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I started baking simple white sandwich bread from scratch a few months ago. Bread flour, salt, sugar, butter, yeast mixture. Two rises. Very straight forward. Absolutely delicious.
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This is the loaf I made on Friday.

We have a 'bread machine' and my wife used to use it once in a while, but the old-fashioned way is just so much better. More satisfying, too.
 

Old Hippie

Somewhere between 61 and dead
We've been playing with a bulk dough for pita lately. I'm finding I quite like having it around. I usually make up just four pita at a time.

Semolina Dough
For pizza, pita and other ethnic breads starting with the Letter P

3 cups/380g warm water
1 T/10g yeast
1 to 1 1/2 T/17-25 g salt
3 cups/510g durum semolina flour (atta)
3 1/4 cups/455g unbleached flour

Mix yeast and salt into water. Add flours and mix with paddle until just mixed. Do not knead.

Cover and rest at room temperature for about two hours. Dough will flatten in pot. Refrigerate and use within two weeks.

Pizza/Foccacia: Dust board with atta. Take 300g/~12 oz. dough, roll out to 30 cm/12 inches.

Pita: Dust board with atta. Take 300g/~12 oz. dough, divide in four. Roll out and grid top of breads with the handle of a wooden spoon.

("Grid" the bread by pressing the handle of the wooden spoon 3-4 times across, then again at 90 degree angle. Helps it puff.)

To bake: preheat oven as hot as it will go (525F for ours) with baking stone on bottom shelf for 30 minutes. Dust baking sheet with some atta flour and place breads on sheet. Set sheet on stone and bake 7-8 minutes until pitas are done. Pizza may take longer.

O.H.
 

TexLaw

Fussy Evil Genius
We've been playing with a bulk dough for pita lately. I'm finding I quite like having it around. I usually make up just four pita at a time.

Semolina Dough
For pizza, pita and other ethnic breads starting with the Letter P

3 cups/380g warm water
1 T/10g yeast
1 to 1 1/2 T/17-25 g salt
3 cups/510g durum semolina flour (atta)
3 1/4 cups/455g unbleached flour

Mix yeast and salt into water. Add flours and mix with paddle until just mixed. Do not knead.

Cover and rest at room temperature for about two hours. Dough will flatten in pot. Refrigerate and use within two weeks.

Pizza/Foccacia: Dust board with atta. Take 300g/~12 oz. dough, roll out to 30 cm/12 inches.

Pita: Dust board with atta. Take 300g/~12 oz. dough, divide in four. Roll out and grid top of breads with the handle of a wooden spoon.

("Grid" the bread by pressing the handle of the wooden spoon 3-4 times across, then again at 90 degree angle. Helps it puff.)

To bake: preheat oven as hot as it will go (525F for ours) with baking stone on bottom shelf for 30 minutes. Dust baking sheet with some atta flour and place breads on sheet. Set sheet on stone and bake 7-8 minutes until pitas are done. Pizza may take longer.

O.H.

I make a lot of pita at home, but I like to make them from whole wheat flour for taste and texture. I also make a sponge and knead, but I also tend to bake the same day.

Pita (makes 16)

-6-7 cups whole wheat flour, divided
-2.5 cups lukewarm water
-2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (or 1 packet)
-1 TBSP kosher salt
-1 TBSP olive oil

Sprinkle yeast on top of water in large bowl (or mixer bowl) and whisk in. Whisk in 3 cups of the flour, one cup at a time. Stir 100 times in the same direction with a stiff spoon or spatula. Cover and let rest for at least 20 minutes or several hours if you can.

Add the oil, salt, and 1 cup flour and stir in (or use a mixer and dough hook). Keep adding flour in increments of 1 cup or less until it's right (tacky but not sticky and comes off the bowl). Knead for 5-10 minutes by hand or a few minutes with the dough hook (if stirring and kneading by hand, just start kneading once it's too stiff to stir). Place dough in greased bowl, cover, and let rise for until its doubled in volume (about 90 minutes).

Preheat oven to 450F with baking stone on the bottom rack. Divide dough equally. Roll out each to about 7-8" round, place on the stone, and bake 2 minutes or until puffed. Be liberal with flour when rolling.

I just bake them 1 at a time because that times out decently for rolling them out. I also bake 8 as a save the rest of they dough for a week or two.

Add a cup of semolina flour to the recipe, and it makes a decent pizza dough.
 

Old Hippie

Somewhere between 61 and dead
I make a lot of pita at home, but I like to make them from whole wheat flour for taste and texture.

Semolina's great stuff. In the pita recipe I usually use whole-durum Atta flour. We also have fine semolina around for making semolina torpedo loaves, and coarse semolina for basboussa and mamoul. Although uppuma is good with coarse semolina, I find I like it better with the fine.

O.H.
 

Alacrity59

Wanting for wisdom
Wow ... I got lost.

I do flat bead with atta and.

Yeah love bread . . . and would like to know about baasboussa, mamoul . . . what is that Mr. Natural?
 

Old Hippie

Somewhere between 61 and dead
Wow ... I got lost.

I do flat bead with atta and.

Yeah love bread . . . and would like to know about baasboussa, mamoul . . . what is that Mr. Natural?

Didn't see the question, sorry!

Basboussa is a baked semolina pudding with rosewater, honey and pistachios.

Mamoul are filled date cookies made with a semolina shell pressed into a special form.

Uppuma is a semolina porridge with various nuts and spices.

I'll put some more specific stuff together and post it up.

O.H.
 

Alacrity59

Wanting for wisdom
Didn't see the question, sorry!

Basboussa is a baked semolina pudding with rosewater, honey and pistachios.

Mamoul are filled date cookies made with a semolina shell pressed into a special form.

Uppuma is a semolina porridge with various nuts and spices.

I'll put some more specific stuff together and post it up.

O.H.

I'm looking forward to this. I did look them up. I'm sure I've had a couple of them over the years.
 

Old Hippie

Somewhere between 61 and dead
I learned basboussa from a wonderful Egyptian colleague of mine, with whom I worked at two different universities. We became quite good friends and shared recipes often. One day she invited me over to pick up some stuffed grape leaves she made for me. I lived about four blocks from her so I just walked over. She met me at the door -- Muslim single woman; the door to her apartment was carefully kept open any time a male visitor was there -- and handed me the container to take home. Then she said, "You already have a brother and a wife, so you now have a sister AND you get a Muslim second mother, and here she is!" Her mother was visiting from Egypt. With some translation help, we agreed that I was now adopted. :) My first mother was amused.

So, Basboussa:

3 c. semolina flour
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 c. melted butter
1 c. plain yogurt
"Some" shredded coconut, either sweetened or unsweetened

Mix all ingredients together and pour into baking pan.

Let sit one hour.

Bake at 350F "30 minutes or so."

Let cool in pan.

While cake is baking, combine 2 1/2 cups sugar with 1 1/2 cups water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, adding a little more water if it "seems too thick." Add 2 tablespoons of honey, and about 1/4 teaspoon of lemon juice. "For even more flavour, boil some cloves in the water."

When the cake is cooled down to warm, and the syrup is cooled to warm, pour the syrup over the cake. Let sit an hour to soak in.

"Aha, but what about the rosewater and pistachios you mentioned," you ask. You can add some coarsely chopped unsalted pistachios to the cake, and a bit of rosewater to the syrup. My preference with rosewater is to use very little, but suit your own taste (or the taste of the person you're trying to impress...).

O.H.
 

Old Hippie

Somewhere between 61 and dead
Now, Mamoul or what Naomi Duguid and Jeffery Alford referred to as "Traveler's Date Cookies" in the book Home Baking: The Artful Mix of Flour and Tradition Around the World. The mildly sweet dough bakes up rather firm around a sweet date filling.

1/2 tsp. dry yeast
1/4 c. warm water
1 Tbsp. orange-flower water
1 large egg
8 Tbsp. (1 stick) melted butter cooled to lukewarm
1 1/2 c. coarse semolina (not semolina flour)
2 Tbsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. all purpose flour

Filling:

3/4 cup pitted dates
3 Tbsp. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. orange-flower water
1 1/2 tsp. rose water

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Stir in orange-flower water, egg and melted butter. Add the semolina and stir in, then sprinkle on the sugar and salt and stir. Add the flour and mix until it's crumbly but holds together when squeezed. Cover and let rest 1 hour.

Prepare the filling: Put all the ingredients in a food processor and process to a paste. (Not being a major fan of rosewater I will either use very little or omit in favour of just adding some water.) Transfer filling to a bowl and set aside, covered.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Use a tablespoon to scoop up a level spoonful of dough. Place the dough in the palm of your hand and using the fingers of the other hand flatten it out to a circle about 3 inches in diameter. Put 1 1/2 teaspoons of filling in the centre of the round, pull the edges up to cover the filling, and roll gently between palms to make a ball. Place seam-side-down on a baking sheet. Make and fill the rest of the cookies. ***** each one with a fork, and brush the tops with milk.

Bake until touched at the edges with golden brown, 20-25 minutes. Immediately transfer to a wire rack to cool.
 

Old Hippie

Somewhere between 61 and dead
I'm in Canada . . . orange flower water might be rare here. But we shall overcome.

I imagine that if you were near one of our major cities you could find some of this stuff in a South Asian or Islamic grocery. Out here in the ginseng, not so much.

O.H.
 
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