Sourdough Einkorn Pitas
Servings: 8 pitas
Ingredients
- 1 cup water
- 1 tablespoon active sourdough starter I use rye; how to make rye sourdough starter
- 2.5 cups all-purpose einkorn flour
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
Instructions
- Whisk water and sourdough starter until frothy.
- Add sifted einkorn and salt. Start mixing starter water and flour with a spoon until it becomes too hard to do (chunks of dough forming).
- Add olive oil, and knead with your hand for a couple of minutes, until the dough is smooth. Stop kneading once the dough starts to feel sticky. Cover, and leave at room temperature for 6 hours or so. Don't go too much longer otherwise you will have very sour pitas (einkorn ferments much quicker than other grains).
- When ready to bake, place a cast iron skillet or a pizza stone in the oven, and turn it on to preheat to 450ºF.
- Using a soft spatula, turn the dough onto a well floured work surface; the dough will be sloppy. Sprinkle flour on top.
- Gently knead it into a soft ball adding more flour if needed to prevent sticking, but try not to go overboard with flour - we are trying to keep the dough moist and soft. Form a dough 'sausage' and separate it into 8 pieces. Form each piece into a ball, and keep them covered until ready to shape. Roll each ball out to about 6".
- Bake each pita for 2 minutes on one side, flip with a soft spatula, and bake 1 more minute. You don't want to overbake or brown the pitas.
- Keep cooked pitas on a plate lined with a napkin and covered with a towel to keep soft.
Notes
- Einkorn wheat is naturally more fragile than other varieties of wheat. That's why I keep these pitas relatively small.
- The pitas don't puff if they get a wrinkle when you put them on a cooking surface, but they are still delicious.
- I learned that I prefer using a cast iron skillet for oven baking. I tried using a ridged pizza stone, but it's a bit more tricky, even though I do like the lines it creates on pitas. Just work with what you have, a smooth pizza stone would work well if you don't have a cast iron pan, it heats evenly helping pitas puff up properly.
- You can add whole ground einkorn to this recipe; I have made pitas with 1.5 cups whole einkorn and 1 cup all-purpose einkorn before, they turn out more brittle but still work. I would reduce fermenting time if you are using whole einkorn, it sours lightning fast!