Homemade Pita Breads

I have never posted  more recipe from the middle eastern cuisine,  I made two types of pita one I used completely with all purpose flour and the second type I made was using half of the whole wheat flour and  all purpose flour to make it more healthy. Both were extremely soft and fluffy.

I felt more comfortable to use the stove top method to bake the pita as handling it was much easy.

Makes  : 8 to 10

Time taken: 2hrs

Ingredients

Warm water – 1 cup (not boiling hot)

Active or instant yeast – 2 tsp

All purpose flour – 2 ½ to 3 cups

Salt – 2 tsp

Olive oil  - 2 tsp

Method

Mix water, yeast together and let it sit for about 10 minutes until the yeast is well dissolved and bubbles are formed.

In a big bowl add the flour (2 ½ cup and the rest you can add whilst kneading), salt, 1tsp olive oil and mix well.  Now add the yeast mixture and  knead the dough well, keep adding the extra flour on the work area and kneed for about 10 minutes until smooth dough is formed. If the flour is left out never mind we can use it at the later stage.

In a clean bowl  brush the dough with olive oil and cover it with a wet cloth or cling film and now let this rise double the size (probably 1 or 2 hours or even more depending on your climate).

Gently deflate the dough on a lightly  floured   work area. Divide into 8 balls and flatten each balls into thick disc and cover the disc with a kitchen towel until you are ready to roll them.

Use a rolling pin and make nice small  circles of the each disc about ¼ inch thick. If you are not able to roll the dough and if its starts to spring back whilst you are rolling which means it needs some more time of resting.  After a while start rolling them back.

You can bake them at 450 deg on a baking sheet for about 3 minutes as it puffs up like  a balloon  you can get it out. You can put as many as your sheet can accommodate.

You can even make it on the stove top on a skillet. Place a rolled pita on the hot skillet and  when you see the small bubbles flip to the other side for another 2 minutes, you will get nice puffed up balloon like pita.  If it does not puff then you just press the pita gently with a clean towel  and it will puff.  Cover the cooked pitas with a clean dishtowel whilst cooking the rest of them.

Pitas are stored in an airtight bag or the best is to have it hot as they are made.

Latha


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