Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Pita Pita


Pita's are probably the simplest breads to make. They're quick and you can have them on the table in about 3 hours flat. Simple veggies, preferably the salad types slathered with some amazingly simple dipping sauces - hummus, babaganoush, tzaziki and muhammarah are some of the common complements.
I'd made pita's about 5 years ago but was disappointed with the irregular pockets that it developed. I believe my rolling has improved since then and I can roll out a chapathi fairly evenly.
I decided to do a wheat mix, not so much to make this healthy than to have a better texture to the bread. Here's the recipe for the pita I made

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup wheat flower
1 cup water, warmed to a little higher than ambient
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp instant yeast

Mix all the ingredients till they come together. You can vary the water to suit your mix. What you need in the end is a slightly wet ball of dough. Let this double in size (about 1hr for me). Knock the dough back down, make equal size of balls (a little larger than golf ball size) and place them under a wet towel allowing them to rest for 10 mts. Pre heat the oven to the highest temperature possible (250C for me). If you have a stone, that would be perfect. I have a stoneware tava that I used upside down.
Roll out the ball of dough to the thickness of a paratha and cook in the oven for between 3-4mts. Take out the pita and place them in a paper bag for them to retain the moisture and remain soft for a while.

I made the muhammara sauce by eyeballing the ingredients - roasted red bell peppers, toasted pecans (can use walnuts), bread crumbs, garlic, olive oil & salt. The only ingredient that required a bit of prep was the pomegranate syrum that I created by slowly boiling pom juice over 15mts. Whip these in the blender till you get a smooth paste.

I created the pita pocket by just cutting through the middle of the bread.
Slather the sauce into the pita pocket and add basically any veggie you can find. I had some left over chickpea and gherkins along with a bit of thick curd.

2 comments:

  1. would be great is you could let us know which pita recipe you used..

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the pita bread recipe. Will be making this today for an office fiesta tomorrow. Wish me luck!!

    ReplyDelete

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