Frank's Recipes! Pita Pockets

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Pita Pockets

Makes 8; can be doubled

1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 1/4 cup lukewarm water
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (bread flour is okay)
1 1/2 cups unbleached white or all purpose flour (amount may vary)
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/2 tablespoon olive oil

Warm a large, non-metal bowl by pouring hot tap water into it, and emptying. Place lukewarm water in the bowl. Sprinkle the yeast and a teaspoon of flour over the water. Do not stir. Let sit for ten or fifteen minutes or until the yeast starts mushrooming up to the surface of the water. Stir.

Add the whole wheat flour, and stir with a wooden spoon (don't use metal! It inhibits the yeast) for 100 strokes in the same direction. This will activate the gluten. This is called the sponge. Cover the bowl with a towel or a clean plastic bag, and let it rest in a draft-free area (like the inside of your oven with the light turned off) for anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours, at your convenience.

Sprinkle the salt and olive oil over the sponge, and stir vigourously. Add as much of the rest of the flour as it needs to make a stiff dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for a good ten minutes, adding more flour if necessary to keep it from sticking to your hands. The dough should now be smooth and elastic.

Clean the bowl very thoroughly, and dry it. Lightly coat with oil (a spray is fine). Return the dough to the bowl and cover again. Make sure there is enough room in the bowl for the dough to double without making a mess out of your towel or bag! Let sit until doubled in size... about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Preheat your oven to 450 F. If you have a pizza stone, make sure it is heating with the oven. If you don't hava a pizza stone, use a cookie sheet or pizza pan. Just make sure that it is preheating in the oven; it is CRITICAL that the pan be very hot.

Gently punch down bread. Divide into eight even pieces. Roll out each piece as thinly as you can. The ones of mine that turned out best were about 1/2 centimetre thick, but as long as it is less than 1 1/2 inches you should be fine. Sorry for the mixed measurements!

Cover the rolled out breads with a towel until ready to cook.

To cook:
Pick up two (or however many you can fit on your pan) rolled out pitas and place them quickly and carefully side by side on the pan. Close the oven and watch through the window in delight as they start getting puffy and then suddenly balloon up in a strange football shape. This takes about a grand total of 3 minutes. Remove the swollen bread from the oven and let cool on a rack. Place the next two breads on the pan and put it back in the oven. As the cooked breads cool, they will deflate, forming a flat pocket bread. Sometimes they don't inflate properly, but even if that happens for whatever reason (for example, a spot stretched too thin, or a seam across the surface of the bread) they will still taste delicious. If breads are to be served shortly, wrap them in a clean towel to keep them warm and soft. If not, let cool entirely, then store in plastic bags in the freezer or refridgerator.