Rosie Makes Pita Bread, Tabbouleh, And Tzatziki.

Rosie is traveling the Mediterranean route today.

With pita bread.

And tabbouleh.

And tzatziki!

Pita bread has been a staple in the Middle East and the Mediterranean

for 4000 or so years.

It is thought to have originated with nomadic tribes -

the Bedouins and/or the Amorites.

Pita's prominence spread 

as the tribes traveled across 

the Saharan and Arabian deserts,

exchanging goods and services.

It's a fairly simple bread with limitless possibilities.

Pitas can be appreciated through all the different

foods which can be wrapped by, or stuffed into, or dipped by, the pita.

The beauty here is that pita is both a bread and a utensil.

Basically, pita bread is a leavened flatbread with a pocket,

the pocket being formed by steam trapped during baking.

Now, let's make some pita bread.

For baking, you're going to need a hot oven -

500° will do.

And you'll need a baking stone 

which needs to be heated for a full hour

before you start baking the pitas.

Recipe is adapted from Milk Street Magazine.

Pita Bread
neutral oil (I used Bertolli's extra light olive oil.)
175 grams (1 1/4 cups) bread flour, plus extra for dusting
175 grams (1 1/4 cups) whole wheat flour
1 package yeast
2 tsp sugar
3/4 cup warm water
1/4 cup plain whole milk yogurt
2 1/2 tsp kosher salt


Coat a medium bowl with  oil.
In a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook,
mix flours, yeast, and sugar on low
until well combined, about 5 seconds.
Add water, yogurt, and 2 tablespoons oil.
Process until a smooth ball forms, about 3 minutes.
Poke the dough - it should be slightly sticky.
If not, add a little water, a teaspoon at a time
(2 TB max),
mixing after each addition, until sticky.
Let dough rest for 5 minutes.
Add salt and process at low speed about 10 minutes,
until soft and pliable.
Form dough into a ball and transfer to oiled bowl,
turning ball to coat with oil.
Cover with plastic and let rise in a warm place.
About 1 1/2 hours.

Heat oven with baking stone to 500°.

Dust a baking sheet evenly with bread flour.
Transfer dough to lightly floured surface.
Divide dough into 10 pieces and roll into tight balls.
Place on prepared baking sheet.
Brush each ball with oil and cover.
Let rise in warm area until almost doubled,
 about 60 minutes.


Lightly flour a work surface
and roll each ball into a round about 1/8 inch thick
with a 5 1/2-inch diameter.
Places rounds on lightly floured baking sheets.
Cover and let rest about 15 minutes.

Working quickly,
open oven door and slide 2 rounds at a time
onto the baking stone.
Bake until the pitas have puffed and are a light golden brown,
about 3-4 minutes.
Remove from oven and place on rack, covering.
Repeat with remaining dough rounds.

Now for the step-by-steps:

Here's my dough, oiled, and ready to rise.

And here's my risen dough.

Turn dough out onto lightly floured board

and knead a bit.

Cut into 10 equal pieces.

Form into balls and lightly oil each round.

Cover and let rest a bit.

Roll out into rounds.

I used a lightly floured pizza paddle to 

slide the rounds, two at a time,

onto the hot baking stone.

Oooooh.

Puffy pitas!

Now that you have pita bread,

I have two excellent dips for your gustatory pleasure -
tabbouleh and tzatziki.

Both are bursting with fresh summer flavors -

cucumbers and tomatoes,

and the bright accents of green herbs -

mint, parsley, and dill.

Tabbouleh

1/2 cup bulgur wheat

2 garlic cloves

juice of 2 lemons (1/4 cup lemon juice)

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 English cucumber, diced

2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded, juiced, and diced

2 scallions, sliced

 1 cup chopped parsley

1/3 cup chopped mint

kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Put bulgur wheat in medium bowl,

pour boiling water over to cover,

cover bowl,

and let sit for at least an hour.

Bulgur will soak up most of the water.

Drain off remaining liquid.

You'll end up with about 2 cups of bulgur.

Combine minced garlic and lemon juice

 and whisk oil into mixture.

Combine prepared bulgur wheat,  

 cucumber, tomato, scallions, parsley, and mint.

Pour lemon juice and oil mixture over

and toss to combine.

Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Rosie Note:  These amounts are not etched in stone.

If you want more tomato or cucumber, go for it.

Same with mint and parsley.

If you'd like to add in some chopped red onion,

I would not be averse to that.

And if you didn't make you own pita bread,

these dips are perfect with tortilla chips.

Tzatziki

1/4 cup whole milk Greek yogurt

1/2 tsp minced garlic

2 tsp lemon juice

1 inch length English cucumber, diced

1 TB fresh dill, chopped

kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Mix all ingredients to combine.

Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes

for the flavors to meld.

Enjoy!

Rosie Makes Pita Bread.

Rosie and Middle Hawthorne collaborated on this dish.

I asked him what he wanted.

And he told me.

Chicken shawarma with tsatsiki sauce and pita bread.

I've already made the tzatziki sauce.

Now I'm making the pita bread.

I'm following Rose Levy Beranbaum's

pita bread recipe from her book ...

...  The Bread Bible.

Pita Bread
3 cups plus a scant 1/4 AP flour
2 tsp salt
2 tsp yeast
2 TB olive oil
1 1/4 cups water at room temperature

Note:  Beranbaum specifies using only
Gold Medal, King Arthur, or Pillsbury flours.

I used what I had,
which was the Food Lion brand.
Flour makes a difference,
I'm convinced.
I've found it to be true when making biscotti
and it's true in bread-making.
Texture and rise are both different.

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except 1/4 cup flour.
Mix until all flour is moistened,
Knead dough in the bowl until it comes together.
Sprinkle some of the reserved flour on work surface
and knead dough for 5 minutes,
using as little of the reserved flour as possible.
Use a bench scraper to gather the dough together
as you knead it.
Dough will be very sticky.
Cover with the inverted bowl
and let it rest for 10-20 minutes.
The rest makes the dough not as sticky
and easier to work with.
Knead the dough for another 5-10 minutes.
The dough is supposed to weigh about 27.75 ounces.

Let the dough rise.
Scrape into a large, lightly greased bowl.
Press dough down and oil top of it.
Cover with plastic wrap.
Mark on the bowl at approximately where
double the height of the dough would be.

Refrigerate the dough overnight
(or up to 3 days),
checking every hour for the first 4 hours
and pressing it down if it starts to rise.

One hour before you're ready to bake,
heat the oven to 475°.
Have oven shelf at lowest level
and place a baking stone or cast iron skillet
on it before heating.

Shape the dough.
Cut dough into 8 or 12 pieces.
Work with one piece at a time,
keeping the rest covered with a damp cloth.
On a lightly floured surface,
shape each piece into a ball
and flatten it into a disk.
Cover the dough with oiled plastic
and allow to rest for 20 minutes at room temperature.
Roll each piece into a circle
slightly short of 1/4 inch thick.
Allow to rest, uncovered, for 10 minutes.

Place one piece of dough directly
on the hot stone or skillet
and bake for 3 minutes.
The pita should be completely puffed,
but not starting to brown.
The dough will not puff well
if it's not moist enough.
See how they puff
and, if necessary, spritz with water,
knead, allow to rest, and re-roll.

To cook pitas on the stove top,

heat griddle or cast iron skillet

over medium-high heat.

Lightly grease the surface

 and cook pitas one at a time.

Cook for about 20 seconds,

then turn dough and cook for 1 minute

or until big bubbles appear.

Turn the dough again and cook until the dough balloons.

Entire process for each pita should be about 3 minutes.

Mix all ingredients together.

Knead 5 minutes.

Let rest 20 minutes.

I'm pretty close -  27.8 ounces.

Dough has doubled.

I didn't really follow the directions here.

I did press the dough down for the first few hours,

but I didn't let it sit in the fridge overnight.

I jumped the gun

and cooked the pita after about only 6 hours.

Next time,

I'll use a proper flour and let it take its time overnight.

Roll into balls.

Press into disks

and cover with oiled plastic.

Let rest, then roll into circles about 1/4 inch thick.

 The first batch I cooked

on a baking stone in the oven.

The next batch I cooked in an iron skillet.

Ooooh.  Lookie!

It's puffy!

Oven-baked on left.

Skillet on right.

Tomorrow, I'll make the chicken shawarma.

Until then.

Rosie Makes Pita Bread To Go With Her Hummus.

Yesterday, Rosie made tahini paste and hummus.

 

 Today, she's making pita bread for dipping.

And let me tell you,

I had to hide the hummus from Boy

so I'd have some left to shoot the pics with.

This was made more difficult 

by the fact that the dough needed

to sit overnight in the fridge.

This slow rise gives the bread more flavor.

 I recently got another freebie from Amazon -

Ruth Levy Berenbaum's The Bread Bible.

I'll be using her recipe for the pita bread.

Before I get around to making the pita,

I have another little story for you.

Remember recently when I had asked Mr. Hawthorne

what he'd like me to make from  

Mrs. Chiang's Szechwan Cookbook?

And he returned the book with his 

selected recipes dog-eared?!!?

If you recall, Rosie was not happy.

Well ...

Mr. Hawthorne was having this lobster tail

for lunch while I had my brand new cookbook open on the counter.

 And yes, the man splashed butter all over my book.

You know, Sandra Lee bugged me enough

when she tore pages out of books and charred the edges

and used them in one of her ghastly tablescapes in a public park.

but now it's getting personal.

These are MY books the man is defacing.

HE.MUST.BE.STOPPED.

Take deep breaths, Rosie.

Here's a bag to breathe in just in case.

OK.

I'm better now.

Let's make pita bread.

Pita Bread

3 cups flour plus a scant 1/4 cup

2 tsp salt

1 packet yeast

2 TB olive oil (I used ELBOO - Extra Light Bertolli Olive Oil.)

1 1/4 cups water

I used the hand method.

Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water.  I added about 1 tsp sugar to give the yeast a final meal.  

Wait about 10 minutes for the yeast to proof.  That means it gets all foamy and bubbly and on a sugar high so you know it's active.  It's "proved" it's alive.

Mix all ingredients, reserving the 1/4 cup of flour.

Knead in the bowl until it all comes together.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface using some of the reserved 1/4 cup flour.

I used a pastry scraper to help scrape the dough together as I kneaded it.  

At this point, it's a very sticky dough.

Use the reserved flour sparingly.

Knead for 5 minutes.  Set a timer because 5 minutes is longer than you think.

Cover with inverted bowl and allow to reset for 20 minutes.

This rest will make the dough less sticky and easier to work with.

Knead the dough for another 10 minutes.  

Oil a bowl and dough, cover dough with plastic wrap, and let it rise.  

Refrigerate the dough overnight, checking every hour for the first four hours and pressing it down when it starts to rise.

The next day,  Heat oven to 475 degrees one hour before baking.  Have an oven rack at the lowest level and place a baking stone or cast iron skillet on the rack.

Shape the dough.  I cut the dough into 16 pieces. Working with one piece at a time, keeping the rest covered with a damp cloth, I shaped each piece into a ball and then flattened it into a disk.  Cover disks with oiled plastic and allow to rest 20 minutes.

Roll each disk into circles a little under 1/4 inch thick.  Allow to rest, uncovered for 10 minutes before baking.

Bake the pita.  Place one piece of dough directly on the stone or in the skillet.  Bake for 3 minutes.  The pita should be completely puffed but not beginning to brown.  It will not puff well if it is not moist enough.  See how the first dough puffs and, if necessary, spritz the circles with water before placing on stone.  Bake three or four at a time.

Now for the step by steps:

Sprinkle yeast into water.

I add a little water to the packet to get every bit of yeast out.

Sprinkle a little sugar over top

and watch the yeast wrestle its dinner to the bottom of the bowl.

When the yeast has a full belly ...

...  add in flour 1 cup at a time,

stirring it in with a fork.

Add in olive oil.

This is what it looks like after 2 cups of flour.

Add in salt.

Add in third cup of flour.

 Lightly flour your board.

Turn shaggy mess onto the board.

Knead for five minutes.

Cover with a bowl and let rest for 20 minutes.

Knead another 10 minutes.

Press into oiled bowl.

Cover with plastic.

Place in refrigerator overnight.

After first hour.

Every hour for the first four hours, press down dough.

Notice I put a piece of tape on the bowl,

so I'll know how much the dough rises.

The next day.

Risen and ready to shape.

Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface.

The dough is very elastic and pliable.

I divided the dough into 16 pieces.

 

Working with one piece at a time

and keeping the dough covered with a damp towel,

roll each piece into a ball and flatten into a disk.

Keep the disks covered with oiled plastic wrap.

Let disks rest for 20 minutes.

Roll dough into a circle a little under 1/4 inch thick.

I gave my disks a spritz of water
before placing them on my baking stone.

Pay attention to the spray bottle you use.

I used a little corn meal on my paddle
and dropped the rounds onto my baking stone.

Poofy.

This is some good bread.

Next, I cut some of the pitas into triangles.

I'm going to season them with cumin,
cayenne pepper, and epazote.

I have seen epazote in its fresh, leafy form
at one of our cooking classes at the NC Aquarium.
It is unique.
Smelled like turpentine to me.

I saw the dried epazote when I was at a
 Penzey's store in Raleigh.
Intrigued, I picked it up.
Never used it before.
Can't describe the flavor,
but it's not turpentine.

I put half a stick of butter on my baking pan
and put it in the oven while it was heating to 300.
When the butter melted ...

... I added in about this much of each spice.

Spread spices evenly in butter
and coat both sides of pita triangles in mixture.
Drizzle a little olive oil over top.
Bake until lightly browned and crisp.

Serve with hummus.

 

Success.