Sourdough "Pita" Bread, or Khubiz Arabi

  

Bread is the staff of life in the Middle East.  Though we eat rice abundantly, rice is actually the new kid on the block, relatively speaking.  Our ancient fathers ate bread as their main sustenance and nourishment.  Give us this day our daily bread, Jesus taught his disciples how to pray.

Bread is the vehicle for all other foods - we scoop up vegetables, salads, meats, cheeses, eggs - everything can be folded into a piece of bread.  Bread is also the utensil, the way our food is carried to our mouths.  There is ceremony - how to tear off a piece, how much to tear off at a time, where to dip in the common bowl, how to hold the bread so that it doesn't drip.  And yet bread is so common place that it is rarely remarked upon, rarely experimented with, it is simply there every morning when you wake up, and at every table that you sit down to. 

Why Sourdough

This was one of many instances of Weston A. Price's findings and my cultural food traditions fitting perfectly together.  Price discovered that traditional societies never ate grains without special preparations - soaking, fermenting or sprouting.  These three methods in grain perparation have now been shown to increase the digestibility of grains, as they largely remove phytic acids that would otherwise bind with the nutrients in the food, blocking absorption in the gut. 

Sourdough is a form of grain fermenation.  Sourdough is a Lactobacillius culture that exists side by side with wild yeast.  When a dough is formed by mixing water and flour, naturally occuring enzymes break down the starch into a form of sugar, which then feeds the wild yeast spores that all flour naturally contains.  In true sourdough breads, this biological leavening agent is the only one used, which allows the bread to ferment when the starter is kneaded into dough. 

My teta, my grandmother never used yeast to bake. How could she - commercial yeast was not available. Instead, when she made her family's daily bread she would use a small ball of reserved dough from her previous batch to leaven her new batch of bread. Before baking the new bread, she she would throw a small ball of the prepared dough into her sack of flour to ferment. If she wasn't able to make bread regularly enough and her reserved ball of dough was not longer active, she would simple knock on a neighbor's door and borrow a little of theirs.

A ball of dough, full of leavening, moistened and then thrown into a sack of flour . . . that sounds to me like what we call a sourdough starter.  So it seems that traditional Arabic bread was actually sourdough bread.

 

Why "Pita" 

Here in the West, we often call these flat rounds of bread "pita" or "pocket bread."  "Pita" is a Greek word and a foreign word to the Arab world.  In Palestine, we just call it bread, khubiz.  Sometimes we call it Arabic bread, khubiz Arabi, simply to distinguish it from Western style loaves. 

So, we call it khubiz Arabi as a way to celebrate our culture, to claim the food that we eat most as our own. 

 

Khubiz Arabi

Yeild:  8-10 loaves

2 cups whole wheat flour - I prefer white whole wheat for a softer texture

1 tablespoon honey

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 cup sourdough starter, freshly fed and bubbly

3/4 - 1 cup water or whole milk, for a softer dough

Mix together flour and salt. 

Add in sourdough starter, honey, and salt and begin to stir, adding in water a little bit at a time.  The amount of liquid will depend on the hydration level of your starter.  Knead until soft and elastic. 

Place in a greased bowl, turning dough to coat and allow to rise until double in volume. 

Alternatively, you can use the dough setting on your bread maker, and check to make sure that the dough forms well, adding water or flour as needed. 

To form loaves

Heat a cast iron griddle over medium heat. 

Punch down dough and divide into pieces the size of a lime.  Roll each piece into a very thin circle, really, as thin as you can.  Flour is your friend - use a well-floured surface and keep your rolling pin coated in flour.   If they resist formation, let them rest a second time for 5-10 minutes.  Don't worry if they are not perfect - this take a little practice.  But the thinner you roll out the loaves, the more likely they are to form pockets, so do take the time to roll them out as much as you can. 

Place the loaves on a well-floured surface so that they do not stick and cover with damp towels. 

Allow to rest 5-10 minutes.  They will not actually rise.  I find that by the time you have rolled out a few of them, you can throw a few onto your griddle.

Very gingerly, pick up a loaf and place it on the griddle.  Any pressure on the loaf will prevent it from puffing up and forming a pocket.  After a few minutes, steam will build up inside of the loaf and the loaf will puff and form a pocket.  It is a beautiful thing! Flip and wait another minute or two.  Each loaf should take 3-5 minutes to cook. 

Even if it doesn't puff, the bread is still absolutely delicious. 

Try not to eat them all immediately. 

Related Posts:

*Za'atar Bread, or Mana'eesh

*Zait-and-Za'atar Sourdough Crackers

 This post is shared at  Real Food Wednesday, and Fight Back Friday