Video: Pita Bread Recipe - Flat Bread Recipe

Video: Pita Bread Recipe – Flat Bread Recipe

by admin on Thursday, January 14th, 2010 | 3 Comments

The following video and post shows a pita bread recipe, flat bread recipe. I know you are going to enjoy this. I know I did (and it made me really hungry).

Pita Bread is the Mediterranean carb. Pita bread is the bread eaten with nearly all Mediterranean dishes. You can roll it up, fry it, bake it, etc.

You can see the recipe being made in the following video:

Here is the simple ingredients list for the pita bread recipe, (flat bread recipe):

-3 cups Flour (I would use the whole wheat flour)
-1 cup Flour for kneading
-1 tsp Sugar (I would use the organic evaporated cane juice)
-1 – 1 1/2 tsp Salt
-1 tbsp Olive Oil (Use the extra virgin olive oil)
-1 packet (1/4 oz or 7 grams) Yeast
-1/2 cup of warm Water (for the yeast mixture)
-1 cup of warm water (for use later)

In its own little bowl, mix the sugar and the yeast together. Add the 1/2 cup of warm water.

Let these 3 ingredients sit for 10-15 minutes until the mixture becomes foamy.

The sugar activates the yeast, and starts the rising process.

In another, bigger bowl, place the 3 cups of flour. For the flour, I normally get the whole wheat flour from the store (HEB normally, they have the “King Arthur” brand).

To the flour, add the salt (1 – 1 1/2 tsp). Then you mix the flour and the salt together.

Make a little hole in the middle of the salt and flour mixture, a little “well”, and pour in the yeast, sugar, and water mixture. Then mix all this together.

While mixing the flour and yeast mixture, pour in another cup of warm water. This helps the mixing process.

If you have a “cooks mixer”, a mixer that stands alone, with a mixing hook, use this to save your arm, from the manual mixing process.

The mixture you just made should be a sticky, raw, stretchy consistency.

In another bowl, a little larger than the one used to mix the dough, pour the olive oil in.

Thoroughly coat the “dough-ball” with the olive oil so the “dough-ball” becomes coated and does not stick to the sides of the bowl.

When you are finished coating the “dough-ball”, cover the bowl with plastic-wrap and let this sit in a warm place for around 3 hours. (The dough gets activated and grows during this time).

After the 3 hours, sprinkle the 1 cup of flour onto a kneading board (or any clean flat surface). Place the dough ball onto the flour and knead for around 10 minutes (put some flour on your hands to keep the dough from sticking to you), until it’s elastic and not sticky any longer.

Fold the flour in, and then press it down, and repeat.

The kneading of the bread, generates gluten. Here is a description, I found on kneading and gluten from http://www.diggers.org/diggers/digbread.html:

KNEADING AND GLUTEN: This is what bread is all about. Yeast is not necessary for bread (macrobiotic and many other kinds of bread, especially Middle Eastern and Indian, do not contain yeast) but kneading, which causes gluten to develop, is. Gluten is a protein substance contained in the grain and released by milling and increased by kneading. It is elastic (same root as glue) and makes the fibers of dough able to stretch without breaking; these stretched fibers make little pockets to hold in bubbles of gas formed by the action of the yeast, and thus the bread rises. If yeast is not used, you still notice that kneading changes the character of the dough, makes it “breadlike” and not crumbly.

Some people are allergic to gluten. Here is a short excerpt from yahoo answers of why gluten is bad for you:

First, GLUTEN is a PROTEIN not a sugar (that’s glucose) that is found only in wheat, rye and barley. Normally, for a typical person, it is just fine and u eat it every day in bread, pizza, cereal, beer, soy sauce, etc.

BUT for the 1 in 133 (not 1 in 5000 those numbers are about 20 years to old!) people who have CELIAC DISEASE (aka Celiac Sprue, or in the UK–Coeliac Sprue) it is DEADLY!

Celiac Disease (CD) is NOT an allergy. It is an AUTOIMMUNE disease that, as I said..

Anyway, back on the recipe path.

When you are making a cake, you don’t want to stir it too much, or else it becomes too crispy. When you are making bread, a lot of kneading causes the bread to get a nice crisp crust.

Kneading the “dough-ball” for around 10 minutes. You’ll know you’re finished because the dough won’t be sticking to your hands.

After the kneading is done, take a plate, place flour at its bottom, then take little pieces of the dough-ball, and make 3 inch balls, then place them on the plate (around 12 should fit on the plate).

Let the balls on the plate sit for around 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Put the rack in the oven on the lowest level, next to the heat.

Take the little balls, and you are going to roll them out. When you roll them, they will become 4-5 inches in diameter and around 1/8 inch thick.

After they are rolled out, you can place 2 dough patties on a cookie sheet and place them in the oven.

Cook them for around 4 minutes on one side, then flip them over and cook for 2 more minutes. Watch that they don’t burn. They should be lightly brown, and slightly puffy.

Serve them hot, or don’t let them sit out too long, store them in a plastic bag.

If you want to freeze the pita bread, put in a plastic bag with wax paper between each layer. Thaw out at room temperature. Reference this link.

Serve the pita bread or flat bread with hummus, or your meals.

For some more great Mediterranean recipes and lifestyle to follow, I suggest you get this book, The MediterrAsian Way: A Cookbook and Guide to Health, Weight Loss, and Longevity

Enjoy!

Feel free to offer comments or questions on the below in the comments section.

Erik Loebl

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