Pitas

While looking at some meal plans on Monday I happened to come across a recipe for homemade pitas. After venturing into the world of making my own tortillas I thought that this recipe looked a lot easier. The recipe found at fresh loaf was put into simple steps with lots of pictures making pitas look flawless to make. Plus what I really liked about this recipe is that there are a lot of comments and reviews about the success of this recipe. With just 6 basic ingredients that can always be found in my cupboards it wasn't long before this recipe was up on my meal plan for the week.

I did make an alteration to the recipe so here are my tips for making great homemade pitas

Recipe
3 cups flour (1 cup 7 grain flour and 2 cups white)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 1/4 tsp traditional yeast
1 1/4 cups water, roughly at room temperature
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

I used tradition yeast so I followed the instructions on the package mixing together 2 1/4 tsp of yeast with 1/4 cup of water and a sprinkle of sugar. I let that sit for about 10 minutes. Then I added the rest of the ingredients. (I am not sure if that is what you are suppose to do when you are working with tradition yeast or if you pour the yeast into the other ingredients, if anyone knows could you let me know). When I turned the dough out onto a floured surface I made sure my hands where floured as well and that I had lots of extra flour close by because the dough seemed very sticky. It took me a little while to get it the elastic consistency you want it to be. After the dough doubled in size (90 minutes or so) I punched it down and divided it into 10 balls.



Well the dough was resting I placed my pizza stone in the oven and preheated it to 400 degrees. This is an important step because it is the high heat the makes the pita fluff and separate the way you want them to. The dough was very easy to roll out...although I didn't always get a perfect circle.

Once you have your circle simply place the dough onto the hot stone and bake for 3 minutes. This is what will happen after approximately 2 minutes in the oven.


Remove from oven after 3 minutes (some of mine I baked for 4 or 5 for a more crispy pita) and place on a cooling rack.


I found that by the 4th pita they weren't fluffing as much so I decided to let the oven heat up again by leaving it for 5 minutes. Then I thought since the back of my oven gets the hottest that I would try to place the pita more towards the back of the stone. This worked out very well and ensured all my pitas were fluffy.

So here is the final product; 10 delicious homemade pitas.


They split apart nicely and we have been enjoying them everyday. I like mine warmed up and stuffed with peanut butter or almond butter. Last night we enjoyed them with our Mexican meal.



Now if any one has advice on how to store these that would be great. Right now I have them in the refrigerator but I think that I will try to freeze some.