Syrian Bread
Instructions
  2. Put dough in an oiled bowl, covered with plastic wrap for 2 hrs. It should double in size or more. (alternatively, put dough in ziplock bag and refrigerate for up to 48 hours)
  3. Preheat oven to 550 degrees with a stone or metal pizza steel inside. (To get the best results, use the convection setting.)…and yes, we are pre-heating for 45 minutes….
  4. Punch the dough down and break in to softball sized balls, and set on an oiled tray. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for additional 45 minutes to an hour.
  5. Take each ball, put a small amount of flour on one side and stretch out like pizza dough until about 1/2 inch thick. DO NOT use a rolling pin. The way I do this, is using two fists in the middle of the dough ball keeping it up in the air (not on counter), just pull the dough apart slowly and move it around in circles. You can also grab the edges and let gravity help if needed, but this makes it harder to keep a perfect circle.
  6. Place the dough on the hot stone flour side down using a pizza peel, then using the corner of a spatula, cut about 7-8 holes in the dough about 1/2 inch long. (this keeps the dough from puffing up in the center – and maintains the flatbread style consistency we are going for. (The image below shows this done with a fork, but the corner of a metal spatula works and looks better)
  7. cook for about 5-7 minutes until golden on the top (An ovens convection setting works best for this)
  8. remove from the oven using a spatula and let cool on a rack for about 15 minutes.
  9. Repeat for each loaf, allowing about 5 minutes for the stone and over to get back to a high temp.