Ingredients:
2-1/2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup lukewarm water (or use whey)
1 teaspoon yeast
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
Equipment for rolling & cooking pitas:
Knife or bench scraper
Rolling pin
Large skillet, cast iron is best
Method:
- Pour 1 cup of lukewarm water in a large bowl and sprinkle yeast on it. Wait 5 minutes until yeast starts to bubble. (If it doesn’t bubble try adding a pinch of sugar.. and if still nothing, your yeast might be dead)
- Add olive oil, salt and 2.5 cups of flour. Mix the dough.
- Throw some flour on your counter, take the dough and knead it. Add flour is it sticks to your hands. Knead 10 minutes until the dough is smooth
- Oil the bowl. Roll the dough in the oil. Cover bowl with plastic and put it in a warm spot. Let it rise until doubled in size.
- Punch it down and store in a plastic ziplock bag in the fridge for up to a week.
- When you’re ready to cook it: Use a bench scraper to portion your dough into 8 equal pieces. Best way to do this is portion in half, then each half into halves, then each piece into halves. You will have 8 pieces of dough.
- Heat your cast iron skillet on high for 5 minutes.
- Roll out one of your dough pieces into 1/4“ amoeba shapes.
- Add a very small amount of oil in your hot pan and place your first pita in the hot pan. Watch it. Small bubbles will begin to appear under the top, like when you’re cooking pancakes. When the top has bubbles and the edges become firm, flip it to cook the other side. Cook until both sides have some brown spots.
- Repeat with as many pieces of dough as you wish to make. Pita is best eaten the day it’s made, so if you don’t need all 8 pitas, put the rest of the dough back in plastic and in the fridge. You can store it in the fridge for about one week. It also freezes well.
- Pita is great served warm.