Scrummy Spelt Pittas

Ingredients

• Just a standard baker's percentage recipe:
• Spelt wholegrain (100%) 200g
• Water (60-65%) 130g
• Yeast (1%): 2g (small tsp)
• Salt (1%!): 2g (smaller tsp)
• Olive oil(2%): 4g
• Large heavy-bottomed frying pan, but not your favourite
• etc...

Method

1. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl to make a simple dough.
2. When it cleans the sides of the bowl, take it out and kneed it. Add more spelt flour if needed to get it to the point where it is tacky but not sticky. Kneeding such a small amount is difficult, so I sometimes use the "doughnut" method with my hands, pulling and pushing the dough round like I was twisting a ring doughnut, but with no hole in it.
3. When it starts to look like it might pass the window-pane test (given what you are working with, you have to be liberal, but its a longish kneed), stretch and shape into a ball and put in a warm oiled bowl and cover for 1hr or so.
4. When the dough has risen to about twice its size, put the frying pan on the highest heat you can, and carefully prise the dough out the bowl onto a floured worktop keeping it roughly round and not knocking it back in any way. Cut the dough into 6 wedges.
5. Flatten each wedge into a sort of rounded triangle and roll it out to about 4mm thick, trying to keep it in the same shape and avoiding any sharp corners etc.
6. When the pan is really hot put the first pitta in and watch it carefully. As soon as it starts to bubble up a little, turn it over. You need to keep flipping it to create a more-or-less even thickness of dough on each side for when it ballons.
7. At some point, it will start to ballon. Don't let it burn on the bit that remains in contact with the pan so keep flipping it. There will be holes from time to time and these can be closed with the turner or whatever you are use to flip the pittas.
8. As soon as the bread is fully inflated take it out and keep it warm while you do the next. Sometimes they wont inflate completely and sometimes not at all.

Credits

I started using spelt when my wife was on a wheat-free diet years ago.

Added by: Robert Sharp