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Pita Bread
Notes from Delisa Renideo
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- Follow the recipe for Whole Wheat Bread (click on the Wheat Bread button below).
- After letting the dough rise once, punch it down.
- Form dough into 16 balls, for an average sized pita pocket.
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Let balls rest for about 15 minutes, to allow the gluten to relax and make it easier to roll them out.
- Roll out each ball on a lightly floured surface with a rolling pin. It should be very thin, about like a tortilla. It will be about 6 or 7 inches in diameter.
- Rather than baking on a baking sheet, it works best to put the rolled out pitas on a wire cooking rack – the kind you use for cooling cakes or cookies. This allows the heat to circulate freely around them so they puff up.
- Bake at 450 degrees for 4 minutes.
- Each pita will puff up into a little pillow. Be sure to turn on the oven light and watch through the oven door to see this amazing sight!
- Remove from oven and place in a paper bag to cool. This is to keep them from getting crisp as they cool.
- Gently press the puffed up pitas flat after they cool in the paper bag, and then store in a plastic bag.
- Cut each pita in half with scissors to make 2 pockets for sandwiches, or cut in wedges to dip in hummus or other bean spreads.
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These freeze very well, so you can make them ahead and take them out of the freezer as you need them.
If you want to make little snack-sized pockets, you can make smaller balls. You can make as many as 32 from one bread recipe, for cute little pocket sandwiches.
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