Bread Feast - Pizza, Naan, Pita, Calzone, Olive Bread & Foccacia

I like to work out recipes which allow you to be creative and add your own touch. Here is yet another recipe which us allows to have bread all day and even the next with a lot of variations! In the course of my baking experiences, I started making pizzas, foccacia, naan & pita with different recipes and have finally concluded that I can use the same recipe for all of them. It meant freedom from remembering so many variations and also a lot of praises for serving up a different and delicious meal.

Ingredients
4 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp rapid rise yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup milk or buttermilk
2 cups whey left over when you make paneer/ water

Method
Mix 4 cups whole wheat flour and the yeast in a large bowl. Make a hole in the center of the flour and add the honey, salt and oil. Heat the milk & whey until luke warm and pour it into the centre. Knead the dough using a hand mixture until the flour is completely moist. Cover with cling film and let it stand for about 30 minutes. This ensures a softer bread and requires less kneading.
After 30 minutes, incorporate the rest of the dough slowly. You may need about 1 - 1 1/2 cup extra flour if you decide to use this approach. Knead well until the dough bounces back when pressed lightly. Cover with cling film and keep it in a warm place until doubled. When ready, punch the dough and leave it for 5 minutes. Depending on what you are making, you can shape into whatever you plan to make.

For foccacia, add the herbs, knead it and roll it into a thick bread.
For an olive bread, add the olives and herbs and shape into loaf and slash it.
For pizza, roll the dough into thick/ thin sizes as desired.
Leave it to proof for about 30 minutes.

For pita or naan, you can just start using them straight away, you don't have to wait for a second proofing.









Very often, I make a large batch of dough and use it over two days. If I share the dough with my sister and mother, obviously it gets over in a day. My mother generally makes a naan to go with her curries and my sister makes some pita to go with the meat and salad. While I make pizzas in the afternoon, calzone for dinner and if there is still some dough is left over a foccacia or olive bread for the next day.

For variations, you can add 2 tbsp tomato and chilli in the dough while kneading or maybe some corainder or mint. Go ahead and create your own version :-)