The Pita Project

I made some pita bread today! It was actually quite exciting and not as much of a PITA as I thought it might be. (Get it? Get it? Hahaha! I slay myself sometimes.) Anyhow, here comes the recipe and some photos of the finished product. I have been too tired and grouchy today to actually take photos during the process, mostly due to a lack of sleep last night. No, it was so worth it.

Recipe from: Cooks.com with my own commentary added in.

1 tbsp. yeast
1 tbsp. honey or sugar
2 1/2 c. warm water
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. oil
6 to 7 c. whole wheat flour

Dissolve yeast and honey in water. When bubbly, add salt, oil and 6 cups flour. (I reserve the 7th cup for the kneading process.) Knead the dough for around five to ten minutes, adding more flour if necessary. (Trust me, it's necessary.)

Let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. I recommend very lightly greasing the bowl you put the dough in to rise. When I did this today, some of the dough stuck to the bowl (I hadn't greased it) and made for a slight problem retrieving the dough.

Punch down and divide into 12 to 20 equal pieces, depending on how large you want the pitas. I rolled my dough out into a giant dough log and sliced from there. I initially had 16 pitas, but once I rolled the two end pieces together, the final count was 15.

Roll each piece into a ball and roll out on a floured surface about 1/4 inch thick. They do get quite big! I had to call my good friend Donna to rescue me with some extra cookie sheets for the next step.

Place circles on greased cookie sheets and let rest 30 to 45 minutes. (30 worked just fine for moi) Heat oven to 450 degrees. I did this as soon as I was done rolling out the pita, that way the oven had time to heat up while the dough was resting. Just before baking, turn the pitas over.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes, switching position of pans halfway through. Now, here's the thing. I don't know if it's the area I'm living in (Nevada) or the fact that I have a gas oven, or both. But even 8 minutes was getting to be a bit too long. For me, it was more around 7 minutes. I have yet to perfect my use of the gas stove or cooking at what is apparently high altitudes. That said, at around 4 minutes, I swapped pans, then let it go for another 3 minutes before pulling them to cool.

The pitas should be puffed in the middle and only slightly browned. Photos below. Most of these were straight out of the oven and piled on the remaining cookie sheet that didn't have to be pressed into a second tour of duty.




Whaddya think? The larger of my two small ones was jumping at the baby gate, begging for one. Loaded it up with some ham & mayo for her lunch and she scarfed it down, then begged for another. The hubby also was the recipient of a ham and cheese melt.

Me? Fruit. Yogurt. I'm good to roll.