Anyone prepare pita bread on the egg?

mrs_story · June 2016

I'm thinking I want to try making homemade pita bread to go with dinner. Since we'll be using the egg anyway, I want to try on that.

We have a pizza stone, and one of those half-circle cast iron griddles. I know that for either one I'd need to let it heat up. Does one seem like it would be better than the other? I'm leaning toward the griddle, because I think I could cook more at once. But I'm pretty inexperienced, and would love to hear your thoughts/opinions.

Thank you!

nolaegghead · June 2016

I've done it. The ceramic stone works better IMO.

mrs_story · June 2016

Thank you, nolaegghead!

fishlessman · June 2016

ive done work in an old pita bread bakery, they used cast iron circles as it passed thru the oven but the cast iron is allowed to cool slightly before the next pita is added. pretty cool watching thin circles puff up into basketballs as they passed thru. a drizzle of honey and a dusting of toasted sesame seeds

mrs_story · June 2016

Thank you for the information, fishlessman!

500 · June 2016

I've taken store-bought pita/flatbread and grilled it to much success. Simply brush with some herb infused olive oil and grill quickly after I took steaks off, so around 550*. They go quick so keep turning and rotating until slightly charred. Cut with a pizza cutter in wedges to serve with the steak. Tasty.

caliking · June 2016

A stone is probably the way to go. If you use a griddle, then don't plan on cooking hotter than 500-550°F ish. I did some eggsperiments with naan a while back, using a baking steel kind of setup. The bottom burned before the top cooked, when I tried cooking at 650°F.

Here's the link:
http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1151296/naan-and-pide-experiments-on-steel

Many folks chimed in with some very helpful recs, some of which may apply to egging pita.

nolaegghead · June 2016

@caliking - that's been my experience when experimenting with steel (or any metal) vs ceramic. The metal transfers heat very fast and you have to turn the heat way down and then you sacrifice the convection and radiant cooking on the top.

Cast iron isn't as bad as steel or aluminum, but still much more heat conductance that ceramic.

mrs_story · June 2016

Thanks so much for the information! I'm going to look at the link in a minute. Sounds like there will be much experimenting in my future. :-)

mrs_story · June 2016

caliking said:

A stone is probably the way to go. If you use a griddle, then don't plan on cooking hotter than 500-550°F ish. I did some eggsperiments with naan a while back, using a baking steel kind of setup. The bottom burned before the top cooked, when I tried cooking at 650°F.

caliking -- do you give that temperature range because it's a griddle, because it's metal, or because it's cast iron?

If it's because it's cast iron, is there a problem with cast iron & higher temps? I ask, because my husband switched out the regular grate with a cast iron one (our old grill had cast iron grates, and it's what we are used to).

So much to learn!

mrs_story · June 2016

Okay, I didn't get pics (sorry, it was late & we didn't think about it).

Husband used the folding grill extender for the first time. We're definitely learning what works best and makes more sense. We put the stone on the extender for the pitas. First time ever making pitas from scratch, so I didn't really know what to expect. The recipe I used had a video from the author, and his puffed up nicely. We tried two on the stone in the egg & they were flatbreads, but didn't puff. So I moved into the kitchen & used a cast iron skillet. None of them puffed. Wah-wah. :-( But they were good for regular flat breads. My daughter didn't want what we were having (pork souvlaki, homemade tzatziki, with grilled red peppers and onions). So she & Daddy took a couple of the flatbreads and made taco themed flatbread pizzas.

I don't consider the flatbreads to be a complete success because none of them puffed. But not a complete failure either, because they were still good. I'll be doing more research & we'll experiment more.

Thanks so much for all your input!

fishlessman · June 2016

was looking at a few recipes on line, some of the methods i see were different than the bakery did them. their oven was hand built with stacks of firebricks, looked like a tall curved hallway with a chain style conveyor that ran in a circle thru the hallway and out, came around and went back in carrying the plates. the fire came from the sides and top, lots of fire but not from below. would be more like heating the stone with the oven, adding the pita to the stone, then turning the overhead broiler on as it cooked.what i remember was they cut 5-6 inch circles of dough 1/2 inch thick, let it rise, then they had a hand cranked roller to roll them maybe 3/16 thick and slapped them on the moving plates circling in and out of the oven. they would never let an operation like this open today

i was 16 doing the gas piping, those pitas were called syrian dollars back then. yabbah dabbahs bakery was the name of the place. plain, honey with sesame, and oil with zatar seasoning. they would give me a 20 inch stack on the way out. we still have 3 pita places in town, always fresh

caliking · June 2016

mrs_story said:

caliking said:

A stone is probably the way to go. If you use a griddle, then don't plan on cooking hotter than 500-550°F ish. I did some eggsperiments with naan a while back, using a baking steel kind of setup. The bottom burned before the top cooked, when I tried cooking at 650°F.

caliking -- do you give that temperature range because it's a griddle, because it's metal, or because it's cast iron?

If it's because it's cast iron, is there a problem with cast iron & higher temps? I ask, because my husband switched out the regular grate with a cast iron one (our old grill had cast iron grates, and it's what we are used to).

So much to learn!

The temp i mentioned is for cooking on a griddle. As mentioned above by @nolaegghead , metal transfers heat to the food on it much better/more efficiently than stone or ceramic, and thats why the bread will burn on the bottom. If you have a CI grid in the egg, but are cooking on a pizza stone, this should not apply, since you are cooking on the stone.

About getting them to puff, I'm not much of a baker, but my (very) basic understanding is that breads rise because of gas trapped in the dough. High-protein flour (like bread flour) and kneading the dough well should help develop the gluten to trap the gas in. If you use yeast, then the dough needs to be given time to rise (2 rises for this type of dough?). If you're using baking powder, then maybe you should bake the breads not too long after mixing the dough? Maybe @thatgrimguy or @20stone can chime in with more helpful advice.

This is speculation, so please take with a grain of salt. I have never made pita, but making the perfect naan has haunted me for years

mrs_story · June 2016

caliking said:

This is speculation, so please take with a grain of salt. I have never made pita, but making the perfect naan has haunted me for years

I made my pitas based off of a Chef John/FoodWishes recipe. I decided to compare with the recipe in my Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook and found a recipe for naan a few pages away. Would you like me to share it with you?

paqman · June 2016

caliking said:

A stone is probably the way to go. If you use a griddle, then don't plan on cooking hotter than 500-550°F ish. I did some eggsperiments with naan a while back, using a baking steel kind of setup. The bottom burned before the top cooked, when I tried cooking at 650°F.

Here's the link:
http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1151296/naan-and-pide-experiments-on-steel

Many folks chimed in with some very helpful recs, some of which may apply to egging pita.

@caliking Not sure how I missed that thread but I am craving for naan bread right now. Did you try baking them directly on a platesetter? I think that I'll try that on the minimax

caliking · June 2016

@paqman I don't have a platesetter, so I haven't tried that. If your stone is fairly clean, it should work.

@20stone made naan on the egg recently, so he likely has more current advice to give.

Anyone prepare pita bread on the egg?

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