{"id":2063,"date":"2010-02-03T21:53:38","date_gmt":"2010-02-04T03:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/?p=2063"},"modified":"2010-02-03T21:53:38","modified_gmt":"2010-02-04T03:53:38","slug":"pita-bread","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/2010\/02\/03\/pita-bread\/","title":{"rendered":"Pita Bread"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pita bread is yet another thing that I have always wanted to try making myself.\u00c2\u00a0 While restaurant pita is usually pretty good, the store-bought pita varieties almost always taste like cardboard.\u00c2\u00a0 I&#8217;m not sure why I waited so long to try this!\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, it has yeast, but this really isn&#8217;t difficult to make.\u00c2\u00a0 And the results are WELL worth it.\u00c2\u00a0 Homemade pita bread is delicious, and goes great with dishes like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/2008\/08\/13\/greek-chicken-pitas\/\">Greek Chicken<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/03\/indian-spiced-pork-skewers-and-baked-acorn-squash\/\">Indian Spiced Pork Skewers<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2065\" title=\"Pita Bread\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/Pita-Bread.jpg\" alt=\"Pita Bread\" width=\"557\" height=\"371\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/Pita-Bread.jpg 557w, https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/Pita-Bread-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 557px) 100vw, 557px\" \/><\/p>\n<h4>Pita Bread<\/h4>\n<p>recipe from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.browneyedbaker.com\/2008\/05\/21\/homemade-pita-bread\/\">Brown Eyed Baker<\/a> via <a href=\"http:\/\/annies-eats.com\/2008\/08\/10\/pita-bread\/\">Annie&#8217;s Eats<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"> <\/span>Yield: 8 pitas<\/p>\n<p>Ingredients:<br \/>\n<em> <\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">3 cups flour, plus 1\/2-3\/4 cup more as needed<\/span><\/em><\/li>\n<li><em><\/em>1 \u00c2\u00bd tsp. salt<\/li>\n<li><em><\/em>1 tbsp. sugar or honey<\/li>\n<li><em><\/em>1 packet instant yeast<\/li>\n<li><em><\/em>1 \u00c2\u00bc to 1 \u00c2\u00bd cups water, roughly at room temperature<em><\/em><\/li>\n<li><em><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">2 tbsp. olive oil, vegetable oil, butter or shortening<\/span><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em><em><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-style: normal;\">Mix the yeast in with the flour, salt, and sugar.\u00c2\u00a0 Add the olive oil and 1 \u00c2\u00bc cup water and stir together with a wooden spoon.\u00c2\u00a0 All of the ingredients should form a ball.\u00c2\u00a0 If some of the flour will not stick to the ball, add more water.<\/span><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><em><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">Once all of the ingredients form a ball, place the ball on a work surface, and knead the dough for approximately 10 minutes.<\/span><span style=\"font-style: normal;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">If you are using an electric mixer, mix it at low speed for 10 minutes. \u00c2\u00a0As the dough is mixing, continue to add flour, a tablespoon or two at a time, until the dough clears the sides of the bowl and is tacky but not sticky. \u00c2\u00a0(I add a significant amount of flour, so don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be afraid to keep adding more until you reach the right consistency.)<\/span><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><em><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">When you are done kneading the dough, place it in a bowl that has been lightly coated with oil.<\/span><span style=\"font-style: normal;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">Form a ball out of the dough and place it into the bowl, rolling the dough around so that it has a light coat of oil on all sides.<\/span><span style=\"font-style: normal;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp towel and set aside to rise until it has doubled in size, approximately 90 minutes.<\/span><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">When it has doubled in size, punch the dough down to release some of the trapped gases and divide it into 8 equal pieces.<\/span><span style=\"font-style: normal;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">Roll each piece into a ball, cover the balls with a damp kitchen towel, and let them rest for 20 minutes.<\/span><span style=\"font-style: normal;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">This step allows the dough to relax so that it will be easier to shape.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">While the dough is resting, preheat the oven to 450\u00c2\u00b0.<\/span><span style=\"font-style: normal;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">If you have a baking stone, put it in the oven to preheat as well.<\/span><span style=\"font-style: normal;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">If you do not have a baking stone, turn a cookie sheet upside down and place it on the middle rack of the oven while it is preheating.<\/span><span style=\"font-style: normal;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">This will be the surface on which you bake your pitas.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">After the dough has relaxed for 20 minutes, spread a light coating of flour on a work surface and place one of the balls of dough there.<\/span><span style=\"font-style: normal;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">Sprinkle a little bit of flour on top of the dough and use a rolling pin or your hands to stretch and flatten the dough.<\/span><span style=\"font-style: normal;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">You should be able to roll it out to between \u00c2\u00bc \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 1\/8\u00e2\u20ac\u009d thick \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 6 inches in diameter.<\/span><span style=\"font-style: normal;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">If the dough does not stretch sufficiently, you can cover it with the damp towel and let it rest 5-10 minutes before trying again.<\/span><span style=\"font-style: normal;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">Place discs on a lightly greased baking sheet or parchment paper and let rise, uncovered, until barely doubled in thickness, about 30-45 minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">Open the oven and place as many pitas as you can fit on the hot baking surface.<\/span><span style=\"font-style: normal;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">They should be baked through and puffy after 3 minutes.<\/span><span style=\"font-style: normal;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">If you want your pitas to be crispy and brown you can bake them for an additional 3 to 5 minutes, but it isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t necessary.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"linkwithin_hook\" id=\"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/2010\/02\/03\/pita-bread\/\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pita bread is yet another thing that I have always wanted to try making myself.\u00c2\u00a0 While restaurant pita is usually pretty good, the store-bought pita varieties almost always taste like cardboard.\u00c2\u00a0 I&#8217;m not sure why I waited so long to try this!\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, it has yeast, but this really isn&#8217;t difficult to make.\u00c2\u00a0 And the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bread","category-recipes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2063"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2071,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2063\/revisions\/2071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}