Pita Bread

     I was not going to post about pita bread. This was just a spur of the moment idea I had on a Sunday.  Let's make pita bread!  It was just so easy to do, and came out so great that I had to share the recipe.    Seriously easy.  My now 9 year old boy, (they grow up so quickly), could even make it.

    The recipe was from King Arthur Flour.

The ingredient list:
 

3 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

2 teaspoons instant yeast

*2 teaspoons King Arthur Easy-Roll Dough Improver

2 teaspoons sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 cup water

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Now I did not have the instant yeast or the Easy-Roll Dough improver. For the instant yeast just dissolve 2 tsp of active dry yeast in 1/4 cup of water that is about 110F and 1/4 tsp sugar.  After 5 minutes the mixture should be all bubbly.  (Those were the proofing directions on my package of active dry yeast, and they worked.)

For the Easy- Roll Dough improver you can just add a tsp of baking powder.  This is supposed to be for the puffing of the pita's.  Now, I will admit that I forgot to add the baking powder.  No big deal though, because as you'll see from the pictures my pita's puffed up. They were like balloons!

I used my bread maker for this, but you don't need to.  Just mix all of the ingredients and knead by hand or with a mixer with the dough attachment.  Remember that if you had active dry yeast and needed to proof it then you will only need 3/4 cup of water.  If you have instant then add the whole cup of water.  Let the dough rise for an hour.

In the bread machine I added the yeast mixture, 3/4 of water, and the rest of the ingredients.  I then put it on the dough cycle and let it go.  It is a 1 hour and 45 minute cycle from warming up, to kneading, and then rising.  What's great about the bread maker is that I was able to go to the store after I turned it on.  The dough must also be really forgiving because by the time I got home it had been done for 15 minutes, and the end product was still great.

I then prepared two baking sheets by covering them with parchment paper. I also turned my oven on to 500F.  One rack was on the lowest setting, and the other was in the middle.

Then I rolled the dough out of the bread maker and divided it into 8 round pieces.  I rolled them into about 6 inch circles with my rolling pin.  They did not stick to the rolling pin.  I got 4 of them on each baking sheet.

I covered them with plastic wrap and let them rise for 15 minutes.

I then put them in the oven on the lowest rack for 5 minutes.  They were puffed up by the end of the minutes, and that's without the baking powder.

Then I put them on the upper rack for 2 minutes.  Please leave your oven light on and keep watch on them, because they could go from golden brown to burnt quite easily.

After the 2 minutes, take them out and wrap them in a clean dishcloth.  That's it!

Because I used the bread machine, the only real active time I had was rolling out the dough.  This was really easy and successful as you can tell from the photo's.

They taste much better than store bought for sure!