Pita Bread-Greek Style

There’s nothing better than making your own pita bread. It’s not too hard to make, just some waiting while the dough rises, and it’s very rewarding to eat hot off the press, oh, I meant pan 🙂 .

Pita can be used for just about anything. You can use it as a dippable into your favorite dips, such as tzatziki or hummus; a platform for various meats or cheeses, instead of using crackers, or to wrap things up…THAT is what it is best for!

One of my favorite things to use it for is souvlaki sandwiches, if you haven’t tried one then today is your day! Let’s start off with making your own pita.

You just need:

• 2 teaspoons of yeast
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• 5 1/2 ounces of room temperature milk (skim, 2%, whole, whatever you have)
• 2 1/2 ounces of water
• 12 ounces all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano (or 1 teaspoon of chopped fresh thyme, rosemary or oregano), optional

Steps:

1. Combine the yeast, sugar, olive oil, milk and water in a large mixing bowl and let sit for 5-10 minutes until the yeast has bloomed.
2. In the meantime, combine your flour, salt, pepper and dried or chopped herb(s) of choice.
3. Add the flour to the yeast mixture, in two batches, and stir with a dough whisk (I LOVE those Danish dough whisks) or a strong wooden spoon (or you can use an electric mixer with dough hook, but you really don’t need to dirty all that stuff) until well incorporated.
4. Transfer dough onto lightly floured clean surface and knead for about 5 minutes, until the dough feels smooth (you know, like they say, “smooth like a baby’s butt”). If you are using an electric mixer just mix for a few more minutes longer.
5. Add a little bit of olive oil to a bowl and slather it around. Then, set the dough in it (it will be a little sticky, that is okay), and turn to coat with the oil.
6. Cover with a towel and let it rise for about 45 minutes, until doubled.
7. When doubled, punch out the air from the dough, remove it onto a lightly oiled surface and cut the dough into 8 equal pieces (or 10 if you want your pitas to be smaller) and roll each piece into a ball and set aside.
8. Meanwhile, heat a cast iron skillet on medium. You can use any other type of pan but I find that cast iron is the best.
9. Take one of your dough pieces and roll it out into a 6 inch piece. If you want your pita thinner then roll it out to a bigger piece.
10. Once the skillet is hot, put the rolled out pita onto it to cook. Let it cook for 1-2 minutes, depending how thick it is. You will see bubbles forming on the top of the pita.
11. Once it looks cooked on one side, flip it and cook it for another 1 minute on the other side.
12. Take it out and put in a pan and cover it with foil until you cook the other pieces.
13. Take that pita and use it to eat something yummy! Like souvlaki with pita, or dipped in tzatziki, or to slather up the yummy juices from your briami or imam baldi! The possibilities are endless!!!

Kali Orexi!