providing, Is measurements in ounces.
14 and 2/3 ounces? I'm always confused my scale reads and ounces but not it's not the fancy read out like the show uses in 2/3 for example , If that is point what?.I Please oh please girls give us give us measurements in grams I love your cookbooks but but none of them ever use grams for measurement.
I know we Americans aren't metric smart. Most bakers are. Please help us ou
When I bust out my scale, I feel like a flour dealer.
"Being accurate is essential"
"And easier."
"So, weigh 14 and 2/3 ounces of flour."
If you want to be accurate, don't use imperial. Might as well just use cups.
This recipe is way too exacting for me.
thanks for the scientific explanation!
i followed this recipe to the letter, and it simply did not work. not one of the eight pitas puffed in the oven, although they taste good. the dough was so thin and liquid it was almost a batter, and after mixing for 16 minutes, it never cleared the bowl. when compared to rose beranbaum's recipe, they use twice as much olive oil, and 14 2/3 ounces of flour, whereas, rose uses 16 ounces, and no honey.
You say "Fridge" with such glib – – -what – – what word do I want here? Ignorance? Glib ignorance? Maybe not. But the damn fridge has to have a temperatiure~!!!!!
If you are going to insist on precision in one place why introduce random events elsewhere? What's the point of weighing anything if you don't know what temperature your "fridge" is?
I know a guy who pours his scotch into a glass and then uses a pipetting tool ( a laboratory instrument) to add water. Yet he hasn't a clue how milliliters he poured of scotch? So what's the point of the precise instrument?
My "fridge" is so cold it stops yeast activity dead in its tracks.
YA GOTTA HAVE A THERMAL REGIME.
Anyway, You are mistaken.
The factors that matter are
1) High hydration dough. 80 to 85 percent water.
3) Balling the dough. This forms a tight gluten lattice (a skin) that is a little tougher than the dough beneath the skin. that skin holds in all that water in the cooking porocess
3) Heat. Heat causes that trapped water to turn to steam and the steam tears the dough apart creating the pocket.
Doesn't need ice water, doesn't need a fridge.
Who has room for a sheet pan in their fridge? Not me…
The iron skillet cook gives better color and is quicker.
Can we please weigh in grams, not ounces?
0:11 – 0:25 is unintentionally hilarious.
made it less than a minute… yo two aren't messiahs of baking and we aren't idiots
Giving weight in grams would be universally useful, hmmm?
Should I not leave it to start to ferment on the counter? Thats what you're supposed to do with pizza
I get wonderful flatbread, but mine don't pop open