Doesn’t the sun just make life so much better?? I was in such a great mood yesterday, even though I sat in traffic for an hour and a half. I live about 5 miles from school, but I do get on one highway, which happened to have an over turned tractor trailer on it. I was parked 2x for 15 minutes each and then crawled the rest of the time. It is so frustrating not being able to do anything about it. I did read some blogs on my BB while I was in the car (when I was parked, NOT driving!) to keep me entertained.
Sunday night when we got home Danny wanted some type of bread that would be quick. I decided to make pita bread, which I made one time before, but never posted.
In a ball, ready to rise…
This really doubled in size!
Sorry for the bad pic, it was dark out at this point and I had to use the dreaded flash!
These pitas are perfect for a sandwich or to dip in some hummus or soup. They are pretty light and airy and bake quick!
WHOLE WHEAT PITA BREAD:
recipe adapted from here.
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup spelt flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 tsp granulated sugar (I used turbinado)
1 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/4 cups warm water (about 90 F)
2 tablespoons olive oil
PITA BREAD:
Combine 1/4 cup water, sugar, and yeast in a large bowl and stir with a rubber spatula. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.
Combine 1/4 cup water, sugar, and yeast in a large bowl and stir with a rubber spatula. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.
Add the flour, salt, remaining water and olive oil and stir with a wooden spoon. After you mix it, take it out onto a flour surface and knead until smooth and elastic by hand. If the dough is too sticky, add some more flour. If it is dry, add a little water.
Grease a large bowl with olive oil and shape the dough into a ball. Put the ball of dough in the bowl and coat it with the olive oil. (I just used olive oil spray.) Cover the bowl with a damp towel and set aside to rise for about 90 minutes, or until doubled in size.
After the dough has risen, fold it over on itself a few times, then cut into 8 pieces. Let them rise again for 20 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 400 F with a baking stone inside, if you have one.
One or two at a time, roll the pieces out to about 1/8″ thickness, using a rolling pin, then put them directly on the pizza stone or oven rack. Bake for 2-4 minutes, until they puff up.
Hope you are having another sunny day! Does the sun put you in a better mood? Oh and I am thinking of getting a new camera, any suggestions/recommendations?
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
wow another favorite bread, love to make pizza pita's this bread would make it perfect! great job!!!!
I love that you make so much of your own breads and share the recipes with us – bread is sometihng I always struggle with making – and am very picky about because I want a relatively healthy one! These look like they turned out great, and the ingredients look perfect, too
I'd say when it comes to food photography, if you've got a good lens, the body almost doesn't matter. Point? I still use my old Nikon d40 for my food photos even though I have a D90, but with a nikkor 50mm f/1.8 lens. Sometimes I wish I had a more macro setting, but the fast aperture really makes a world of difference.
And yes – the sun most certainly puts me in a better mood!
And feel free to ask me any camera questions you may have
The Nikon d5000 is a good starter SLR (not sure how experienced you are with cameras?) as well. It's got auto settings, but manual as well, and very user friendly no matter your experience.
Yes, the sun makes everything better! It was really great to see it shining all day long on Monday!
I'm so impressed with your pita making skills. I've never made my own pita.
WOW wonderful pita bread, I love it! It's fantastic with whole wheat flour. Bye
so glad these turned out so beautifully for you! they look delicious!
that bread looks delish!! Not looking forward to it when I get a job in a city next year! eek!
The sun definitely makes me happy! And so do these pitas! I'll have to give them a try.
Good-looking pita. It usually takes a few before we get it right, so I'm impressed with your excellent output. Pita is a great project with the kids because they love watching the bread puff up magically, and using whole wheat would make it healthy AND fun.
wow that pita looks great…now I'm craving hummus.
Good point above about making it with kids…I bet my girls would love doing this.
My mom use to make pita bread for us when I was little! It was sooo good!
The sun makes all the difference in a day! Especially after this winter
The sun makes everything better. Once it starts to be lighter longer, my mood is instantly better!
I love my canon rebel xsi.
Homemade pita bread is the best. I love watching it puff in the oven:)
sun and mood…oh lord yes. it's been gloomy and awful for weeks here in "sunny AZ" and I want the sun back, asap!!
I've recently gotten into baking and pita bread is on my list! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
This recipe looks great! I'll save it! I've been looking for some good pita bread, and definitely prefer to make my own.
We recently made our own pita bread for the first time too and I was surprised how easy it was. Only problem – they didn't keep very well and were very hard the next day
Is it 12 1/4 teaspoons of yeast?