Easy homemade pita bread

May 20, 3:14 PMDC Fresh Foods ExaminerRobin Ripley

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Although good pita bread can be difficult to find,
you can make it at home in just about 2 hours.

Good pita bread can be hard to find. Most grocery store offerings taste more like cardboard than bread and few bakeries carry pita bread.

But in just about two hours, you can make your own fresh, homemade pita bread using ingredients you probably already have at home. Here's how.

Ingredients

3/4 cup warm water
3 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast (about 1 1/2 envelopes)
6 cups bread flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups warm milk
olive oil to coat bowl

Mix yeast with warm water and set aside for about 10 minutes until it is bubbly.

Fit a dough blade into a food processor. Mix together the flour and salt in the processor. Gradually add the warm milk and yeast mixture with the machine running. Continue running until the dough forms into a ball.

Remove dough from the machine. Knead a few times to make sure the dough is smoothe. Press into a ball. Turn into a bowl lightly coated with olive oil. Place in a warm place to rise until double in bulk--about 1 hour.

Punch down dough and divide into 8 to 12 sections. (The pitas pictured above are from 8 sections, which form a thick and hefty pita. For a thinner pita, divide into more sections.)

Form the smaller sections into balls and roll into round flats about 8" to 10" in diameter. (If you can, avoid using a floury surface because that makes rolling the balls out flat more difficult, since they tend to spring back into shape.) Cover the flat dough sections with plastic wrap and a towel and let rise until puffy--about 30 minutes.

In the meantime, place a baking stone into the oven and pre-heat to 500 degrees. When ready to bake, use a timer, since the pitas will cook very quickly. Carefully place only as many dough sections onto the pizza stone as will fit easily. Bake for about three to four minutes. There is no need to turn the pitas. Avoid over-cooking for a softer pita.

Continue cooking until all the pitas are baked. Serve immediately or cool completely before storing.
 

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