Pita Bread

There are 3 stages to this recipe. 1. Sift the dry ingredients together and add both the water measurements. I perfer this to be very wet, the consistency of a thick batter mix. Leave to rest for 5mins. 2. Add the second quantity of flour (1&1/2 Cups of flour), knead, oil and rest for 15mins. 3. Roll out the individual breads and leave for a further 45 minutes before turning and baking for 10mins.

Ingredients:

1 & 1/2 cups of white flour
1 teaspoon castor sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 & 1/2 tablespoons of surebake dried yeast
150ml cold water
150m boiling water (Just after boiling)
1 & 1/2 cups of white flour + extra for sprinkling
Olive oil to coating

Method:

Part one: Sift 1&1/2 Cups of flour, salt, sugar and yeast in a large bowl. Make a well in the middle and add the cold water followed immediately by the hot water. Using a wooden spoon etc, mix to a soft dough (batter consistency), as mentioned in the description it is better to have this wet rather than dry. Leave to stand for 3 minutes. Part two: Fold in the remaining flour (1&1/2 Cups). Use a wooden spoon etc, to fold in the remaining flour and add extra flour as needed to form a soft dough. When the dough is workable with the hands, remove the dough from the bowl and knead until it has an elastic texture. Soft and easy to shape. Clean the excess flour from the bottom of the bowl before lightly greasing the bowl with oil. Return the dough to the bowl and grease the top of the dough with oil. Cover with a clean tea towel and leave in a warm place for 15mins. Part three: Knead dough for a further minute and roll out the dough into a log shape. Split the dough in half and half again and again until you have 8 equal balls of dough. Dust the bench and your hands as you work with flour and roll the dough into a ball shape in your hands to start with. Now using a rolling pin flatten the ball out to start forming a larger flat round bread. (my first ones came out the size of large burger buns before i got the right size that suits our needs. The thickness is about the size of a thin and crispy pizza base, hope this helps, practise makes perfect). I roll out both sides of the bread. Lightly flour a couple of oven trays and place about 4 breads per tray and then lightly sprinkle flour on top of each one. Give them each a little space between them to grow slightly. Leave to rest in warm place for 45mins. Preheat the oven to 250C. Just before putting the tray in the oven (one tray at a time) carefully turn each bread over. This is to help with the forming of the air pocket. Bake for 8-12mins until light brown. Each oven works differently so keep an eye on them after 8 minutes because they brown quickly once they get going. Leave to cool on a rack. They freeze well too.

Because of its versatility this is the only bread we make regularly and other breads we make only on special occasions or for an occasional change. It's all ready to eat in under 2 hours.