Pita Bread Recipe

Pita Bread
Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups warm water (not hot)
  
• 1 tablespoon dry yeast
• 2 tablespoon sugar
• 3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons sea salt
• additional flour for dusting table and bowl
  

• Prep time: 20 minutes
• Resting time: 1 hour
• Rising time: 30 minutes
• Baking time: 5 minutes
• Makes 10 pitas

Before telling children you will be making Pita Bread, gather all your ingredients.
Have quick snacks and one meal ready to go.Prepare for crafting (I recommend Turkey Hands)
and possibly reading or a movie to watch while you wait for dough to rise and rest.

Send any and all small children helpers to bathroom for hand washing.
Spend five minutes drying floor in bathroom.
Re-wash all small hands in kitchen because they were playing with their pretty blond curls,
or petting cats on way back to kitchen.

Mix water,yeast,sugar, and flour at low speed in a stand mixer
with a dough hook for 5 minutes, add the salt, mix at medium speed for 10 minutes.
Place dough in floured bowl and cover with damp towel or plastic wrap.
(you may want to have a little extra bit of dough the child (ren) can play with.
Let rest 1 hour.
If you are doing this with a child..have another snack ready to go
or a craft so they can wait it out without driving you nuts.

Transfer the dough to floured work surface and flatten out with palm
of your hand to remove air pockets.
Divide into ten even pieces and roll into a ball.
Let rise there for 30 minutes. Have another snack ready to go. ;-)
You will be hungry smelling the bread dough..we were.
Place a pizza stone or unglazed ceramic tile in the bottom of the oven
and preheat to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

Using a rolling pin, roll each ball into a 5-6 inch circle, 1/8 inch thick.
Using a pizza paddle, lace the pitas on the pizza stone or tile (in 2 batches if needed)
and bake for 5 minutes or until puffed with light brown spots on top.
Remove from oven and let cool on wire rack.

You are supposed to be able to freeze these for up to 2 weeks, defrosting at
room temp and re-heating in a hot oven if desired. We ate all of ours within a
day and a half. They were that good!

I hope you all enjoy these as much as my family did.
As much as it takes longer and is messier, it is always worth
the extra effort to have my Princess in the kitchen with me
when I cook.She is quite good at working dough now.
If you need your batch to come out "perfect", have a batch of your own
and one for the kid (s). These were wonderful not only alone, or with a bit of olive oil, but
stuffed with sandwich fixings, and with eggs and cheese the next day for breakfast!