Homemade Pita Bread

So back to that big New Year's meal that we had last week.  Here is the recipe for the Pitta Bread from Greek Cooking by Rena Salaman and Jan Cutler.  This recipe makes twelve pitas so be sure to have lots of goodies to eat with the pita.

Ingredients

• 5 cups white bread flour or half white and half whole wheat
• 2 ½ tsp easy-blend (rapid rise) dried yeast (use one whole packet)
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 cup water

1. Combine the flour, yeast and salt.  Combine the olive oil and 1 cup water, then add the flour mixture, stirring in the same direction, and then working with your hands until the dough is stiff. Place the dough in a clean bowl, cover with a clean dish towel and leave in a warm place for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours.
2. Knead the dough for 10 minutes, or until smooth. Lightly oil the bowl, place the dough in it, cover again and leave to rise in a warm place for about 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
3. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces.  With lightly floured hands, flatten each piece, then roll out into a round measuring about 8 inches and ¼- ½ inch thick.
4. Heat a heavy frying pan over medium-high heat. When hot, lay one piece of flattened dough in the pan and cook for 15-20 seconds. Turn it over and cook the second side for about 1 minute.
5. When large bubbles start to form on the bread, which should be after about 1-2 minutes or so, turn it over again.  It should puff up.  Using a clean dish towel, gently press on the bread where the bubbles have formed. Cook the bread for a total of 3 minutes, then remove the pita from the pan. Repeat with the remaining dough.
6. Wrap the pita bread in a clean dish towel, stacking them as each one is cooked. Serve the pitas hot while they are soft and moist, with a main meal, such as lamb kebabs, or as part of a meze table (kind of like Tapas or Dim Sum dining).  

I had several issues with this recipe.  First off, I followed the directions and used 1 cup of water and that was nowhere near enough.  I added more until the dough looked better and I think all told I used 2 ½ cups. Maybe using just 1 cup is a misprint in the recipe. I looked at other recipes online and found one that said use 1 ½ cups water with 3 cups flour and another recipe that called for 2 ½ cups water and close to 6 cups flour so maybe it is an error.

Second, I think this recipe should have had me divide and roll out the dough and then let them rise for a little while before cooking.  The other recipes I looked at online because of the water issue also suggested baking the pita a few at a time in the oven.

Third, I found in cooking them in the skillet that if I cooked them about a minute, flip, cook another minute, flip and repeat a few times that the pita would puff up and form a pocket.  I think this is one of those recipes where it takes practice and a few mess-ups before it can be mastered (kind of like decorating cookies – decorate 20 just to get 12 that are perfect).Here are some pictures of how they were made and turned out. Here we divided and balled them up.Then we rolled them out.And then we threw them in a pan.Does this make me the Baker's Man?

Everyone said that the hot pitas were wonderful and so I was pleased with the results. As stated earlier, several other recipes I found online had a higher water to flour proportion and they also suggested baking the pitas. I think I will try that next time. Another thing to do next time is use the Kitchen Aid and the dough hook instead of all this kneading by hand. This is one recipe that I will try again and want to get good at.

Linking up to Foodie Friday.