Pita Bread

How was your weekend? Did you dig in to some baking? I did, if not cake for once, but bread. One of my boyfriend's most vivid memories is from a holiday he spent in Israel eating pita bread as a side for dinner almost every day. When he returned, he was raving about it so much, I decided to make it for him. Of course, I don't go out to buy some at the supermarket which you could obviously, but decided to try my hand at home-made pita bread. I was baffled by how easy it is and how amazing and satisfying the end result was. It is pretty fast as well. The best thing? You need 4 ingredients most of you will already have at home.

I got the recipe from Food52. They have a few recipes for pita bread on their site but I was drawn to the picture accompanying the recipe for a whole wheat pita. I used all all-purpose flour, because my boyfriend was skeptical as to how a whole wheat pita would taste, so I obeyed, but trust me, I won't stop until I've planted some whole wheat pita bread on him. 
Here's the link to the recipe: http://food52.com/recipes/20445-whole-wheat-pita-bread

And here's my adaptation:

1 tablespoon dry yeast (1 sachet of 7g)
375 ml (1.5 cups) warm water (lukewarm)
1 teaspoon salt
525g (3.5 cups) all-purpose flour

1) Dissolve the yeast in the water and let it sit for 5 minutes until the yeast starts bubbling up to see it's active. 

2) Add the salt and the flour. Knead with a kitchen machine or electric mixer until a forms. Continue kneading for about 8 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. Add a little more flour if it is too sticky.

3) Turn the dough onto a lightly flour-dusted surface. Divide it into 8 equal portions. Roll into balls, then flatten them to 1 cm high disks. Place the breads on a baking tray lined with baking paper and set aside to rise for 30-40 minutes until slightly puffed.

4) Preheat the oven to 220°C (425°F). Place the tray in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes until light golden.

Yield: 8 pitas
Active preparation time: 15 minutes
Total preparation time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Now get creative! What we like to do is slice a little piece off the pita and cut a pouch on the inside. Then fill with whatever you like. I've hosted a pita evening where we served the pitas along small falafel balls, pan-fried chicken breast and pan-fried ground beef. For vegetables we served tomatoes, salad and corn. And as a sauce classic cocktail sauce along with sour cream that we tweaked with a little paprika powder, salt and pepper. This makes a great main course, but feel free to use the pitas on their own as a side dish for your next barbecue.


Here's how it looks:

I am sorry the lighting it a little bad. I was at my boyfriend's home but still wanted to take pictures of this to introduce you to. The first time we made these everything was gone so fast I didn't succeed taking a picture. But let me assure you, this is absolutely delicious and the pitas look beautiful all round and puffed. 

Have fun trying!