Much to the chagrin of my ever expanding waistline.
One thing I have never tried before, though, is pita.
I make things similar to pita, quite often, like tortillas and even naan bread... but I wanted to try making pita.
Well, it turns out they're a little tricky. And my first iteration herein did not really turn out very well...
I mean, nothing was inedible or anything; in fact these flatbread saucer thingies turned out quite delicious. They were fresh, hot, and very yummy... they just weren't pitas.
The differentiating factor, and what I was going for here, was the ability for these things to 'open' or have pouches/pockets created within.
I mean, how else can you stuff it with deliciousness? You can't stuff a flatbread, bub. Nosiree.
:(
Anyway, I'll show you how I did this. As far as a bread product goes, it was relatively easily prepared, and the dough was ready within a couple of hours only.
Proof a couple of teaspoons of active dry yeast in a cup of warm water.
Let that do its thing for about five minutes, and then add to it about 3 cups of flour (start with 2 1/2 cups, depending on your relative humidity... I live someplace very humid) and a pinch of salt.
I used whole wheat flour... for all the good and bad that that entails.
Turn that out on your counter and kneed for five minutes, adding more flour as needed.
Once the dough has formed, lightly coat it in some vegetable oil and put it in a medium sized bowl.
Cover with a tea towel, and let stand for a couple of hours, preferably in a warmish spot. My favourite spot is on top of my stove (oven is not turned on... it was about 30° the day I did this) with the bright (and surprisingly hot... I've literally burned myself on these) led lights of the overhead fan on.
After a couple of hours, I pulled the dough apart into 8 separate and relatively uniform balls.
These I then carefully rolled out with a rolling pin.
Before placing them carefully in a lightly (very lightly) greased cast iron pan.
Avocado oil being my oil of choice.
You can see that they WANTED to puff up... at least a little bit.
But they ended up being just too delicate for me, and when I tried to (gingerly) cut open one side and gently pull it apart, they all inevitably ripped.
Sigh.
It's ok though.
They still ended up making a delightful and tasty flatbread.
Especially when I smothered them with hummus and adorned them with freshly fried falafels!
