This was the post about olive tapenade I think, but we got to talking about pitta, and I have been asked for my pitta bread recipe, so have started a new thread.
I use the recipe for basic pitta bread from a wonderful book 'Pita the Great" by Virginia Habeeb, which I've had for years - published in 1986. I see it is still available from Amazon! Buy it! It is brilliant, full of ideas of what you can put in pittas, dips etc to go with them, savoury and sweet ideas, plus what to use the failures for!!
The recipe really is very straightforward as long as you follow it strictly.
700-800g strong white flour
475ml warm water
2 sachets of quick yeast
1/2 tsp sugar
2tsp salt
Mix all, adding a little more water/flour as necessary to arrive at a dough that is soft, not too sticky, and kneadable. Knead for at least 5 mins until smooth and elastic. Divide into pieces - 12 for larger pitta, 24 for small ones, or somewhere in between! Shape each into a smooth ball, take time to do this. Place them on a floured surface and cover them with a slightly damp tea-towel.
Then work at each ball one by one. Flatten one, keeping it well rounded. Flour working surface and roll from the centre of the ball, giving the dough a 1/4 turn after each roll. That way it will remain nicely round, aim at a circle of between 13 - 21 cms, depending on whether you want small or big pittas. As each is finished, place on a floured surface and cover with a dry tea-towel. Let them rise for about 45 mins. They won't rise very much. 25 mins into this time put the oven on very very high - 240ºC, or Mark 9. It really does need to have got properly hot before you put the bread in. Put your baking tin in at the same time, on the bottom rack. I find I can get three breads on the tine at one time. When properly hot, take out tray and lay three breads on it quickly. Bake for 3 to 3 and 1/2 mins. They should have puffed up well in this time. Take out and wrap immediately in dry tea-towel while you put the next three in quickly. Just before you take the second lot out, put the first lot in the biggest polybag that you can find. Loosely close it. The second lot go into the tea-towel, and the third lot go into the oven. Get the idea? The poly bag will get quite damp inside, but it is that that makes the pitta bread beautifully soft. I leave them in there until more or less cold.
These freeze well.
