DIY: Easy, Fresh, Pita Bread
What if I told you that you could make pita bread easily? More than likely, you have everything you need to make it already in your pantry. Not only that, but to eat warm fresh pita bread tastes so much better than what you can buy at the store.
I recently discovered this recipe from the website Half Baked Harvest and have already made it a few times. The results are wonderful.
Minimal ingredients are:
- 1 cup hot water
- 2 tsp active dry yeast
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Combine the hot water and yeast together in a large bowl and stir so that the yeast can dissolve.
Add the flour, salt, and olive oil to the bowl and mix together well with a wooden spoon.
Once it is well blended, turn the dough onto a floured work surface.
Knead the dough with your hands until it smooth and elastic, about ten minutes. Add a small amount of olive oil to a clean bowl and place the dough in the bowl and turn it in order to coat the dough in its entirety.
Wrap the bowl with Saran Wrap and let it rest for about an hour. The dough will rise and become springy.
Place the dough onto a floured surface. Divide the dough into eight even pieces and then put them back into the covered bowl.
One at a time, roll out the dough with a rolling pin to about 1/4 inch in thickness. If the dough gets sticky, add more flour as needed.
Heat up a flat griddle or an iron skillet to a medium high heat. Brush some olive oil on the heated pan. Place one of the rolled out pieces of dough onto the pan. If you have a large enough griddle, you can cook two at a time. Watch for bubbles to form on the dough, about thirty seconds and then flip over.
Grill for about a minute. Shortly after the edges of the pita bread begins rising off the pan, it will have created toasted spots and is ready to flip over again.
Grill for a final minute. The pita bread will puff up and you will know it’s ready. Repeat the process to make 8 pita bread.
You will be amazed at the deliciousness of the pita bread as well as the nice chewy texture. I bought three different types of hummus from Trader Joe’s to dip the pita bread in. Of the garlic hummus, the beet hummus, and the tomato basil hummus, I enjoyed the latter one best.
