Hey, guys welcome back to “Dede’s Mediterranean Kitchen.”
Today all I have to say is pita bread, pita bread, pita bread. All of you out there know what pita bread is, it is the Mediterranean Carb, it is the bread we eat it with everything. You can roll it out, you can fry it, you can bake it, you can do anything you want with it, it’s amazing, it’s bread, it’s really easy to make and I’m going to make it for you today. After all the hundreds of request I’ve received I’m finally making it for you. You can get this recipe and all of my other recipes at www.DedeMed.com join my social network. If you guys need any ingredients, go to my store page you can find them there, it’s really easy if you have any questions, email me let me know what’s up and I’ll make sure to answer you.
Now there’s only couple of ingredients for you to really make this flour, sugar, yeast, salt, olive oil and water I think that’s about it. So I’m going to show you how to put it together.
First things, first we have one teaspoon of sugar and I’m going to empty one packet of yeast, yeah, I know you would asked me “How much yeast is one packet” it’s a fourth ounce or seven grams of yeast. You can use quick rising, regular yeast whatever you want, whatever you find at the grocery store. Mix up the sugar and the yeast and to this we’re going to add a half cup of warm water.
And then were going to let it sit for about 10 to 15 minutes until it becomes all foamy. You’re going to see actually it get foamy it really kind of a funky. The sugar activates the yeast and gets it to start reacting and start rising. So give it a quick stir just like that and then just leave it alone.
Next we have our bowl and we have three cups of flour, I have plain white flour, not self rising or anything just regular plain flour. If you want to make this more healthy you can use, you can use about a cup of whole-wheat flour with two cups of white flour. And again if you want you can use none-bleached flour whatever you’d like. I’m going to add one and a half teaspoon of salt, we’re going to mix this up, just like that.
If you have a mixer or blender, you can use that, it has a dough attachment, like I don’t where to get that and it’s kind of expensive so I’m going to show you how to do this the economical way. We’re going to make and put it in a bowl, we’re going to make a little well in the middle and then we’re going wait for the yeast to activate.
Then, now you can see how the yeast has risen. That’s exactly what you want. Now what were going to do is we are going to put this in the middle of the well. Just pour it in like that and start slowly mixing it from the far. It’s better to use a wooden spoon because it makes it a lot easier, get all that yeast in there. And it’s not as sticky, we got to need one cup of warm water and were going to slowly pour some in and mix it a little bit more. Incorporate more of the flour each time you add more liquid.
It’s good elbow work, good exercise and the rest of the water. Slowly work it in until all the flour is incorporated. See just like that all the flour is incorporated, all the water is incorporated what were going to do next is we’re going to get a nice bowl, larger than the dough we need twice the size.
And were going to put some olive oil or vegetable oil on the bottom of it, I think we need a little bit more. And we’re going to coat the dough with the oil so that it rises, when you coat it with the oil the dough is allowed to rise, otherwise it will stick to the edges and it will not have the capacity to rise because it’s going to be stuck. So we will cover it just like that, flip the dough over it, as you can see it’s nicely coated. The sides of the bowl are coated cover this with saran wrap and a nice towel. And you want to store it in a nice warm place.
So I’m going to show you what it looks like after it rises and you can see here that I have my nice Michigan bowl, it’s one of the universities that I went to. I am from Michigan and very proud to be from there. So all of your Ohio State fans I’m sorry that you went to Ohio State.
The dough has risen just like that, what we’re going to do is we’re going to need it now. Take off all you’re jewelry because you don’t want the dough to stick into your jewelry we got a nicely flour on our board. You got to work in about half a cup of flour, so just like that, turn it out, flour your hands just like that and then pull off the edges. See how it easily pulls off the edges you can see the oil right there and roll it on there.
Were going to kneed this for about 10 minutes, just slowly like that until it’s elastic and not sticky any longer. So just fold it in, just get the edge, fold it in and press it down, fold it in and press it down, just like that. And you need flour the glue end, it’s released, so when you’re making a cake you don’t want to stir it to much because then it will get really crispy. But when you’re making bread you do want to kneed it so that you get a nice crust on the bread.
So just like that, great exercise for the arms, keep your hand flour so that it wont get too sticky so just like that, seen we work a lot of flour in, it’s kind of sticky. And now what were going to do is were going to form this into small balls and then were going to let it rise for another 10 minutes before we actually roll it out and cook it. So this are almost done, so you want to kneed it until you see the dough is no longer sticking to my hands that’s mean that you were done.
You got to get a plate and put some flour in the plate just like that and we have to form just little balls. Just like that and we put them in there, we’re going to cover it them. We’ve got our rolls here and let it rise for a 10 minutes I’m going to cook two at a time. Again the oven is preheated to 500 degrees. You want to put the rack on the lowest rack ensures you to the heat.
So were going to make sure your board is floured very well and preheating my pan as well that I’m going to baked them in, I have it in the oven right now, so soon as you either roll that one we got to puff them on there. And then cook it, now you’re going to cook this for about three, kind of about four minutes and then turning them over another two minutes. You want to roll this out, you got to have them about 4-5 inches in diameter and you want them about eight-inch thick. Just flour my rolling pin, were going to always to flour your rolling pin so that it doesn’t stick to it.
Just like that very lightly roll them out nice circles. Just like that, see you’re going to see it rolled and on the side let’s get another one going. Really easy to make, I’m going to flour my pan throw them on there and then we’re going to throw them in the oven. This is my nice wearing pan that I’ve put everything on as a flavor for everything about you think off. Just like that put it back in the oven let them go for four to five minutes flip them over for another two minutes keep your eye in them you don’t want them to burn. I’m going to keep rolling this out.
You can see that very nice and fluffy you want to puff this down in that and if you’re having people for dinner you’re going to serve it right away. If you’re going to store it, don’t let them sit out too long, you want to put them in a plastic bag so they do stay moist, I’m going to put this in, next just like that, I’m going to show you this.
Look at this, very hot, look at that they’re nice and moist all the smell is absolutely amazing. It’s a nice pocket in there let me see that, look at the steam coming out. This smells so good, you can try and get them brown and you leave them a couple of seconds more if you like them a little bit toasted. Serve this with ham or serve it with your meals. It’s great, it’s easy to make and you’re having people over for breakfast it’s nice to have, nice fresh pita bread for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Enjoy it, try it and join me again for Dede’s Mediterranean Kitchen.
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