Fun with Flatbreads

So, after 2 tries, I am officially concluding that homemade pita bread is pretty easy, and better than the store-bought version. Store-bought pitas are pretty good when toasted, but they are either crispy or doughy. I like my pita with a bit of a crunch in the darker parts, but still soft and yielding inside. Sheesh, I sound like a romance novel.

Getting back to the bread, I've read a lot about recreating a baker's oven with hand misting, or pans of water to create humidity, but this time I just stuck the rolled out dough in the oven, on a cheapie baking sheet, on the lowest rack, and it came out just as nicely as last time, when I drove myself crazy trying to clean out Windex spray bottles, etc, to try and humidify my oven. Plus my pockets held their puff better this time. So if you want to mess around with the fiddly stuff, go for it, but if you don't have time, no worries.

Pita Bread

from the Joy of Cooking

2 1/2 cups bread flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/2 Tbsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 packets active dry yeast

2 Tbsp melted butter

1 1/4 cups room temperature water

Combine everything in your mixer's bowl and turn with a spatula to combine ingredients. Knead on low with your mixer's dough hook for 10 minutes, or until dough is "smooth, soft, and elastic."

It is fun to play around and add a splash of water, and then a pinch of flour to see how that affects the dough. I'm by no means an expert, but I think I know what I'm looking for- you don't want to dough to be so dry that it sticks to the sides of the bowl, nor so wet that it doesn't travel up the dough hook. It's an eyeball thing, and ten minutes is a long time to watch stuff spin, I'm sure you'll figure it out if I did. Joy says the dough should be "slightly tacky but not sticky."

After ten minutes, place dough in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set in a dark place to rise for 90 minutes. When you have 10 minutes left in the rise, preheat your oven to 475, and put the baking sheet, pizza stone, or whatever you'll be using in the oven to preheat too. When your 90 minute rise is up, the dough should have doubled in size. Punch it down, marvel at how cool yeast is, and cut into 8 pieces with a pizza cutter. Roll the pieces into balls, and let rest another 20 minutes, then roll out into a thin 1/4 inch round. (Joy says 1/8, but it puffed better when a little thicker).

Bake 2-3 at a time, or as many fit on your pan at once. Stay close to the oven, and start checking them after 3 minutes. Mine took about 5-6 min each.