Pita On Call,,,, Half Recipe

Total Time: 28 mins Preparation Time: 25 mins Cook Time: 3 mins

Ingredients

• 1 cup blood temperature water
• 1 packet fast rising yeast (don't double this for the full recipe)
• 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 tablespoon salt (or salt substitute for me)
• 2 1/2-3 cups whole wheat flour (or half and half with bread flour)

Recipe

• 1 mix the water, the yeast, and one half the flour for about 2 minutes, i used my mixer with the dough hooks, and let it stand for at least ten minutes, or until the sponge gets bubbly maybe as much as half an hour.
• 2 fire up the mixer again, add the oil and salt, and then the rest of the flour half a cup at a time until the dough starts pulling cleanly away from the sides of the bowl.
• 3 the amount of the flour will depend on the humidity and things like that.
• 4 let the mixer run on for another five, six minutes or so, then the real*fun* begins.
• 5 turn the dough out on a lightly floured board, if you have wondra flour use that, and give it the*business*.
• 6 push away with the heels of your hands, fold over, give it a quarter turn and repete, keep this up as the days frustrations disappear in the warmth and sensuous feeling of well worked dough.
• 7 gawds, but i love making bread.
• 8 oil the dough lightly and put it in a covered bowl someplace warm till it doubles or better in volume.
• 9 turn it out on the board again, punch down and knead lightly.
• 10 now, put it in a storage bag at least 3 times the volume of the dough, suck most of the air out and put it in the fridge.
• 11 now you have the ready-to-use pita.
• 12 to bake, pinch off a chunk about the size of a small lemon, let it warm up and then stretch it out to about say nine inches or so.
• 13 leave it on the board it will begin to rise slightly.
• 14 there are two ways to bake the pitas.
• 15 if you want to heat up the oven, crank it up to 450, if you have a chunk of quarry tile in there use it, or use an overturned baking sheet.
• 16 lay thepita dough gently and let it bake until it balloons up, three minutes max.
• 17 if it doesn't the tile wasn't sufficiently heated up it'll still be edible but not so nice.
• 18 or.
• 19 on the stovetop get a large skillet, cast iron is best, over fairly high heat.
• 20 when it's barely smoking, grease it very lightly, use a paper towel with a bit of oil, then put the pita down gently.
• 21 in about twenty seconds, turn it over.
• 22 cook about a minute till the bubbles begin to form, then turn it over again until it balloons fully.
• 23 the total cooking time should be no more than three minutes or so and you've got your fresh pita.
• 24 the dough should keep in the fridge for up to a week, just use as desired.