Pitas with PIctures

Hello,

Back in December, I shared my long lost pita recipe with you.  By long, lost, I mean I lost it on the internet.  :-) 

Bowl of pita dough

Anyway, I made some yesterday and they ALL PUFFED UP!  I am so pumped to have this recipe.  It is so easy and I like it as an alternative to bread in loaves. 

6 rolled out, 6 awaiting rolling, my rolling pin with the thickness bands, and my 1/4 cup of water for the oven

I also discovered if I cook them on my pizza sheets, I can get all 12 pitas in the oven at once!  You know what that means... doubling the recipe takes almost no time at all. 

All puffy

I have discovered it is all about how thick they are that makes them puff.  I was rolling them too thin before, and thus they were not puffing.  I started using my handy rolling pin bands, so I can't roll them out thinner than a 1/4" thick.

Pretty Pita Pocket!

One last comment about making pitas--Put 1/4 cup of water in the bottom of the oven when you put the pitas in, to make it all steamy in there.  For some reason, pitas like that.  :-)

ps. did you see my tiny rolling pin?  I brought my two regular sized rolling pins to a cookie party in December, and I haven't gotten them back yet.  Guess I should work on that...

Pita Bread Recipe!

One time, long ago, I made pitas and they turned out perfectly!  I was thrilled to make them and they actually puffed up in the oven all by themselves! Then, I lost the recipe for hmm, over a year or so to the interwebs.  just couldn't find it. until, .... TODAY!!!

And I will share it with you, and myself, so I can find it again soon.  Because I love homemade pitas!!

Make sure you only roll them out to 1/4".  I used my handy rolling pin spacers that my husband got me for Christmas (or was it my birthday?) a year or two ago!  I was rolling mine too thin all those times I tried to make pitas and ended up with thick tortillas instead. 

Also, I took the suggestion of the first commenter, and added a 1/4 cup of water to the bottom of the oven for each batch of pitas I put in.  I only baked them for 4 minutes at around 500*.  They were great.  mmmm.  You better believe I will be dreaming of warm homemade pitas tonight!  :-)

"Remember that time when...."

".... when I made that awesome bread and it was so moist and delicious and we didn't want to stop eating it?"
...."Yeah...." Chris replied, wistfully.

Today is one of those days that in a couple of weeks we'll be thinking back and having the above conversation. 

You see, although I have been making bread pretty regularly for four years, I am just not good at it.  Well, let's be honest: I am not careful enough when making bread to do the same exact thing every time over and over. It just seems so... boring.  Until I make bread and it is perfect and I relish every bite (especially with butter!) and it is gone in less than 24 hours.

In conclusion, this post is mostly for me and only a little bit for you.  :-)  I will write down what I did today, so next week, (or tomorrow) when we need bread again I can look at this post and say, "See, Janet, you can make delicious bread and all you have to do is follow these short simple steps!"


Bread from today
2 cups warm water
2 1/2 tsp yeast
2 TBS honey
1/4 cup gluten
1/4 cup olive oil
5 1/2 cups fresh ground whole wheat flour
2 tsp real salt (not 'fake' salt, as Ben calls all other salt!)

Add the water and yeast to the mixer.  Let sit for two or three minutes. Add honey and stir for 5-10 seconds to swirl it all around. Add gluten, olive oil and 5 cups flour.  Mix until it pulls into a wet dough.  Add salt and mix some more.  Add enough more flour until the dough is the right consistency.  My husband calls it 'post-it note' wet. Knead for 7-8 minutes.  Let sit in the mixer for about a half hour. (My mixer bowl is plastic and the dough doesn't stick, but if you have a metal bowl, you might want to coat it with oil before letting it sit.) Grease two loaf pans.  Divide the dough roughly in half and put each half in each bread pan.  Let rise in a warm oven for about a half hour.  Bake at 350* for 25-30 minutes.  Try to be patient enough to wait five or ten minutes before cutting into your beautiful, delicious loaf of bread and slathering it with butter.  Enjoy!

Thankful for delicious bread to go with dinner tonight! :-)

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