Fresh From the Oven Challenge - Pitta Breads

We adore Pitta Bread in our household because it is so easy to make and so versatile.  You can eat it freshly baked and warm from the oven, fill it with salads and sandwich ingredients, make pitta chips to have with dips or own their own and pitta makes a fab pizza base for a quick lunch.  You can also eat pitta with soups, stews or curries as well.

Perfect for picnics or packed lunches, pitta bread freezes well so why not make extra to keep on hand.

Making pitta bread is SO easy and you’re likely to already have the ingredients in your store cupboard or pantry.  I used bread flours but normal flour works just as well.  Use all white flour or half and half wholemeal and white flour for a different flavour and a slightly healthier option.  Homemade pitta taste much better than the sometimes cardboard textured varieties available in shops.  You can flavour your pittas by adding seeds or herbs to the dough if you want.

Pitta Breads

260g white bread flour

155g wholemeal bread flour

1 sachet instant yeast, mine weighed 7g

1 Tblsp sugar

310ml - 350ml lukewarm water

2 Tblsp olive oil

Preheat your oven to 250C/230C Fan.  This is the hottest temperature my oven will reach.  Put an oven tray upside down or a pizza stone into the oven to heat up.  You'll need a very hot surface to bake your pittas on, they cook very quickly.

Mix all the ingredients together until a soft dough forms.  I added 300ml water then added more water a tablespoon at a time.  You want a soft but not sticky or wet dough.

I kneaded the dough in my stand mixer for 10 minutes but you could knead it by hand.  When I make them by hand I take turns kneading with my daughters and we knead the dough for about 15 minutes.

Put the kneaded dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap, and leave until doubled in size.  This took about an hour in our house yesterday (a fine and sunny Spring day in the UK) but in the winter it can take somewhat longer.

Once the dough has risen, knock it back then take pieces of dough and  roll them out to 3mm thick.  Try not to dry out the dough by using too much flour to roll it out otherwise you won't get a lovely puffed up pitta.

I cooked two at a time, for about 2 - 3 minutes until puffed up and lightly golden. You can see Paul Hollywood cooking pitta and get some more tips here.

I look forward to seeing loads of Pitta Bread blog posts linked up using the linky below.  You can link up old or new blog posts but please link back to this post and use the FFTO badge.  Once you've linked up please share the post with me on twitter (@utterlyscrummy) and I shall retweet all those that I see.  You can find the challenge rules and badge here.  Linky will close on 30th June 2013.