Pita Master

Living in the Philippines sometimes makes it difficult to find some of the breads that we are used to. I LOVE breads, sourdough, french breads, anything with yeast in it is pretty fabulous to me. Here they seem to love adding extra amounts of sugar into their baking making most sandwiches seem like a dessert bun with meat and cheese, not so much a combination I tend to lean towards. It's not impossible to find decent bread but it can be a challenge. There are a few things that I really enjoy that are extremely difficult for me to find... the first being soft taco shells. You can find them and when you do, you have to buy dozens of packages because once the stocks are depleted there is no telling when they will be restocked. I have actually made my own on numerous occasions which isn't difficult, just time consuming. The second would be sour dough bread. I actually got really ambitous and made myself a nice sour dough starter and got a couple loaves of delicious bread from it. Unfortunately we went to the beach for a while and I left it out in my hot humid house and it was a moldy stinky mess when we returned. Since that time I haven't been able to muster up the ambition to start all over again. The next would have to be pita shells. I have never, not once, found a pita shell in the Philippines. Thankfully I love making them. I think it's so entertaining to watch them puff up in the oven in such a short period of time... instant gratification for your hard work. I'm not too sure how many of you have made pita shells before but they are so easy and sooo yummy!

Here is the recipe:

• 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. 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.

*If you don't have a bread machine (like me over here, oh how I miss you bread machine *sniff sniff*) then mix the warm water, sugar and yeast and let the yeast rise while you sift together the flour and salt. Add the oil with the yeast mixture and need until soft but a little sticky since you will roll out on a floured surface.

Let rice one time before going onto step 2....