Oven-Baked Pita

I have had an Israeli cookbook for over 35 years… I look through it often but have not made anything for it before!

We wanted some pita for dinner, which I have made before and posted on this blog but thought I would try a different one! No oil… vegan… no frying ..

This recipe takes about 3 hours to rise the dough & then longer to cook so prepare accordingly! It seems like a long time but most of it is inactive time & really worth it!Baked in a really hot oven some of the pita were crispier then we usually like but the ones that were really crisp we used a as great cracker for our hummus! My tip is to really watch them & don’t overtake them! They get put into a sealed plastic bag for 15 minutes before eating to soften them

The Pita in the grocery stores here are thin and usually hard so I like to make my own!

NOTE: I am going to split them, spread a bit of olive oil on …season with salt or zatar & toast them in the oven!

Here is the recipe

Ingredients

3/4 cup warm water

1 tsp sugar

2 1/4 tsp yeast

2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

flour to dust the baking sheet

Method

you need one or two baking sheets

1. Dissolve the sugar & yeast in the water & let sit while you get everything else ready
2. Sift the flour & salt together.. this gets rid of any lumps in the flour
3. Make a well in the middle of the flour & add the yeast mixture & mix well to get a soft dough
4. Turn the dough out onto a work surface & knead for about 7 minutes until you get a smooth soft dough
5. Put the dough into a lightly greased large bowl, cover the bowl & let rise for 90 minutes
6. Punch the dough down & recover the bowl & let rise for another 45 minutes.
7. Knead the dough for about 3 minutes then divide into 8 equal balls. Cover the balls with a bowl & let rest for 30 minutes.
8. Preheat the oven to 500f while the dough is resting & lightly flour a cookie sheet. *** the flour started to burn on the first sheet after cooking 4 of these and then I switched baking sheets..using a new floured one for the other pita. A piece of parchment paper will burn at this high heat so I do not suggest using that. Just make sure that you very lightly flour the sheet… the second one did not burn so I had less flour on it.
9. Roll the dough balls into circles about 1/4 inch thick
10. Depending on the size of your baking sheet you could cook 3-4 at a time.. I did 2 at a time twice…then just put 4 on the last time which works.. they are not big leave space between them.. they puff up
11. Bake for 3-4 minutes on each side until the pita is light brown.. Remove from the oven. Cool briefly & then put into a plastic bag you can close tightly for at least 15 minutes.

Enjoy!