Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Homemade Pita Bread

Still doing my baking for the bake sale tomorrow I decided to try my hand at homemade pita bread. This was one of those "just for fun" things that I wanted to make. I found a fairly simply recipe over at Tammy's Kitchen and thought, "What the heck, I'll give it a whirl." Here we go...

Homemade Pita Bread
1 c. luke warm water
1 Tblsp. vegetable oil
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. sugar
3 c. flour
1-1/2 tsp. active dry yeast

In a large bowl, combine water, oil, salt and sugar. Stir in yeast to dissolve.


To the yeast mixture add flour 1 cup at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead until a soft dough forms.

Transfer dough to a well greased bowl. Turn dough once to coat. Cover and allow dough to set in a warm place to rise, until almost double.


Punch dough down and turn onto a lightly floured surface. Using a pastry cutter, cut dough into 8 equal pieces. Form each piece into a ball. Using a rolling pin,roll each dough piece out into a 6-7 inch disk.

Place dough disks onto a lightly greased baking sheet. Cover with a towel & let rise until slightly puffy.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Place 2 disks, side-by-side, onto a wire rack. Place rack in the middle of the oven. Bake for 4-5 minutes, until puffy (as shown in the second photo) and just slightly browned. DO NOT OVER BAKE! Check after 4 minutes then adjust as need be. OVER BAKING WILL CAUSE THE PITA TO NOT BE PLIABLE WHEN COOLED AND WILL RESULT IN A HARD TO USE PRODUCT.

Remove rack from oven and immediately wrap/layer pita breads in a damp towel, to soften. Continue baking the remaining breads, layering them between damp towels as soon as they're baked. Allow breads to completely cool. I can honestly say, I need to work more on my form. My Pita's aren't exactly round but hey, for a first time try, I think they turned out pretty ok.

Cut pita breads in half, or split the top edge, and use as desired.

Click HERE for printable recipe

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