jasdip: You can leave the milk powder out. According to my research the milk powder is for "fragrance" and most of the recipe translated from Japanese and Chinese say "optional". I buy small tin of whole milk powder from Wallyworld for about $1.50 (brand NIDO) - I keep in freezer. We use the NIDO to make DIY evaporated milk because we can not use carageenan (sp??) which is in canned evap milk. I've become addicted to using this water roux/tang zhong method. I think the folks who make the Challah at our local grocer must use this method because the bread has about the same texture. Cheers, DL

I'm BAAAACK! Thanks so much for your many good ideas and links. And, yes, I'm thinking more of a grainy, nutty, seedy bread with _some_ softness and some bits of seed/nut and dried ginger or bits of tart dried fruit, but not too much. I thought that I'd never escape Verizon Customer Service Con-Fusion Hell. Now, a neighbor is caught up in their Rabbit Hole machine. Pray for her. (I mean, put down your spatulas, get on your knees, and really pray.). She told me she'd lost her Internet and TV; I offered that was because Verizon gave them to me. Now it's her turn to speak with Any-Which-Way call centers -- all with conflicting advice and opinions and no one overseeing things or lending cohesion to the proffered "information." For about a week I could only get Internet access via an old "smart" phone and slow 4G. And the phone working memory space is lean. Then (now, still) my arm is sore. I think I lifted something a tad (x25) too heavy. My biceps deltoid hoopalongacepts muscle-tendon whatchamacallit is crazy painful. Even reaching for a cup of coffee, or reaching around behind me (for remote) is painful. And today is already too hot for me (Iceland and Northern California sound great). Back to bread (finger typing with sore arm, so please excuse errors): Some of you suggestions look really good. With my sore arm muscle, I truly might need to resort to a bread machine or Kitchenaid with dough hook. For the past year, I've been experimenting with my "lazy-busy-sore-hand" pizza dough recipe: I pretty much follow the Bob's Red Mill Artisan flour recipe for pizza dough, but make it a bit wetter. Then I let it rise at cool room temperature or fridge temp inside a thinly coated EVOO poly bag. When it rises to ~ double, I stretch/fold over the dough. After about 24-38 hours, I use it for pizza dough. Someday, I hope to learn Ann-T's recipe and technique. However, I want to try and not consume too many simple carbohydrates (the type that quickly raise one's blood glucose). I am a lover of things like pies, pastries, breads and cakes, but I am no longer 18, so must pay attention to what I eat. In another week or so, I will try either using my Kitchenaid with dough hook or the bread machine (ack) to make some multi-grainy, nutty-seedy bread. I will report back on how it goes (but don't want to bore the many accomplished bakers here). April was cold, snow, rain and wet. Then I had paper work to take care of. I never got much of anything planted, and now it's very hot (for me) in interior New England. My body hates heat and humidity and is _not_ supposed to be in this climate. Cornwall would be better ;-) Our garden rhubarb is ready and is even starting to bolt. Maybe I can find a way to make a few rhubarb dishes that won't send my body's blood sugar into sustained hyperdrive. I've not gotten any our our rhubarb for three years -- always some volcano, flash flood, or "other" to grab my time. Maybe I can freeze some and use some for a smart tart (galette) or bars.

That's odd about the orange juice. It's really supposed to be there to help neutralize anti-nutrients, but it only works for a long rise. I use vitamin C crystals instead. Fresh whole wheat flour isn't bitter unless it's an old fashioned hard red wheat that Grainlady told us about. The I have several kinds of wheatberries and they're always sweet when freshly milled. Once milled, whole wheat flour can go rancid fairly quickly because there are more natural oils in it. This can also make the bread bitter, and it's my theory that that's why so many people put sweetener in their whole wheat breads. 100% whole wheat is tricky because the bran can cut the gluten. It doesn't rerise well, and doesn't want to be handled a lot. Additionally, it doesn't usually rise as fast or as high. though there are some who say they have the knack. For the moisture, however, you need time for the flour to absorb the water. Both for dough quality (including the moistness) and better nutrition you should do a preferment and a soaker, which is the opposite of most bread machine recipes. You should be able to adapt a recipe, however. I don't use a bread machine but as I understand it, it uses instant (rapid rise) yeast for a fast rise. Instead, use small amount of regular yeast, and start it with a small portion of the flour and water. Set it aside to rise and for the yeast to multiply. Like overnight. It should double. Meanwhile, combine the rest of the ingredients to soak up the water. It'll start off seeming very dry, but it'll be moist and sticky after at least 8 hours. You can probably mix it right in the machine and turn it off to soak. Then mix in the preferment and knead. Turn it off again to let it rise. Then bake. You might do well baking right in the machine. Otherwise, let it rise on whatever pan you mean to bake it in. If you don't handle it once it's risen, you won't lose so much of your rise, giving you a better sponge and more chance that it won't be dense or heavy. Good luck!

I've checked other cookbooks I have for pita recipes (I really don't have that many cookbooks), and most of them did not have a recipe for it at all, and I checked my Greek Cooking in an American Kitchen 1982 (flatbread recipe only, similar to Armenian bread), Lebanese Cooking 1992 by Susan Ward, The Mediterranean Kitchen 1989 by Joyce Goldstein, The Complete Bread Book - 1983 (not so complete after all, and it is Kevin's), The New York Times Cookbook 1990 (this was a gift), and none of these had a recipe for making pita bread. Then I checked Sunset's Easy Basics for International Cooking 1984 and finally found one. I'm getting the idea that these cookbook authors expect you to buy pita bread rather than make it, but as you can see, they are all fairly old. I'm not big on collecting cookbooks, and the newest ones I have are all Japanese. Anyway, the Sunset book says to use a baking sheet, but it also says to use the lowest rack in the oven and bake at 475° for five minutes or until pockets form and the bottoms are brown. Then you are supposed to change the heat to broil, flip the bread, and broil it 4" below the heat for about 1 minute. I can only broil in my toaster oven, and so this might be a problem. I have pizza stones, and I put the baking sheets on the stones when baking, but I may have to try another method. At this point, I might try this recipe next. This recipe says to use a cast iron skillet, and so I might try it instead. I have several iron skillets plus an iron comal, a cast iron grill, and a 15" diameter iron pizza pan, and so iron might be the best way for me to go. Pati cooks her tortillas on cast iron and gets them too puff up, and so this may be a better method. I think most cookbooks (especially old ones) expect you to buy pita bread, but it cannot be that difficult to make, and I always have the ingredients on hand, plus the time to do it. I buy pita bread at a Syrian market, but I know that whatever I buy at a market is probably a few days old, although the Syrian market should have the freshest pita. For me, it is more of an ordeal to go to the market to buy it than to make it, once I get the procedure down. This Youtube video looks helpful, and at least it is in English: This one looked good at the beginning, but I did not like the finish or the large diameter: I like the Italian video because he uses semolina flour as I do, and I have no trouble understanding Italian. However, he baked his in the oven, and I want to use cast iron on the cooktop. Evidently you can only do one video per post, and so I had to delete two of them.