i have made bread for the first time.
bread.
i made bread.
it’s an intimidating thing, considering
that the baked goods i’ve baked before
have never involved long rising processes…
and yeast.
O___________________O
yeast! gosh i’m so scared of it now.
it made my dough grow and grow and grow
into a dough monster, raging and wreaking havoc
over kitchenland.
all the kitchen utensils quivered in their…
what, boots? i would normally say boots, but kitchen utensils
do not wear boots. except in our kitchen.
they look like Uggs. not a fan.
(source)
i kid, i kid. the dough was not that frightening.
not to the kitchen utensils, anyway.
i used this recipe from Brown Eyed Baker:
Pita Bread
Makes 8 pitas
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 Tablespoon sugar or honey
1 packet yeast [I used instant]
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups water, roughly at room temperature
2 tablespoons olive oil, vegetable oil, butter, or shorteningMix the yeast in with the flour, salt, and sugar. Add the olive oil and 1 1/4 cup water and stir together with a wooden spoon. All of the ingredients should form a ball. If some of the flour will not stick to the ball, add more water [I had to add a bit more water].
Once all of the ingredients form a ball, place the ball on a work surface, such as a cutting board, and knead the dough for approximately 10 minutes. If you are using an electric mixer, mix it at low speed for 10 minutes. [I did it by hand and 10 minutes was dead on as far as a time estimate.]
When you are done kneading the dough, place it in a bowl that has been lightly coated with oil. Form a ball out of the dough and place it into the bowl, rolling the ball of dough around in the bowl so that it has a light coat of oil on all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel and set aside to rise until it has doubled in size, approximately 90 minutes. [Mine doubled in about 40 minutes; maybe it was because I used instant yeast, but that is what The Fresh Loaf used, or perhaps the space was just ultra warm?]
When it has doubled in size, punch the dough down to release some of the trapped gases and divide it into 8 pieces. [I used a kitchen scale to ensure they were all about the same size.] Roll each piece into a ball, cover the balls with a damp kitchen towel, and let them rest for 20 minutes. This step allows the dough to relax so that it’ll be easier to shape.
While the dough is resting, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. If you have a baking stone, put it in the oven to preheat as well. If you do not have a baking stone, turn a cookie sheet upside down and place it on the middle rack of the oven while you are preheating the oven. This will be the surface on which you bake your pitas.
After the dough has relaxed for 20 minutes, spread a light coating of flour on a work surface and place one of the balls of dough there. Sprinkle a little bit of flour on top of the dough and use a rolling pin or your hands to stretch and flatten the dough. You should be able to roll it out to between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick – 6 inches in diameter. If the dough does not stretch sufficiently you can cover it with the damp towel and let it rest 5 to 10 minutes before trying again.
Place discs on a lightly greased baking sheet [I used parchment paper] and let rise, uncovered, until barely doubled in thickness, about 30-45 minutes.
Open the oven and place as many pitas as you can fit on the hot baking surface [I made 2 at a time on my baking stone]. They should be baked through and puffy after 3 minutes. If you want your pitas to be crispy and brown you can bake them for an additional 3 to 5 minutes, but it isn’t necessary [I baked mine for about 5 minutes each].
and i might say that it was a success…
partially.
so, i present to you…
homemade pita bread!
mountains…
and mountains…
…of lovely pita bread.
some of them were shaped perfectly…
and puffed up perfectly.
others…
not so much. no puff = flatbread, but that’s okay.
i think i only got two puffs.
lesson learned: bread is very, very hard to shape.
most of the first ones i did turned out with holes.
but they puffed, too! partially.
the middle bits in some of the broken ones were
too thin, so the entire thing baked up to be
a little bit hard crispy.
does this look like a dinosaur head to you?
or maybe a shoe?
i don’t know.
but i’m actually quite proud of myself… i made bread!
wow.
i made bread.
it wasn’t the beeeeeeeest bread i’ve ever had in my life
but i binged on it all the same.
i think that it’s probably the biggest indicator of deliciousness.
for me, anyway.
i’m also a bit bingey obsessed with brown sugar lately.
i’m eating it by the spoonful a lot on everything.
and chocolate.
and walnuts.
gosh.
but ANYWAY.
i made pita bread.
aren’t you proud? ;)
**
What have you cooked/baked/made recently that you never thought you’d make?
Ahh, so jealous of your beautiful puffy pitas! I made the pita recipe from Smitten Kitchen twice. It was delicious, but the first time none of the 8 puffed, and the second time only 2 of 8 did. My boyfriend loved them, but he saw that I was so upset by the lack of puff that he almost forbid me from making them again! I guess that’s when perfectionism becomes unproductive. I compared the two recipes and they’re almost the same except that yours has sugar/honey and an extra 1/4 cup water. I’ll have to try it next time.
As for forays into new baking territory…I made fresh pasta a few weeks ago. I told my boyfriend I wanted to make meatballs and tomato sauce from scratch, and he suggested we make fresh pasta to go with it. We don’t have a pasta machine and I was scared! But we just cut it by hand and it was delicious, and easy! So easy that we made more the next night.
I actually considered using the SK recipe first, but all the grams and quarter cups of flour were sort of intimidating O_O but I think I ended up adding maybe a quarter cup extra of flour anyway for dusting (I kept dusting and dusting and the dough just kept soaking up the flour when I was doing the final shaping -____-) I think that the sugar is there for the yeast to feed on. (Ha – I DID learn something from biology!) I do agree about the unproductive perfectionism, though – sometimes it’s good, but too much is bad. :(
:O Fresh pasta sounds amazing! I think we have a pasta maker at home actually… I think I’ll need to look up some pasta recipes soon ;)
Wei-Wei
OMG you need to teach me how you got your pita bread to puff up like that! Mine was plain flat and doughy :( Yours look beautiful!
I don’t know how they puffed… I only know that the ones that were shaped nicely (just the two?!) puffed up. I forgot to let mine rest for another 30-45 minutes after I shaped them, though… maybe the success rate would have been higher then? :S
Wei-Wei
Your pitas look wonderful! Nice caramelization of the dough and everything, great job for your first attempt at baking with yeast. What are you going to try next?
How are you eating your pitas? When I was in school, my favorite thing to do was put peanut butter inside the pita and bring it along with me to campus for my lunch. Would eat it with a boxed soymilk, which was a little slice of heaven.
Thanks Pinjing! In the photos on the original recipe, she didn’t let them brown at all on top… I think I know why (they took so long in the oven to brown that I was sort of scared!) I think I’m going to try English Muffins next, but it’s sort of intimidating in that they need to be cooked on stovetop first… what would you suggest?
I don’t think my pitas are a big hit in the household :( They’ve been packaged and thrown in the fridge. I’ve been eating them with cottage cheese and jam for a post-workout snack, but your way sound delicious too :D Maybe I’ll try it as a pre-workout snack later on? :)
Wei-Wei
English muffins are pretty fun! Which recipe are you thinking of trying; I’ve seen many different ways of doing them; some are completely baked on the stovetop, others are completely baked in the oven, some combine stovetop and oven. Do you have english muffin rings?
Hey, if the pita aren’t a hit in your household, it’s all good, that means more for you to eat :) Try the pb version, it’s delicious.
I’m not sure which recipe I would use for English muffins, but so far I’ve only seen those that are only stovetop. I don’t have muffin rings, though! I think I’ll have to buy them… I did see this recipe which rolled them out and used a cookie cutter, though. I’m not too sure what that would do to its fluffiness :( Have you made them before? What recipe did you use?
Wei-Wei
Your pita bread looks delicious!! I bake a lot, but I’ve actually never baked bread before. I’ve always wanted to try, though. Maybe I should sometime…
I never considered baking bread before, either! It’s very rewarding and not as hard as you’d think (not pita bread anyway, because apparently it’s a good, easy, forgiving beginners’ yeasted bread), so I think you should definitely try it! :)
Wei-Wei
OMG those look so good! I like the dinosaur-head one. :)
Also, I didn’t realize you switched blogs! I thought you might have two and I just didn’t know it. I’m slow like that. ;)
Haha the dinosaur head was really hard :( but at least it looks like something, right? :)
I’m not writing on my old blog anymore; WordPress takes too long to load in China and I have all my content here anyway (most of the personal stuff is now “private”) so I’ve just switched. :) Thanks for following me over!
Wei-Wei
Hello lovely :)
Just found your blog and you’re so honest and refreshing.
Pita bread is one of my favorite breads to eat because it just seems less terrifying to me than the other more dense breads out there. But I’ve never tried making it– you did such a wonderful job!
I’ve only attempted to make a loaf of regular wheat/white mix bread, and it takes about 4hrs…and I guess I’m not much of a cook because I feel like I’m wasting time if I spend that much time making something I could get easily.
But anyways, I’ll def. be back for more! (reading) :)
Best,
Floey
Hey there lovelier! Thanks for dropping by my blog. Your name makes me smile (squiggle! XD)
I like pita bread, too. It’s been known to be a “dieter’s bread” actually, but I just find them quite delicious. They weren’t that hard to make – you should try them sometime! I don’t think I’d ever bake “regular” bread – eg, a loaf, because our family members aren’t actually big bread eaters. We’re asian, we like our rice :D I think it’s satisfying to make stuff, though! People really do look at you differently when you make stuff that is usually store-bought :D
Thanks for visiting! I hope you do continue to read :)
Wei-Wei