Pita Bread

Because Jen has been asking and asking. And remember, the recipe link is at the BOTTOM of the post.

I love pita bread, or flat bread if you want to be really specific about it. Little pillows of goodness onto which you can put things like hummus, or tomatoes, or gyros, or tzatziki sauce or all of the above at the same time. But the foundation must be pita.

And so I think you need to make these. And let me tell you. This recipe is

is

is so stinkin’ easy that if you don’t make them you are even more of a Lazy McLazypants than I am. And that is saying something. You can’t see what I have on right now but it might consist of things like flannel pajama pants, a Baylor Bears tee shirt and a sweat shirt.

But we won’t talk about that at the moment. We are here to bake.

I must give credit where credit is do. This recipe came from Farmgirl Fare. I have done a bit of “tweeking” but the recipe is hers. I love her site. It almost makes me want to raise sheep and donkeys.

Almost.

These are the cast of characters. 6 little ingredients that come together to make magic.

If you have a stand mixer then get it out. I use this baby for all my bread baking. She is over 20 years old and still going strong all though I hear a groan from her now and then. It happens to all of us. You are going to want to use both the paddle attachment and the dough hook. HHBL gave me Grizzelda for Christmas one year. He always gives good Christmas gifts.

That sounded slightly dirty. Sorry.

If you don’t have a stand mixer you can obviously do this recipe by hand. I am just a Lazy McLazypants remember.

If you have a pizza stone put it in your oven and pre-heat the oven to 450F. Then go ahead and start the dough.

First you put the bread flour in the bowl of the mixer. I forgot to take a picture in all the excitement.

Then you add the salt
And the sugar
And the yeast. I don’t proof yeast. I tend to kill it that way. So I just add instant yeast. Comes out every time.

Lazy McLazypants.

Take a minute to just mix the dry ingredients around a bit. Get an even distribution.

Then add the olive oil. You know it is going to be good if it has olive oil in it.
Then add the warm water. WARM people NOT hot. If it is hotter than water that you would use to bath the baby then it is too hot for the bread. Think of the bread as your baby….only without all the poop and expensive college education (sorry, I said poop).

Then when the oil and the water are added turn the mixer on to briefly mix all the ingredients until everything is a shaggy mess.

See, a shaggy mess. Not too wet. If you think it is too wet then sprinkle on just a little bit of flour.

Then attach the dough hook. Bless the person who invented this little attachment. I would kiss them and invite them to dinner if I knew who they were.

And then let the mixer do all the work for 6-8 minutes. You can step away and fold laundry or do some vacuuming or…

Eat some black olives.

Hey back off! I was hungry and these things are like crack to me.  

When the dough is done kneading in the machine dump it out on the counter and knead it for about a minute more. The dough should not be sticky and you shouldn’t need to add any flour to the counter.

Smooth as a baby’s bottom.

Then divide the dough into 8 equal pieces, form them into small balls, cover them with plastic wrap and let them rest for 10 minutes.

Then roll them out on the counter until they are about 1/16 of an inch thick. You can see my hand through the dough but it isn’t so thin that it rips when you take it off the counter.

And now comes the time where you must proceed with some caution if you are using a pizza stone. If you don’t have a pizza stone just put the dough rounds on lightly greased pieces of foil and put them in the oven on the rack. If you are using a pizza stone, as I do, then you take the dough round and carefully place it directly on the pizza stone.

Do not use any oil.

Do not use any corn meal.

Right on the pizza stone. But BE CAREFUL and watch out for the heating coils at the top of the oven.

Not that I would know or anything. But BE CAREFUL.

They may puff up like this, they may not. It is fine either way. When they are slightly browned on the underside take some tongs and flip them over and let them bake on the other side. Don’t let them overbake or they get a bit crunchy. They are still good just not as good.

As they come out of the oven stack the rounds between two pieces of foil and cover them up. It keeps the steam in and the pitas moist. When they are all cooked then let them sit, covered, for 20 minutes or so. You will be glad that you did.

  Just as an aside, you can also cook these in a hot, well seasoned, ungreased cast iron skillet, either in the oven or on the stop top. Be aware though that they may not puff up at all when on the stove top. They still taste great though.

Oh yeah baby. These are getting a topping of hummus, tomato and tzatziki sauce for lunch.

Come to momma.   

Pita Bread