Pita Bread

I am about to begin one of the most comprehensive posts that I will ever write, dedicated to my cousin Gwen. She doesn't think that she can bake bread. Everybody can bake bread, and I'm going to teach you how. So i was flipping through my favorite book, the Bread Bible, and I happened upon Pita bread. She described it so well, that i decided that i must try it, and let me tell you, it is AMAZING. Its so good that i might just make it every week. Ok so the first thing you gotta do is make the dough. Very simple, you just mix all the ingredients together, then flip it on to the counter and knead it. In other words, press it down, fold it, press it down and so on and so forth. Spray a large bowl with oil and put the dough in it, spray the top of the dough, cover with plastic wrap and stick in the fridge.


You leave it in the fridge over night. It will look like this ->
There are lots of bubbles in it because of the yeast. If you don't have yeast, go and buy some, the instant variety ->So you take the bubbly dough and dump it on a lightly floured surface. Take a knife and cut it into 8, or 12 equal pieces. I did mini pitas, so i cut it into 12 pieces. Then you roll them into a ball, and pinch to seal the bottom.
Wile shaping into balls keep the other pieces of dough covered with a damp cloth. After they are ball shaped, press them down into slightly flattened discs ->
Cover the mini discs with oil sprayed plastic wrap and let them rest for 20 min because they and very tired. After that uncover them and roll each disc into a flatter disc, about 1/4 of an inch thick. Let them rest uncovered for another 10 min.
->Preheat the oven to 475 degrees and put a bake stone, of simply a baking sheet on the lowest rack of the oven. Once preheated place one of the rested pitas on the sheet and bake for 3 min, this will be your test pita. After the 3 min, you pita will have risen, or bubbled.
->After they are risen. or have large bubbles let them stay in the oven till desired color. I like them with just a little brown on the edges, so they are still very soft inside.
->
Then remove them from your oven and place on a clean towel, so they will stay soft.
If they didn't puff up enough, knead a little water into the other dough discs, but even if they are not puffy like balloons, they will still be delicious. After is all said and done, everybody loved them!! My little brother Sven was a little confused. I asked him how he like them, and he was like they are really good, then i asked how he liked them in comparison to the store bought kind. He was like well the store bought kind have a lot of good flavors like sun dried tomato basil, and they are bigger and much flatter, yours are all puffy....
Dude TORTILLA WRAPS and not PITA BREAD! I should give him a bread lesson.

If you have an questions, comments, or concerns, leave me a comment, and I will be happy to help : )



Pita Bread
from the bread bible

Dough:

• 3 cups flour plus a scant 1/4 cup
• 2 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp instant yeast
• 2 tbs oil
• 1 1/4 cup water at room temp.

Mix:

Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl, except the scant 1/4 cup of flour. Mix with a large spoon, or with your hand, after it is all moistened, dump out onto counter and add the scant 1/4 cup. Knead for about 5 min. It will be sticky. Cover with inverted bowl and let rest for 5 to 20 min. Knead the dough for another 5 min, and place in a oiled bowl. Oil the top of the bread and cover with plastic wrap. Place tape where doubled height of dough would be. Refrigerate over night , or up to 4 nights.

Shape:

Cut dough into 8, or 12 pieces depending on if you want mini of large pitas. Shape each piece into a ball, and then a flattened disc, wile working with a piece of dough, keep the other pieces covered with a damp cloth. Cover the flattened discs with oiled plastic wrap, let rest for 20 min.
Roll each disc into about 1/4 of an inch and let rest uncover for 10 min.

Preheat:

Preheat oven to 475 degrees with a pan, of baking stone of the lowest shelf of the oven.

Bake:

Once preheated you will test making a pita. Take one pita and place it on the sheet, or bake stone. Let bake for 3 min. It should be completely puffed, but not browned yet. Keep it in the oven for addition minutes until desired brownness, but not too brown. If it is not puffy enough, knead more water into the rest of the dough and shape them into 1/4 inch discs again. If it worked out fine on the first try, of you just don't care continue with the rest of the discs. Let oven preheat again before making more batches . Once out of the oven place bread on a clean towel, this will keep the pita soft.
Enjoy!

Variation:

You can substitute half of the flour for whole wheat flour if you want to make the whole wheat version. You will need to add an additional 1/4 cup of water to the dough, with a total of 1 1/2 cups of water.