The dough was simple enough. I added all essential ingredients (minus about 50% of the flour) into my kitchenaid with the dough hook attachment. Once combined, I slowly started adding more flour until it formed a soft dough. Pulled that out of the bowl and kneaded for a few minutes. I then let it stand for about what was supposed to be 45 minutes. I forget what I was doing while I was waiting, but whatever it was, I was too enticed by the lure of fresh pita that I only lasted 40 minutes before resuming with the dough. I formed appr. 16 balls of dough and handed one to each of the girls. Here they are working on them:
My 4 year old was rolling out her "cake bread" and I corrected her - No, its pita bread. She replied, "I know. I just call it cake bread."
Then my 3 year old pipes in, her voice a good 10 notches louder than ours, "I call it MOTHER bread." Umm, ok. So here she is with her mother bread...
At one point, my sassy 3 year old decided she needed a little more "powder" for her dough.
I was a little more intentional with my dough. I rolled each ball to just over the circumference of my yellow bowl and, with a knife, cut away the excess. This made perfectly round circles - just like a pita. However, I'll let you in on a little secret - it wasn't necessary. I tried both ways (keeping it irregular vs cutting it perfect) and when it puffs up, it loses its perfect shape anyway. So don't bother with this step.
A good tip I read regarding pita bread is to cook it on a cooling rack instead of a cookie sheet. Doing so gives it less grip and promotes puffiness. Well, I don't think the word puffiness was used. But that's what happened. So once on the cooling rack, into the oven they go...
They came out of the oven 7 minutes later and they were amazing!
Not to mention the magic of the pocket that pita bread is so well known for. I have no idea how it happens, but it does. Perfect for stuffing with pb&j or, in my case, turkey and romaine.
Yummy!!!
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4 comments:
Very cool! Now, where's that recipe! ;o)
Wow! That looks delicious!! Haha about Sedona ;)
Looks good. You are the second blogger I've come across this week who made pita bread so I'm gonna have to give it a whirl. Looks like the kids had fun!
5 cups flour
4 1/2 teaspoons (2pkg. active dry yeast
2 cups milk
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons butter
In a large mixer bowl, combine 2 cups of the flour and the yeast. Heat milk, sugar, salt, butter to 115-120° F. Add to dry mixture and beat 3 minutes. Stir in enough remaining flour to make a soft dough. Turn out onto a floured surface, and knead for 3-5 minutes.
Place dough in bowl, cover, and let rise 45 minutes. Punch dough down, cover, and let rest 10 minutes. Preheat oven to 400° F.
Divide dough into 16+ pieces (depending on how big you want your pita bread) and form each into a ball. Let balls rest 5 minutes, then roll each into rounds - however big you'd like them, but the rounds should be pretty thin, otherwise they don't puff well.
Place pitas on a metal cooling rack in the preheated 400° F oven, and bake for 7-9 minutes, or until puffed and lightly browned. Cool on cloth-covered surface.
Enjoy!
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