Pizza Dough - from Ratio by Michael Ruhlman

I have found that the Ratio cookbook's recipe is the best for me.  It requires a scale to make it as that is the whole point of the cookbook.  I would like to make it more multigrain but that will be a future project.

Ingredients:

20 ounces bread flour

12 ounces water

1 ounce olive oil

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon active or instant yeast

Instructions:

Set your mixing bowl on a scale, zero the scale and pour the flour in.  Zero the scale again and add the water.  Zero the scale again and add the oil.  Add the salt.  Sprinkle the yeast over the surface of the water to allow it to dissolve. Fit the bowl into the mixer and, using the dough hook, mix on medium speed until the dough comes together.  Continue mixing until your dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.  To test your dough, pull off a chunk and stretch it into a square.  If it's elastic enough to sallow you to achieve a translucent sheet of dough, it's ready.  If it tears before you can do this, continue mixing, either in the mixer or by hand, until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Remove the mixing bowl from the machine, cover with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise to twice its size.  Push a finger into the dough.  The dough should give some resistance, but not spring back.  If it springs back, let it rest longer.  If you let your dough rise for too long, it will feel flabby and loose when you press a finger into it and will be less eager to rise when you bake it.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead it to expel excess gas and redistribute the yeast.  Cover with a dish towel and let rest for 10 to 15 minutes.  Shape the dough into a square for cutting into small pieces (see below for more information).  Cover the dough with a dish towel and allow to rise, or proof, for about an hour.  Or cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to a day; allow the bread to rise at room temperature for at least 1 1/2 hours before baking.

Almost Whole Wheat Pita Bread (About 9 1/2 hours with rising)

I found this recipe in the Washington Post on Sunday and decided I wanted to have homemade pita bread to go with store bought hummus (I'll make that from scratch when I get a food processor one day). The recipe said that it could be made with whole wheat flour instead of all purpose flour. I've found that breads made only with whole wheat are very heavy so I decided to try it out with half whole wheat and half bread flour. I thought the bread flour would make a better pita as well - more gluten. That's what makes your bread chewy. Also, I didn't feel like baking these on Sunday night when I made the dough so I set them to rise in the refrigerator and baked them the next morning. Here's my recipe adapted from "The Arab Table" by May S. Bsisu.

Ingredients
2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
2 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees)
1 ¼ teaspoons sugar
2 3/4 cups bread flour,plus extra for kneading
2 3/4 cups whole-wheat flour
2 teaspoons salt
4 tablespoons olive oil

Method
Combine yeast, 1 cup of the warm water and sugar in a small bowl and stir to dissolve. Set aside until mixture is foamy and doubled in size, about 10 minutes.

Sift flour and salt together in a large mixing bowl. Using your stand mixer and the dough hook, mix ingredients until dough pulls away form sides of the bowl, forming a ball.

Transfer dough to a floured work surface. Sprinkling as little flour on the dough and your hands as possible, knead the dough -- push, fold and turn -- about five minutes, until dough is smooth, elastic and doesn't stick to your fingers.

Coat a large bowl with remaining olive oil and place dough inside, turning to coat with the oil. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel, and set in the refrigerator 8 hours or overnight.

Meanwhile, lightly dust a baking sheet and a kitchen towel with flour.

Punch dough and transfer to a floured work surface. Knead for about 2 minutes. Divide dough into equal pieces (depends on the size pita you want), roll each one into a ball and place on prepared baking sheet. Working with 1 ball of dough at a time, flatten gently, using a rolling pin or your hands. Roll dough out until about ¼-inch thick. Lay loaves on floured towel, sprinkle flour on top, cover with a second towel, and let rest about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Preheat pizza stone* 10 minutes before ready to bake.
Arrange as many loaves as you can on pizza stone, spacing them about 1 inch apart. Bake until they puff up, 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer loaves to a wire rack to cool; repeat.

Can be frozen in plastic zip bag and thawed in refrigerator. Reheat at 300 degrees for 10 minutes.

* If you don't have a pizza stone, a cookie sheet should be fine instead but I would definitely preheat it just like the pizza stone.