We are currently OBSESSED with pita bread. This obsession began back in November when I tried the recipe for pita bread from the revolutionary book, Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day!
We love bread in this family, especially fresh bread. The problem is that I just don’t have the time to make it from scratch all of the time.
Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day explores the concept of making a big batch of dough and storing it in the fridge and only pulling off what you need for dinner that night. The book is amazing!
Our pita bread is merely a matter of pulling off 4-5 balls of dough, flattening it out and sliding it onto a hot pizza stone!
Five minutes later – fresh pita!
After some experimenting, here is recipe with the mix of whole wheat to white flour that we like!
Refrigerator Pita Dough (makes approx 24-30 pitas)
* 3 cups luke warm water
* 1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast (2 packets)
*1 1/2 tablespoons salt
* 3 cups whole wheat flour
* 3 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
Mixing Prep:
-
Mix the yeast and salt with water. Add rest of remaining dry ingredients and mix until combined. Place dough in a 5 quart lidded (not airtight) container.
-
Cover (not airtight), and allow to rest at room temperature until the dough rises and starts to flatten out on top – approx 2 hours.
-
Use some of the dough at this point or place in refrigerator and use within the next 14 days!
To Bake:
-
20 minutes before you want to start baking, start heating the oven and baking stone to 500 degrees.
-
Dust surface of dough with flour and pull out a tennis ball sized hunk of dough for each pita that you would like to make.
-
On a floured surface work dough ball into a flattened circle. You can do this by hand or with the rolling pin. Rotate dough as you work and make sure there is enough flour to prevent sticking. It should be 1/8 in thick. Be sure that it is even. Finger indentations in the dough will result in uneven puffiness. If it is too thick it won’t puff up well either. Sprinkle a little flour on a pizza paddle and place pita rounds on that to slide onto the hot stone in the oven. Lower temperature to 475 and bake for 5-6 minutes until lightly browned and puffed.
-
For a soft-crusted result, wrap in a clean dish towel and place on a cooling rack to cool down.
We’ve been putting everything we can think of inside these pita’s. Our favorites are chicken salad and making “Sunshine in a Pocket”. We’ve also tried taco style pita’s and are open to any and all other suggestions! (Please feed our addiction!)
For breakfast, I pop in some pita’s to cook and then scramble eggs and add whatever veggies are on hand. The cooked up “sunshine” is placed inside the pita’s with some cheese.
It always make for a bright start to our day!
If you have a Bosch, you might like this recipe. I find these lighter and fluffier, but you have to make them all at once.
Bosch Pita Bread
*2 c hot water
*2 tsp sugar
*1 Tbs salt
*1 c hard white whole wheat
*4 c white flour
*6 tsp yeast
Preheat pizza stone to 500 degrees F. In Bosch bowl with dough hook, combine ingredients, using only half the flour with yeast on top. Begin mixing, adding flour until dough cleans sides of bowl. Knead for 6 minutes to develop gluten.
Scale at 4 oz and form balls. {just a smidge large than a golf ball} Let dough rest 10 minutes. Roll out to 1/4 inch thick and let proof about 10-12 minutes. I make sure there is plenty of flour under each because it ruins them if you have to peel them off the countertop. Lower oven temp to 475. I very carefully place two pitas on my pizza paddle and slide them onto the hot stone. Bake for 2.5-3 minutes. Flip over and bake for another 2.5-3 minutes.
GRILL OPTION: Make sure grill is nice and hot as temperature is key to getting the pita’s to puff up. Since our grill has indirect heat, I just pop them on the grill and let them cook for 2-2.5 min before flipping for another 2-2.5 minutes. You could also put your pizza stone on the grill as long as you give it ample time to heat up before putting your pita’s out there.
Leave a Reply