My Pocket Bread Saga

Last weekend I tried to make pocket bread from the hot roll mix recipe in the Mix-A-Meal book.  I got round flat breads that were very tasty.  They were thick enough that I could slice a pocket into them with a small knife.  But they didn't form a pocket on their own.

So I got on the Internet to read about making pocket bread.  I just did a Google search and visited several of the websites.  I read that you need to roll the dough very thin, and bake it in a very hot oven:  500 F.

So today I tried again.  I made the dough and let it raise for an hour.  Then I formed the dough into 6 balls and rolled them out and baked then in a 500F oven for 2 1/2 minutes each.  The first 5 breads sorta bubbled up.  There were air bubbles that formed small pockets, but the whole thing didn't pocket up.

The bubbles seemed to form mostly around the edges.  I thought maybe I was rolling the dough thicker at the edges, so I rolled the last one a little thicker.  And it pocketed up!

Doesn't that look beautiful?  I don't know whether it worked because I rolled it thicker, or whether I just got lucky.  But I was glad that one of them puffed up properly.  The others are tasty with just butter on them.  They are, after all, still homemade bread, and that's always good!

Here's the recipe I used for the hot roll mix.  I'll admit, I modified it from what was in the book.  I used whole wheat flour, plus some white bean flour for the fiber and protein.  And I added some dough enhancer and vital wheat gluten.

2 2/3 cups wheat flour

2/3 cup white bean flour

1/3 cup dehydrated margarine

1/4 cup sugar

1 Tablespoon powdered milk

1 Tablespoon dough enhancer

1 Tablespoon vital wheat gluten

2 teaspoons salt

To make the dough, I just used 2 cups of the hot roll mix, 1/2 Tablespoon SAF yeast, and 3/4 cups warm water.  After mixing the dough, I let it raise for an hour, then kneed for a few minutes, then pinch off 6 balls of dough.  Roll each ball out until it's about 1/16 inch thick.  Bake in 500F oven for 2 1/2 minutes.