Pita Bread

Prep time : 10 minutes Resting time : 2 hours Cooking time : 10 minutes 

INGREDIENTS:

All Purpose Flour  2 cups + 1/4 cup

Wheat flour 1/2 cup

Instant Yeast 2 tsp

Sugar 1 tbsp

Salt 1/2 tsp

Warm water 1 cup 2 tbsp

Olive oil 1 tbsp

PREPARATION  :

In a large mixing bowl add 2 cups of all purpose flour, wheat flour, salt and sugar and mix it well.

In a cup take warm water add the oil and yeast in it stir it till yeast gets dissolved. 

Now pour the wet mixture into the the dry ingredients mix and bring everything together as a dough. The dough would be quite sticky which is the right form.

Once you see no dry bits of flour just transfer the dough to the worktop and sprinkle some plain flour on top and keep kneading the dough roughly for 10-12 minutes.

The dough should be become very soft and is not as sticky as it was when your started.  

To get the best result the dough has to be tacky and should have some moisture.

In a greased bowl keep the dough to rest for around 2 hours in a warm place. After 2 hours the dough would have risen well.

Now preheat the oven for 20 minutes @ 200°c.

Just deflate the dough and divide it into 8 equal parts.

Take the dough, give it a round shape by tucking the sides beneath and place it on your worktop. Flatten it by pressing the center down. Cover with a tea towel and proceed with the next one.

Starting with the first dough that you shaped just roll it out evenly into a circle with a 4 to 6-inch diameter.

It should be rolled out to an even thickness about 1/4 inch. Uneven rolling can cause a certain area to puff whereas the other might not.

The dough should be rolled without any tears or cracks.

The concept is you want the dough to be thin so that the sides once set quickly, the heat can immediately cause the moisture to convert to steam and start the push in the center expanding the pocket before the dough becomes too rigid.

Roll 4 pitas, place them on the baking tray and put into the preheated oven for 4-5 minutes, you will see them puffed up well...don't keep the pitas longer in the oven it might harden up.

By the time the first 4 pitas are being baked roll the remaining 4 pitas.

Bake these same as the first batch.

To keep the pitas warm and soft we need to enclose them or wrap them up using a tea towel as soon as they come out of the oven. This helps to keep the pitas soft for a long time because, the tea towels aids in capturing the right amount of moisture letting the pitas breathe at the same time.

Enjoy it with Falafal, Hummus and Tzatziki sauce😊