Pita Bread Recipe

It's been a heavy few weeks, and I've somewhat taken a break from posting any form of recipes. It's a sign of things returning to some sense of normalcy that I'll post a recipe for Pita Bread. I was nervous to try this; I know baking bread for the first time can end up a disaster, but it turned out really well!!

Let me say first, my oven doesn't retain heat too well, so is not ideal for baking bread. I ended up having to cook the pita about 5 minutes longer than the recipe called for :p.

Ingredients: 

3 cups Bread Flour 

1 1/2 Tablespoons Sugar

1 1/2 Teaspoons Salt

1 1/2 Tablespoons Active Dry Yeast (or 2 packages)

2 Tablespoons of Butter - Melted

1 1/4 Cups Water - MAKE SURE this water is room temperature!!

Preparations:

1. Combine in a large bowl the Flour, Sugar, Salt, and Yeast. Mix together.
   
2. Add the Butter and Water. I did this in partitions to make sure I had the right consistency (as I've had disastrous results with dough before lol...that could have been used as superglue or cement...).
   
3. Mix by hand or on low speed in a mixer for about 10 minutes.
   
4. Knead for 10 minutes until dough is smooth, soft, and elastic. If needed, add little bits of flour/water to obtain necessary consistency. It should not be sticky!!
   
5. Transfer dough to a bowl with oil around the inside, rotate dough to cover the surface with the oil.
   
6. Cover the bowl with cling film and let the dough rise for 1 hr to 1 1/2 hrs. The dough should double in size.
   
7. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, 232 degrees Celsius. Let your oven heat up fully, if you put the dough in before it's hot...your bread won't cook properly!
   
8. Place a Pizza or Baking stone inside your oven while it's pre-heating. (**I did not have a pizza stone...so I used a regular baking tray turned upside down - just don't let it sit in the oven while it's pre-heating!!**)

While your oven is preheating: 

1. Take your dough, and punch it down. Split into 8 equal pieces, and roll into balls.
   
2. Cover the dough and let rest for an additional 20 minutes. 

When ready to bake: 

1. On a lightly floured surface roll your dough balls out into "thin rounds." They should be about 20 cm around, and 2 cm thick (roughly).
   
2. The recipe here called to mist your baking tray with water, and add the dough rounds - as many as will fit on your tray without touching. My first use with water ended up with the bread sticking to the base and ruined it. For the next round I lightly buttered the base to avoid sticking. Oil will also work well if your baking pan will cause the bread to stick!
   
   
3. Bake until the bread puffs up. The recipe called for about 3 minutes, but like I said I had to cook a little longer b/c of my oven.
   

   

   Bake away!

4. Remove bread promptly, and transfer to rack to cool. 

Enjoy! :)  

Dinner! Fresh Bread, Fresh Salad, and Chicken with an Alfredo Dill Sauce. Yummy!