Pita is as plain and simple as a fact of life or the bald-faced truth... There is just no embellishing
it. It is a back-drop for better things; the base melody; the supporting actor.
Unfortunately... when the back-drop is flawed, when the base melody is off key, when
the supporting actor stinks, it is all too obvious.
I bought pita recently and it wasn’t Oscar-winning
material by a long stretch. As well as the handful of ingredients essential to
creating this simple bread, it contained a list of extras as long as your arm,
all there to extend shelf-life.
If pita isn’t up to scratch, then it
drags down the rest of the meal. However, when this pocket bread is good, it is
a building block of snack perfection, the perfect party bread, the best supporting actor in a luscious portable
lunch.
Warning: once you
have tasted homemade pita bread, commercially-produced stuff will never be good
enough ever again.
For 8 perfect
pita pockets you will need...
... to
pre-heat the oven to 225°C at step 3
350g plain flour
125g finely ground wholemeal flour
7g sachet of fast acting dried yeast
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon fine table salt
280ml tepid water (35 - 38°C)
1. Place the first six ingredients together
in a large mixing bowl. Add the warm water and mix until the ingredients come
together in a ball. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for
about 7 - 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and silky. To knead, fold the
dough in half, then holding it in place with one hand, use the heel of the
other hand to stretch the dough away from you, along the floured surface. Again
fold it, rotate it about 1/8th of a turn and again press it away from you with
the heel of your hand. Repeat, enjoying the yeasty scent and the silky feel of
the dough as any woe or stress dissipates through your hands – bread-making is
cheap therapy. (If, however, you have no woes, and possess a stand mixer with a
dough-hook, 5 minutes in the machine will be sufficient.) Return the dough to
the mixing bowl and cover with cling film or a clean tea towel. Leave in a
warm, draught-free spot for about 2 hours or until doubled in size.
2. Divide the dough into eight equal pieces,
kneading each just long enough to shape it into a smooth ball. Flatten into a
disk and leave to rise until again doubled in size and a finger poked into the
dough leaves an indent (about an hour). If the dough springs back into shape,
leave it to rise for a further half hour then test again.
3. When you are ready to cook the bread, pre-heat the oven and boil a kettle of
water. Place a baking dish on a lower shelf in the oven and carefully add some
boiling water. This creates the perfect steamy atmosphere for this bread.
4. While the oven is heating, roll out the
dough disks into rounds about 3mm thick. Put 2 or 3 on a baking sheet and place
in the hot oven. After about 3 minutes they will have puffed up impressively.
Remove them from the oven before they’ve had a chance to turn golden (You can see I was so busy with my camera, I forgot that instruction myself and a few of them acquired a bit of a tan!) Cool on a
wire rack. Cook the remaining breads.
My favourite way to use pita is to toast it then fill it with felafel and all the trimmings.
Yum!
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