Pita Bread

Warm puffy circles of bread, steaming as you dip them in hummus. Man, that’s gold. You’d be surprised at how easy is it to make pita bread in your own home, without a massive wood burning oven. The best part, the dough is just 4 ingredients, and water happened to be one of them. I used to make these all the time when I was in Germany, and I admit I don’t make them as often here in Chicago because you can find ready made ones. But I made these yesterday and was reminded at how rewarding it is to make bread of any kind at home, so here it is, my super simple, absolute favorite recipe. Pita Bread. 

Here’s what you’ll need:

2 cups flour plus extra for kneading

7 g instant yeast (equal to one sachet)

1 tspn salt

1 cup warm water

Mix the yeast and salt into the flour and gradually add the water, stirring with a wooden spoon. Once everything is incorporated knead the dough with your hands until it forms a dough. Flour your surface and roll the dough into a cylinder. If the dough is too sticky knead a little flour into it. Divide the dough into 10 portions, then roll each portion into a ball.

On a lightly flour surface roll each ball into a relatively thin oval or circle. The dough will double in size so roll it out to 1/8 of an inch. If it’s too thick the dough won’t puff in the center, which isn’t a bad thing, but if you want the full restaurant effect, the thinner, the better. Cover the rolled out dough with a kitchen towel and let it rise for about an hour, or till doubled in thickness. Handle the dough very carefully and cook on a medium hot cast iron pan, about 2-3 minutes on each side. Once you flip the dough, press down softly with a spatula and the pita bread should puff up. Again, if it doesn’t puff up, it’s ok, it’ll still taste great! Serve piping hot with Hummus, Fattoush and Lemon Oregano Chicken. 

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