I'm not a fan of shop bought pitta. When the packet is opened there is normally a sharp acidy/vinegary smell, but it's not vinegar, it's some kind of preservative. Whatever the preservative is, it enables the bread to last over a month in the packet and that doesn't sit right with me. On top of that, the texture has changed from a flexible pocket of bread to a brittle useless flat patty.
As I've been baking bread regularly, I thought I'd give some home made pitta a go, because taramasalata and houmous just aren't the same without pitta. I've seen both leavened and unleavened pitta before but I haven't tried to make a bread without yeast yet, through fear of it ending up like a giant scone. So these are leavened pitta with yeast.
Ingredients (makes 6 very large pitta):
300g strong white bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1 tablespoon olive oil
200ml warm water
Get the oven on to 250 degrees C. Nice and hot.
Tip all the dry ingredients into a bowl and rub in the olive oil. Add the water to make a sticky dough. Knead this for 10 minutes or use the dough hooks on your hand mixer for a few minutes, as I do. It should come together into a smooth ball, but add a little extra flour if you need to. You're looking to make a dough that's slightly softer than if you were making bread. Put the dough back in the bowl with a damp teatowel over the top and allow it to rise in a warm place for about an hour.
Get a baking tray ready and two pieces of baking paper cut to fit it. The pitta won't be baked on the tray, but the tray will be used for a second prove.
Turn the dough out of the bowl and divide it into six balls. Flour your work surface well with bread flour, drop one of the balls onto it and roll it out into an oval about 5mm thick max. You'll find it pings back to shape and it'll take quite a bit of pulling and rolling and extra flour needed. This is why the dough needs to be quite wet compared to bread. Flour one of the sheets of baking paper and stretch the pitta on. You should be able to get three on it, dust well with flour and cover with a damp teatowel. Then on top of that put the other sheet of baking paper, flour, three more pitta, flour and another damp teatowel. Let that prove for about 30 minutes. The pitta won't rise much, but it lets the dough relax etc.
Bake them on the paper without the tray for about 7-8 minutes, depending how hot your oven gets. They will pop up off the paper and puff up, completely hollow like these:
Now cut them open and think about what you can stuff them with. Today I've got chicken, stuffing and home made coleslaw. Nyom nyom nyom
As I've been baking bread regularly, I thought I'd give some home made pitta a go, because taramasalata and houmous just aren't the same without pitta. I've seen both leavened and unleavened pitta before but I haven't tried to make a bread without yeast yet, through fear of it ending up like a giant scone. So these are leavened pitta with yeast.
Ingredients (makes 6 very large pitta):
300g strong white bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1 tablespoon olive oil
200ml warm water
Get the oven on to 250 degrees C. Nice and hot.
Tip all the dry ingredients into a bowl and rub in the olive oil. Add the water to make a sticky dough. Knead this for 10 minutes or use the dough hooks on your hand mixer for a few minutes, as I do. It should come together into a smooth ball, but add a little extra flour if you need to. You're looking to make a dough that's slightly softer than if you were making bread. Put the dough back in the bowl with a damp teatowel over the top and allow it to rise in a warm place for about an hour.
Get a baking tray ready and two pieces of baking paper cut to fit it. The pitta won't be baked on the tray, but the tray will be used for a second prove.
Turn the dough out of the bowl and divide it into six balls. Flour your work surface well with bread flour, drop one of the balls onto it and roll it out into an oval about 5mm thick max. You'll find it pings back to shape and it'll take quite a bit of pulling and rolling and extra flour needed. This is why the dough needs to be quite wet compared to bread. Flour one of the sheets of baking paper and stretch the pitta on. You should be able to get three on it, dust well with flour and cover with a damp teatowel. Then on top of that put the other sheet of baking paper, flour, three more pitta, flour and another damp teatowel. Let that prove for about 30 minutes. The pitta won't rise much, but it lets the dough relax etc.
Bake them on the paper without the tray for about 7-8 minutes, depending how hot your oven gets. They will pop up off the paper and puff up, completely hollow like these:
Now cut them open and think about what you can stuff them with. Today I've got chicken, stuffing and home made coleslaw. Nyom nyom nyom
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