Pita Bread

Perfect Pita

There is something magical about kneading a dough and feeling it turn pliable and smooth in your hands.  That is really is the only little bit of errort involved in making Pita Breads. Other than that, you only need a little patcience to allow the dough to rise and the yeast to do all the work.

I will warn you though: once you have made these breads, you will not be able to return to those awful  cardboard discs the supermarket sell as pita.

I tried some variations of this recipe: Using all white bread flour provides in a ligther and prettier result. However using some whole wheat is the way to go: the pitas have a beautiful fragrant flavour and a much more satisfying crust.

 

Ingredients
(recipe from the blog ‘Manu’s Menu’)
Makes about 6 pita breads (and they are so deliscious you should think about dubbeling the amount)

¼ tbsp honey
125ml 1 cups lukewarm water
1 (7 gr / ¼ ounce) package active dry yeast
190g (1 ½ cups) all-purpose flour
180g (1 ½ cups) whole meal flour
½  tbsp salt
15ml (1/8 cup extra virgin olive oil) plus 1-2 tbsp for coating

 

Recipe

1. In bowl (or standing mixer with a dough hook) stir together ½ the water and honey.
2. Stir in the yeast and leave to stand until frothy, about 10 minutes.
3. Add the flour, salt and olive oil.
4. Knead (on a low speed) until the mixture is smooth and elastic. Adding the water a tabelspoon at a time as needed. The dough should be soft and sligthly sticky.
5. Knread until the dough is pliable for about 10-15 minutes (or 5 minutes on a medium speed in the mixer)
6. Remove dough from bowl. Coat bowl with olive oil and return dough. Cover bowl with clingfilm and set in a warm place to rise for 1 hour.
7. Gently knock back the dough. Allow to rest for 20 minutes.
8. Divide the dough into 6 pieces and roll each ball out to a cicle of about 15 cm 6 inches. Keep the remaining balls covered.
9. Place the dough on a baking sheet without overlapping them. Cover in clingfilm. Allow to rise for 1 hour.
10. Preheat oven to 260C (500F). Cook the pitas on a pizza stone or baking sheet for about 5 min or until golden. Stack the pitas and wrap in aluminium foil until serving warm.

 

Serve with

• Ragu of Mince and Lentil & green beans
• Spicy Kofta & salad
• Chicken Feta Meatballs & salad
• Indian Egg Curry
• Chickpea Falafel

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