Jewels asked for the pita bread recipe.... Mmmmmm... homemade pita bread is *so* good! Especially fresh from the oven, with a little butter. :))
I got the recipe from my mom, and I'm not sure where she got it from.
Pita Bread
1 pkg yeast
1 tbsp sugar
2 c lukewarm water
1/3 c milk
6 c flour
2 tsp salt
Dissolve yeast and sugar in 1/2 c water, let sit 5-10 minutes. Put flour & salt in large bowl, mix, make depression in center. Mix water, milk, and yeast mixture, and pour in depression. Mix. Knead until smooth and elastic. Let rise until double, 2-4 hours. Cut pieces from edge and shape into orange size balls. Let rise for 1/2 hour. Roll balls to 1/4" thick. Let rise for 1/2 hour. Preheat oven to 475F. Place bread directly on racks. Cook 2-5 minutes until puffed up. Place under broiler for a few seconds.
Notes:
Yes, I love to fiddle with recipes. ;)
1. I use hot tap water in a glass measuring cup, and find the cold cup cools the water enough that it's fine for the yeast. It's warmer than lukewarm, but the yeast proofs a lot faster. Just proof until frothy. Oh, and I don't bother proofing in only a portion of the water... do it in the whole 2 c.
2. Don't bother pre-mixing the yeast & milk, they'll mix just fine in the depression, and this way you can use the milk to rinse out the yeast from the measuring cup. (Fewer dishes too!)
3. If you have the right bowl (large and shallow), you can knead the bread right in the bowl, saving you from having to have a good counter space for kneading. I find a bar stool to be the right height for me for kneading bread... but then I'm short.
4. First rising: place bread back in bowl (if you took it out), and drape the bowl with a damp tea towel. Place the bowl in the oven with the oven light on. This provides enough warmth for the bread to rise. If you don't have an oven light (like at my current place), turn the oven to the lowest setting while kneading the bread, and turn it off when you put the bread in to rise.
5. Second and third rising: Place bread on a dry tea towel, and cover with a second tea towel. (You'll need four tea towels for this step, assuming a single recipe.)
6. Baking: bake at 475F until the majority of the pitas are puffed up like balloons, then switch the oven to broil setting. Watch the broiler, and take the bread out when the broiler turns red. The pitas will still be pretty white... they're supposed to be. If they brown, you've overcooked them.
7. If you don't have a window in your oven (gee, I just love my current stove), you can cook them at 475F for five minutes and skip the broiler... they'll end up kind of golden, but still better than store-bought.
(Yarn Tomato: I used the recipe card this time, so you can double check the recipe I sent you. ;) )
Other stuff: I've got my gauge back! Yay! I started a pair of Lang Jawoll socks for myself (I call them green rainbow, because they're predominantly a turquoise green, but have a rainbow of other colours plied in. I'll post a photo soon.) All I had to do was remember that I held the yarn so tight that it caused a painful indentation on my finger. :) (Why is it that I love socks so much?) Anyway, now that I have my gauge back, I can start my sockapalooza socks! Yay! (I've got my ears plugged so I can't hear you pointing out that I already have three other pairs of socks started... my sockapalooza pal has priority!) Actually, I'll probably alternate between sockapalooza socks and socks for me... these green rainbow ones are much more fun than *plain* blue. ;)
Scarf update: I'm ready to start the gray stripes on the other end. :)
Yarn diet update: I broke down, and ordered from Knit Picks. I was adding things to my "wish list", and the total magically came to $30 plus change! Orders of $30 have free shipping! It was a sign! I know it was! (Um, that, or I'm impatient.) I, uh, did add one more ball to bring it to $32 plus change. And, uh, yeah, the order *does* include a *bit* more sock yarn. *blush* To top it off, I placed an additional order at theknitter.com... but this was to get the additional yarn I needed to do Bob's socks, now that I've decided to stripe them with black. And they have free shipping too! (All the time... so my order there wasn't nearly as much.)
Nothing much else new around here... except that I should go to bed now, so I don't sleep as late tomorrow morning as I did this morning! G'night!
4 comments:
I need to try this recipe, but I have a question - how much does this recipe make (how many pita breads)? Oh, and do you have to cook it on the rack? Because the rack in my oven has wider than normal spaces between each bar, so I'm afraid they wouldn't survive the cooking process!
It tends to make about 9-12 pitas, depending on how big I make them. (I like the bigger pitas in my lunch, but the little ones are a bit easier to handle in the oven... but mostly I'm just not terribly accurate when I make them.)
It really does work best on the rack. You could always get some of those cooling racks with narrower spaces, and place those on top of your current racks. The pita bread actually sticks to the racks quite well... the raw dough sort of clings, and then the cooked bread is "rigid" enough that it doesn't go through. I frequently have bits hang down, but they still bake fine. (They just don't puff up as well.)
Good Luck! :)
Doh....I was so excited when I saw you had posted your pita recipe I didn't post to say thank you!! Can't wait to try it...nothing in the world like fresh pita bread.
Not a problem. :) Let me know if you have any questions!
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