Homemade Pita

My daughter-in-law and I made these beauties - it was so satisfying to see them puff up in the oven. We want to get really good at bread/rolls/pita, so we're going to keep practicing! Tips for success (what we learned); 1. Jen did an excellent job of kneading, I think this was key - she kneaded the dough to perfection, and 2. put the rolled out dough on greased pans, where they will rise for 20 min. and place in a hot oven (500 degrees F) on the top rack...don't try to stack them in the oven. They only need about 4-5 min. to cook, and 3. the recipe didn't call for salt, but next time we'll add 1/2 t. The second words out of each of our mouths, after YUM! (even Dad's) was "these could use a little salt."!

Here's the recipe:

7g (1/4 oz.) yeast (we had no idea how much this was, so we used 1 tsp.)

1 tsp sugar

3 1/2 cups of plain flour

2 T olive oil

1. Lightly grease baking trays. Put the yeast an sugar in a small bowl with 1 1/2 cups of warm water -stir well. Leave in a warm place for 10 minutes to froth (if the yeast doesn't froth - no point going any further - you need new yeast).

2. Sift flour into a bowl (we didn't sift), add yeast mixture, and olive oil. Mix well, then turn out on a floured board and knead for 10 min. Should be soft, smooth and elastic - Jen did this to perfection!

3. Place dough in lightly greased bowl, cover with damp cloth, set in warm place to rise for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, divide dough into 12 equal pieces, and roll out into rounds 1/4" thick. Place these rounds on the greased baking trays you already prepared, and cover with the damp cloth to rise for another 20 minutes. The rounds can be lightly brushed with water, so they don't dry out.

4. After 20 min. they are ready to put into a hot (pre0heated) 500F oven, on the top rack, one tray at a time, for 4-5 min. The pitas should puff up like blow fish, and be light coloured still when you remove them from the oven. Serve warm:)

The Essential Baking Cookbook by Whitecap books, pg. 248