Bedouin Bread

[Granny Smith]

It took me just a little over an hour to make this bread, including baking, so it's a good one when you're in a hurry.

This bread can be used like you would tortillas, flatbread, or pizza crust, including cheese or garlic bread. Some of us had it folded in half and filled with bbq beef, others ate it plain.

Bedouin Bread

1 ounce fresh yeast cake (or 1 package dry yeast or 1 T. dry yeast)
1 tablespoon honey
1 1/4 cups tepid water
3 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt

Dissolve yeast and honey in tepid water. Stir in the flour and salt. Mix well and knead lightly on a floured board. Cut dough into 8 pieces and shape into rounds. Let rest 5-10 minutes.

Roll or flatten with your hands until 6 inches across and 1/4 inch thick. Place on lightly greased cookie sheet, cover with a clean towel and let rise in a warm place for 30-60 minutes, or until about 1/2-3/4 inch thick.

Heat oven to 500°F.

Bake for 7 to 8 minutes, or until bread feels spongy when lightly touched. It doesn't brown on top, but browns lightly on the bottom.

[Cyngbaeld]

Gayle you need a pizza stone. Preheat it in the oven and slap the rolled out dough on it.

[Granny Smith]

I have pizza stones, but I think it would be hard to move this bread once it rises. It gets quite light, fluffy, and tender. You'd have to bake it without rising, like pizza crust.

[Cyngbaeld]

Wrong recipe for Pita then. Pita has to be kneaded quite a bit to develop the gluten in it.
I haven't made it, but I saw someone doing it on a cooking show and they used a pizza stone. Always wanted to try it, but too lazy.

[Granny Smith]

Almost the right recipe, but the wrong method. You're right, it does need to be kneaded more. You don't have to have a stone, but, if you don't use one, you need to heat the pan before adding the dough. Here's the next one I'm going to try~

www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/pitabread

You know what's funny? I gave up on making pita bread years ago, after numerous failures. Now I'm working on it again.

I was watching Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations the other day and he was with a group of Bedouin. They made a bread that would keep for a month, but had to be broken into hunks and soaked in water before eating. He called it Bedouin Sun Bread. That's the recipe I was actually trying to find. Of course, this ain't it either unless you need to store this till it's stale, then soak it. I found a few references to the Sun Bread, but no recipes or even general directions for making it.

[Cyngbaeld]

Sounds like hard tack.

Maybe a cast iron skillet? I have some of those, but no pizza stone. I'm not about to heat the oven to 500* right now though. Maybe this winter.

[Granny Smith]

It looked like some sort of thick flat bread, not hard, but kind of tough. They tore it into pieces and pushed it down in a bowl of water for a couple of minutes. I didn't see how they ate it. I'm assuming they used it to sop up other foods, but I don't know for sure.

Can't say I blame you for not wanting to light the oven. It took about 4 hours for the a/c to cool it off in here after I turned mine off. Of course, I ran it in the hottest part of the day. Dumb move on my part.

The doubleday cookbook says you can use a heavy baking sheet and the link I posted says you can use a baking sheet turned upside down. I don't think it matters much, as long as it is heated and doesn't warp. You wouldn't want to ruin your pan.