Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Paul,

Last time I made the ones from Flatbreads and Flavors, and they were excellent, and easy. Whole-wheat arabic pita.

I love our breadmaker, but I still make sourdough almost every weekend. But the little 1 pound loaves the bread maker makes serve as sandwich bread for the week, and I can make all kinds of different things in it - wheat, 7 grain, white, "French", etc. very easily, on a timer, ready for breakfast of dinner. There is room for both in our house.

--Lisa

I’ll admit, fresh bread for breakfast might be enough of a reason on its own. That would be awesome.

Paul,

Here's a Greek pita recipe adapted from Vefa's Kitchen:

Greek Pita

2.5 cups bread flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1.5 tsp salt
3/4 cup warm water (more if required)
2 tsp yeast
2 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs Greek olive oil, plus lots more for cooking
1 heaping Tbs full-fat Greek yogurt

Mix the yeast and sugar into the warm water, and let the yeast proof.

Mix the two flours and the salt in a large mixing bowl. Make a well, and mix in the yeasty water, the yogurt and the olive oil. Beat together until it lumps up, then knead in the bowl until it forms a ball. Add water as needed; the dough should be fairly sticky (this is a high-hydration dough).

Once you can form a large ball, coat it in olive oil, cover, and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour, or until at least doubled in size.

Turn the dough out onto a large breadboard or mat, and divide into 8 equal portions. Form each portion into a ball (using the pinch method), and press flat.

Roll each ball out into a 6" to 8" circle with a French rolling pin; the dough should be around 1/4" thick. Dock the circles with a fork or docking wheel, and dust with corn flour on both sides. Set aside on baking trays, cover with plastic, and let rise for another 1/2 hour, until puffy.

Heat a pan or griddle to around 375F. Coat liberally with olive oil, and fry the breads around 3 minutes per side, until browned in spots and quite puffy.

If not eating immediately, bag the breads before they cool completely to keep them from drying out.

Based on a recipe from Vefa's Kitchen.

Especially if you like raisin bread. Imagine that, freshly baked and toasted with butter.

I'm definitely going to try that, Fuzzy, Thanks!

Linda, Paul, Lisa:

Yeah, one of the big benefits of the bread maker has been that the house smells amazing.

Made it tonight. Sorry for the messy picture it was quite good, and will definitely make again. The only catch at all was that I had to add a lot of water; as written it is about 50% so I am surprised. An “assistant” measured the flour, so they might have really overdone that. The flavour was very nice, and it worked great on the griddle.

A lot? That's odd ... I suspect some assistant mismeasurement.

I've had to add more, but like 1/4 cup.

Josh - I am going to give your pita recipe a try. I have been making little 4" sourdough pitas for lunch on the weeks I don't make bread, but I like t he addition of yogurt here. Sounds nice and rich!

--Lisa