Who doesn’t like a fresh pita, straight from the oven? If you don’t, it’s because you’ve been eating thin, inadequate North-American ones, not the fluffy Middle-Eastern ones. Chad got this recipe from Aba Gil, who now has a gluten-free, vegan deli in Tel Aviv. Before his gluten-free phase, Aba Gil had a wonderful organic humusserie, which we used to frequent when we lived in Israel. And he taught (and still teaches) great workshops. Chad attended one of those and kept the recipe for posterity; today we made some of these and ate them with fragrant ful, jalapeno“cheese”, and vegetables.
Anyway, here goes:
Mix and knead a bit:
500g flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 packet active yeast
350cc water (about 12oz)
These will create a firm dough – for those of you used to baking non-pita bread in a pan, the dough will be firmer than your remember. You should exercise some judgment with the water; you might not need all of it. Place dough in a bowl, cover with a towel, and leave somewhere warm for an hour (we used our old oven, with the pilot light on.)
After an hour, break the dough, which should be pretty gargantuan by now, into six balls of aproximately 4-5 inch diameters, and give them a bit of a mushroom cap shape. The original recipe calls for letting those sit for an additional 40 mins, but our meticulous experiments prove you can wait only 10 mins or so and that’s enough.
When ready to make, roll the balls into 8-9 diameter flat discs, approximately 1cm (2/5 inch) thick.
Heat a dry frying pan to a very, very, very hot temperature! Place the pita on the pan and wait for it to balloon up (that’s the pocket, you see). Flip so that both sides are heated evenly. When ready, take out of pan and enjoy warm and fresh.
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