Meryl wrote:
Hi -- My family enjoys pita bread, and we were wondering what causes it to
form its characteristic pocket. Any explanations would be much
appreciated. I'd love to try to bake some pita, especially if I can make
the dough in my bread maker. If you have an easy recipe, please share it
with us. Thanks and have a great weekend.
The expansion is caused by steam generated by very high oven
temperatures. The following recipe is, as the name implies very simple and
reliable. And delicious.
John's Routine Pita
I normally bake this in large quantities as it freezes very well but I've
given a relatively small quantity here, the recipe scales well. There's
nothing particularly original about this bread, it's an amalgam of many
published recipes.
Makes 8 large or 16 small pita.
500 gm white "bread" flour around 12% protein, you don't want super-strong
flour for these
325 gm warm (ca. 30C) water
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
2 tsp instant yeast
2 tbsp oil
Dump everything except the oil in a mixer bowl, mix roughly and leave to
autolyse for 30 minutes or so.
Add the oil and mix on Kenwood speed 1 or 2 until the mixture is elastic,
smooth and clearing the bowl. About 10 minutes but it's highly variable.
Dump out onto the floured counter, form into a ball, cover and leave to double.
Cut into the number of pieces you prefer and shape each piece into a ball.
Leave to relax for 10 minutes.
Roll each piece into an oval pita shape or any other shape you like square
pita, for example are unromantic but make very practical pouches for
stuffing with goodies as a preliminary to stuffing your face<g>. The dough
needs to be 3 - 4 mm thick with the smaller pita rolled thinner than the
large ones. Lay each piece on a flat, floured surface, sprinkle more flour
over and cover. I use my pasta machine for the rollout.
In 45 minutes to 1 hour they should have puffed up and doubled in
thickness. Just time to heat your oven, with stones or VERY heavy baking
sheets to its absolute maximum temperature.
Flip over as many pieces as will fit on your stones, and use a peel, cookie
sheet or Superpeel to slide the dough onto the red-hot stones.
Close the oven door and look away for 2 minutes. When you look back they
will have puffed up like footballs, give them one more minute then out of
the oven. Leave to cool wrapped in a towel. Repeat until they're all cooked.
Eat hot or warm up in a toaster or under a grill, fill with grilled meats
and onions and tomatoes and lettuce and yoghurt and mint and .....or dip
hummus, tahini, olive paste, Chilli con Carne, curries, tagines.....
This really is a most versatile bread.
John