One woman's foray into cooking for herself, for her family, and for her friends. It's not always picture-perfect, sometimes a little messy,
but it's always delicious. Join me in exploring new recipes, savoring the "résultats" and learning from the "erreurs".



Friday, January 29, 2010

Saturday Blog Showcase - Homemade Pita

It's time for our 4th Saturday Blog Showcase.  Ann (Thibeault's Table) and I are hosting the event.  Please find Mr. Linky at the end of my post to sign up.  We look forward to everyone's participation and can't wait to see everyone's creations and introductions to different blogs!

This week I made pita from Kosher Camembert, a lovely blog with photos and essays of Zahavah's travels.  Her pita bread recipe was so easy to follow.  The one diversion I did take from the recipe was that I did separate the dough into 10 pieces and rolled each individually into 6-inch discs of dough to form the pita.  Zahavah rolled the dough and cut out 6-inch circles.  I will have to try that sometime to see if my results are any different.  I was very happy with the way my pita puffed!  They're wonderful. Another great recipe to add to my ever growing repertoire!  Thank you to Kosher Camembert!!

Pita

Adapted from Janna Gur’s The Book of New Israeli Food and Joan Nathan’s The Food of Israel Today.
These pitot are the closest I have found to the ones you get in Israel, fluffy and perfect with hummus, for mopping up leftover salad dressing, or filled with chocolate spread. The trick to forming the pockets is baking in a very hot oven on a baking stone (or, if my case, on hot cookie sheets) and refraining from opening the oven during baking.
Makes 8-10 pitot.

- 2 1/4 t yeast
- 1 1/2 C warm water
- 1 T sugar
- 4 C flour (I used all-purpose)
- 1-2 T olive oil
- 1 t salt

Make the dough. Dissolve yeast in 1 C of the warm water with sugar. Allow to bubble up (takes ~ 10 minutes). Add to flour, olive oil, and salt in bowl of mixer. Knead with dough hook for 10 minutes. Add additional water, tablespoon by tablespoon, until dough forms a slightly sticky ball.

First rising. Pour a little olive oil into a large bowl. Roll the ball of dough in the oil until coated. Cover the bowl with a damp kitchen towel and let dough rise until doubled (1.5 – 2 hours). I punch the dough down a few times during the rising.

Shape bread. Most recipes call for you to split the dough into 8-10 portions to roll out individually. But I prefer to easier method of rolling out all the dough and using a bowl to cut out 5-6 inch rounds. You can bake the scraps or re-roll them (this time I rolled the scraps into 3 individual pitot with not-so-round results).

Second rising and preheat oven. Allow the pitot to rise a second time for ~10 minutes. I do this on top of the oven as it preheats to 500º F. Heat cookie trays in the oven while preheating.



Bake. Pull a hot cookie tray out of the oven and quickly transfer half of the pitot onto it and return to the oven. Bake until all pitot have puffed to form pockets, 3-6 minutes. Repeat with remaining pitot.

Store. Pitot go stale pretty quickly, so the best way to store them is in in a bag in the freezer. You can reheat them for 20 seconds in the microwave after spritzing with a little water.




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To participate in Saturday Blog Showcase, remember:

   1. Make a recipe from another blog on any day of the week. Create a link to that blog in your post.

   2. Add the Saturday Blog Showcase logo to your post.

   3. On Friday night or Saturday, link your post to Mr. Linky.

21 comments:

La Table De Nana said...

Gosh Lori..I will try these..everyone will be tempted,,My little post is ready for you..but I just did the book review..is it ok if it's Sunday? Or tomorrow afternoon?

Lori (All That Splatters) said...

Of course, Monique!! When you have time! I'll be posting my book review tomorrow. :D

Mari @ Once Upon a Plate said...

They are beautiful Lori! There is nothing like homemade pita, I love them. Yours look soo good~ they puffed perfectly.

Thank you for hosting us this week! xoxo

the country cook said...

This is so neat! I can't wait to try it.
Kristin (delightfulcountrycookin)

kanishk said...

Thank you

Work from home India

Zurin said...

LOVE pita!!! those look gorgeous!

Kathy said...

Your pita looks delicious Lori, I love it with hummus. I am off to visit everyone else now. I joined in this week as I made Tyler's (young Bandwidth) Ultimate sandwich and it was to delicious not to share, happy weekend, Kathy.

Rettabug said...

They look so puffy light & FRESH! It makes me want to go get some red pepper hummus to go with them right now! :D

Rettabug said...

Excuse my lack of manners.....thank you for hosting this weeks Sat. Blog Showcase. I didn't make anything complicated but I thought about my post all week long. :D

Wendy said...

What a great party idea! I am excited to see what everyone makes! Thanks for your sweet comment!

susan said...

Lori-This is such a good idea for a blog party! Not only do we get a second chance to see recipes we missed, we get a 2nd perspective! I'll be back to play. I normally shy away from yeast, but these look tempting!

Lori (All That Splatters) said...

Susan, we all look forward to your participation! It's fun! :D

My Slice of Heaven said...

Laura, Thanks for stopping by and commenting on my crab cake post. I just love the idea of your Saturday Blog Showcase. I will revisit when I have something good to share, hopefully soon...

Deana Sidney said...

I made these once and they did not turn out nearly as well... will try your recipe now, since yours are perfect!

dana said...

I've never had a homemade pita, I imagine they are far better than what I buy.

Pam said...

Lori, these look absolutely perfect! Nicely done.
Thanks for hosting!
Pam

Bargain Decorating with Laurie said...

They look so professional. If they taste as good as they look, they are wonderful. laurie

Linda said...

Lori they came out so beautifully...
first bagels , now Pitot...you taught this Jewish girl how to make the worlds best Matzo Balls!
You are my super soul sistah!
I am under the weather this week( and so has my computer been suffering from a mega-virus) so I will not be participating in anything I am afraid...
Next time...I will be here...

I will be giving this recipe a whirl...I have never seen a pita recipe where the dough is rolled out and it is cut....that sounds so interesting.
L~xo

Lori (All That Splatters) said...

Linda, hope you're feeling better soon! We'll see you in the next edition of SBS! Get healthy, girl -

2 Stews said...

Lori, making pita bread is just one of those things I din't htink about. Thanks for the recipe. I can't wait to try it out on the family! Your's look wonderful!

Also tahnks for hosting SBS.

Diane

Thibeault's Table said...

Lori, I keep coming back to look at your pita bread. Look how they puffed up. Just perfect.

Thanks for hosting SBS this week.

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