We like Pita Bread.
Almost as much as Tortillas.
Plus, one of my favorite dishes to make for Manly are Gyros.
(Manly loves any dish that you can eat with your hands and is bread wrapped around meat)
But, the Pita Bread is not readily available where I live (in fact when I first moved here and walked into my local grocer and asked if that had Pita Bread, the gentleman replied "do we have what??" "whats that?" (a few weeks later I also asked if they had egg roll wrappers....you would have thought I asked if the guy could spin straw into gold...)
So, I have made pita bread, but it was never certainly something that I could make within an hour of coming home and dealing with a hungry hubby.
So, when I found this quick,easy, Pita Bread Recipe that produces Highly Risen Pita's that are done before you can say Robert is your Father's Brother....Or Bob's Your Uncle:)
Really Awesome Pita Bread
1 tablespoon yeast
1 ¼ cup warm water
1 teaspoon salt
3- 3 ½ cups flour (this recipe also works well with whole wheat flour too!)
Dissolve yeast in water for about 5 minutes in the bowl of an electric mixer.
Add salt and 1 ½ cups flour and with the dough hook, beat to make a batter. Add additional flour until a nasty looking mess has formed. Knead another 8 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic. Add more flour if it is too sticky.
Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide into six pieces for large pitas or ten for smaller.
Form dough into balls, then flatten with a rolling pin into ¼ inch thick discs. Try and keep an even thickness as this is what helps them puff up.
Let rest on the floured surface 30-40 minutes until its risen some. Preheat oven to 425F.
With a large spatula, flip the rounds of dough upside down on to a baking sheet. Bake 10-15 minutes until light golden.
And I swear magic happens in the oven because these Pitas puff up SOOO BIG!
Enjoy and if you have kids around, certainly have them help out, and have them watch the puffing process in the oven!
Hope you all are having a super week!
