Peppy's Pita.....

Rising for the second time before you put them in the oven

We made an attempt at making pita.  It was pretty good but not all puffed up as they should have...but they still tasted great. The recipe says to use a bread machine and I'm sure that makes it easy but we didn't do that. We just mixed the dough in a Kitchen Aid mixer and then my dad kneaded it by hand a bit.  We let it rise and then followed the rest of the directions.  It tastes great, but I don't know why they all didn't puff up.  It still tasted good with the hummus we made last night.

Here's a recipe that I got from another couple who used to live in Nazareth while we were in B-town. 

In the oven....some of them puffed up. All of them still had the pocket when we pulled them out. 

Ingredients

• 1 1/8 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Directions

1. Place all ingredients in bread pan of your bread machine, select Dough setting and start. When dough has risen long enough, machine will beep.
2. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Gently roll and stretch dough into a 12 inch rope. With a sharp knife, divide dough into 8 pieces. Roll each into a smooth ball. With a rolling pin, roll each ball into a 6 to 7 inch circle. Set aside on a lightly floured countertop. cover with a towel. Let pitas rise about 30 minutes until slightly puffy.
3. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F (260 degrees C). Place 2 or 3 pitas on a wire cake rack. Place cake rack directly on oven rack. Bake pitas 4 to 5 minutes until puffed and tops begin to brown. Remove from oven and immediately place pitas in a sealed brown paper bag or cover them with a damp kitchen towel until soft. Once pitas a softened, either cut in half or split top edge for half or whole pitas. They can be stored in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for several days or in the freezer for 1 or 2 months.