Pita bread is a Middle Eastern food. It is the easiest bread to make. It can be either baked or cooked like our phulkas in regular dosa tawa. This is basically made like our naan using yeasted dough, but this is so versatile. Enjoy it with hummus and falafel, the best combo or stuff with any patties and veggies like burgers as per your wish. You may cook and store them in bulk too. The leftovers shall be baked till crisp to make pita chips and can be had with dips. They shall be used as a base for pizza too.
They shall be made using maida too. I prefer to make them thick, but have tasted them very thin in restaurants. Though they shall be cooked in oven and tawa, each one has its own pros and cons. In the oven, it puffs up well and has good air pockets, whereas they are little dry. In tawa, they are soft and have brown spots, but to get perfect air pockets is little tough, no worries it tastes good anyway and I prefer to cook them in tawa. If you are planning to store them, cover them in a cloth as you make them to keep them fresh. To me, hotter the better, so wish to cook and serve straight away.
In the above picture, we had pita like burger with a bed of lettuce, veg patty covered with guacamole, onion rings and cucumber. In the below picture, we had pita with falafel, hummus and onion rings, the yummiest combo.
INGREDIENTS
nutritional information: Serves 2 (makes about 6)
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp dry yeast
1 tsp sugar
1/2 inch cinnamon
2 tsp plus little extra oil (preferably olive oil)salt to taste
Method:
1. In a bowl of warm water dissolve sugar then add yeast and mix well. Leave it aside until frothy. In a bowl add flour, salt, 2 tsp oil and mix well.
2. Using the yeast mixture, knead the dough. Apply a few drops of oil over it and leave it in a warm place around one hour until doubled. I generally leave it inside oven.
3. Divide the dough into 6 balls and leave it as such for 10 minutes. By this time they should have raised a little. Now gently roll them without applying much pressure to a thick disc by dusting little flour as required.
4. For baking, place them carefully on a baking tray and cook for 10 min on a preheated oven at 200C. Keep an eye on them and adjust the timings accordingly.
5. If cooking on tawa, then place them on a hot tawa and wait till small bubbles begin to appear on one side or until one side is slightly cooked and starts turning white. Flip and cook on the other side.
6. Check if the second side is cooked well with brown spots on them. Now remove and cook on a direct flame with the well cooked side on the top. The method is same as cooking the phulka. See how well the air pockets are.
7. Slide your choice of fillings into the pita pockets and enjoy.
Notes:
It can be made with maida or a combination of wheat and maida too.
The Pita bread shall be rolled either thin or thick, we prefer thicker ones.
Thanks for reading the recipe, if you like this recipe please leave a comment below.
