How to Make Flying Saucer Bread

This recipe can not be found in any cookbook. In fact, I coined the name for this bread myself. It is bread that I enjoyed when eating bologna sandwiches during my early school days growing up in New Jersey.

I first came across this strange bread during school lunch break. Across from my school, in the middle of Newark, New Jersey was my favorite deli. There was always a line of students waiting to get their freshly baked bread with their favorite meat and cheese.

Then during my high school years, I found this bread again. My palate was beginning to develop and I had gone from bologna sandwiches to Italian style hot dogs. This is a fantastic hot dog sandwich stuffed into a cut half of flying saucer bread covered with mustard, peppers, onions and fried potatoes.

Later, I found out that this bread has been made for centuries in the Middle East. There are many different versions similar to pita bread or Armenian bread. My version is unique and was derived from my pizza dough recipe. Here is my recipe and I hope you enjoy it!

Poolish:

A poolish is a bakers term that is used in making Italian and French breads. It enhances the flavor of the bread.

1 – Cup of flour

1 – Cup of water or buttermilk

1 – Pinch of yeast

Mix the flour water and yeast until it looks like a pancake batter. Store the poolish in a plastic container and let it sit overnight in a warm place. The next day the poolish should be bubbly and ready to make your dough. Try the poolish with both water and buttermilk and see which one you like better.

Dough Ingredients:

3 – cups of flour

1 – cup of warm water

1 – teaspoon of salt

1 – teaspoon of yeast

1 – tablespoon of olive oil (optional)

Add the poolish to the above ingredients and kneed your dough until smooth. Add a little more flour if needed. Then place your dough in a covered container and let it sit at room temperature for 1 hour. After that let your dough slowly rise in the refrigerator overnight.

First Rise:

The next day take your dough out of the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature, this takes about 2 hours.Be sure to provide a warm place for your dough for its first rise. When it has almost doubled in size it is ready to form into rounds.

Second Rise:

Use a large flat cooking pan and spray with olive oil. Shape your dough into 4 round flying saucer shaped buns and place them on the cooking pan. Each saucer should be about 6 or 7 inches around. Cover them with a light plastic wrap that has been sprayed with olive oil. Let them rise again for about an hour or more. They should be puffed out a little.

Baking:

Set your oven temperature to about 400 degrees and cook about 15-18 minutes. They should be a light brown when done. Let them sit out to cool before cutting.

When cool cut in half and split the center open so that you can stuff your sandwich meat or hot dog in it. This recipe makes 8 – half rounds of flying saucer bread. Enjoy!