Pitta success!
- Judith Du Plessis
- Sep 20, 2020
- 3 min read
I was obsessed with making a pitta, I don't know why, but I was! One epic fail using a recipe with yogurt and no yeast (resulted in a gooey ball of yogurt and flour). My husband put me onto a great recipe from Virtuous bread and I combined it with a technique from Dimitra's dishes that my brother shared with me, et voila, wholemeal pitta breads!
Wholemeal pitta bread
600g strong wholewheat bread flour
6g dried yeast
360g water
10g salt
Mix the water and yeast in a bowl, let them sit for 10 minutes so the yeast can dissolve. Next add in the flour. Now its time to knead the dough. It should be kneaded for ten minutes, you can knead by hand or using a KitchenAid on it's lowest setting (the time to knead is still 10 minutes for both approaches). The Virtuous Bread website explained that it is a dry dough which means that it is a little harder to work so I chose to use the KitchenAid.
My pitta's turned out a little chewy so I contacted Jane Mason from Virtuous Bread and she said that it was probably because my dough was too dry, that all flours are different and need different amounts of water so next time I'll add a little more. It's very much trial and error!
Time for the dough to rest now. Cover it and leave it be until it has doubled in size which can take 1-2 hours.
Now take the dough out and put it on a floured surface and divide into 12 equal sized balls. Shape them into a smooth ball shape and leave them all to rest under a tea towel for 5 minutes.
Take a ball, lightly flour the top and roll into a very thin circle (max 1/2 cm tall). Lay it on a baking tray lined with baking parchment and cover with a tea towel whilst you roll out the others.
I found my circles got better and thinner as I went along.
I decided to cook half mine in the oven like Jane does and half on a dry frying pan like Dimitra does - I found this technique on YouTube (actually my brother found it and shared it with me, thanks Geoff!). First the frying pan method, it was so much fun watching them puff up!
Heat your pan on the hob, get it nice and hot, not scorching but hot. Lay your pitta bread in the pan, wait 20 seconds and turn it over. Count 20 more seconds and turn it over again, now it will be starting to puff up. Help it along by gently pressing the side that has risen with your spatula to help distribute the steam evenly throughout the pitta, you can see this in the video below.
It should take a total of 2 minutes from start to finish to fully puff up. Dimitra didn't turn hers over again once it has puffed up, I did as I wanted to make sure that it was fully cooked! When it's ready take it out the pan and immediately cut one of the edges off to let the steam out otherwise as it cools it will de-puff and stick together inside (thanks for this top tip Virtuous Bread). Be careful hot steam escapes!
Oven method:
Preheat the oven to 230 C, put the pittas on a baking tray and bake for 8-10 minutes until golden and puffed up. I left mine in for 12 minutes which was a bit long I think as they were very crunchy. Again, snip them open when they come out.
I preferred the stove top method as they were softer, but the oven method did cook the dough inside the pitta's more thoroughly.
Comments