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Baking, Blog, Blogging, Bread, breakfast, Cook, Dough, Egg, Events, Flour, Food, Friends, Home, Ingredient, Kosher, Life, Lifestyle, Olive oil, Oven, Pita, Pizza, Pizza stone, Recipe, Recipes, Sandwiches, Scrambled eggs, Tortilla, Vegan, Vegetarian
A good friend of mine and I have breakfast together at my house once a week, and this week she surprised me by bringing some pita dough with her. She showed me how to prepare it and then baked it. The whole house smelled so lovely-there is really nothing like eating fresh pita, just out of the oven. I made my own batch last night, and another this morning-we just can’t get enough-and this recipe is so simple! It was a beautiful day yesterday, so I had my windows open-I could see neighbors walking their dogs, and I’m sure they were so jealous of the wonderful smells drifting outside!
When I was a little girl, I remember all the neighborhood children asking me which day my mom made homemade, whole wheat bread. Surprisingly, they would somehow show up at our door on that day haha. Baking any type of fresh bread really creates some nice memories-the smell, and the taste as it comes out of the oven-freshly buttered! There is nothing like it :-). I hope you will give this a try, and let me know what you think! Bon Apetit!
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 3/4 cups White Flour
- 1/2 cup Whole Wheat Flour (I used stone ground)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons instant yeast
- 1 to 1 1/8 cups slightly warm water (not too hot or it will kill the yeast)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
1) Combine all of the pita ingredients, and mix and knead to make a soft, smooth dough.
2) Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl and cover it- letting it rise for 60 to 90 minutes, till it’s just about doubled in size. Towards the end of the rising time, start to pre-heat your oven to 500°F. I use a pampered chef pizza stone and put it in ahead of time to let it warm to 500°F as well-I would highly recommend using a pizza stone if you have one.
3) Divide it into about 8 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a ball, cover them, and let them rest for about 10 minutes.
4) Roll each ball into a 6″ circle or oval-pita is always a different shape, depending on the country of origin. I prefer the ovalish shape. If you do not have a rolling pin (like me lol) you can do what I do, and use a wine bottle.
5) Carefully put the dough onto the hot pizza stone. If you’re not using a pizza stone, put it on an ungreased baking sheet, and put the baking sheet on your oven’s middle rack.
6) Bake for about 4 minutes. The pitas should rise and be puffy as they bake. If they’re on a stone, they’ll probably puff up like balloons; if they’re on a baking sheet, they’ll still expand; just not as much.
7) Turn the pitas over, and bake for an extra 60 seconds.
8) Remove them from the oven, and brush with your favorite olive oil, if you like-you can use plain or herb flavored-zaatar is a favorite to sprinkle on top after you brush with olive oil. Wrap lightly in a cotton towel, to keep them soft. Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough.
9) Serve pitas with chopped salad and Hummous or Baba ghanoush-Mmmm delish!
Yield: @ 8 pitas.