Pita bread made with a bread machine, what could be easier? The only trick is to roll them thin enough (I didn't roll my my first batch thin enough and they were lofty little pillows, but bad minimal pockets). The thinner batch made perfect pocket pitas.
This was a quick fun project and the final results were delicious, you will never be happy with grocery store pita's again.
This was a quick fun project and the final results were delicious, you will never be happy with grocery store pita's again.
1 and 1/8 cups warm water
3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 teaspoons white sugar
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
Put everything into the bread pan of your bread machine, select dough setting and start. Let dough going through first rise.
Turn dough out onto your floured counter. Knead dough a few times then divide into 8 equal pieces and roll each piece into a ball. With a floured rolling pin, roll each ball out into a 6" circle (dough will be very thin). Lay circles on lightly floured surface and cover with a dry light-weight dish towel. Let it rest for 30 minutes or until slightly puffy.
In the meantime, heat your oven to 500 (yep! 500) and place a wire cake rack into your oven (set it right on the oven rack...no pan please). Gently lift a circle of dough and gently place it on the hot cake rack (bake 2 at a time). Bake for five minutes until they are super-puffed and lightly brown. Remove with spatula and place in a brown paper bag (I just used some lunch bags) and make sure you seal up the bag well (I used a chip clip to seal bags) and let the pita's cool in there. I don't know why this step is necessary, but that is what the recipe calls for. They will look like this:
When they are cooled, you can split them open or cut off one end. We really enjoyed these and I will definitely make these again.NOTE: I don't have a bread machine, so I just made the dough in my stand mixer and let it rise for about an hour.
NOTE: Alaska has almost non-stop daylight in the summers which accounts for the huge vegetables people grow here, especially the cole crops.
PITA BREAD FOOD RECIPESBy Coleen Marie