Modern Baker: Pita Bread

The fifteenth recipe I made from the Breads Section of The Modern Baker by Nick Malgieri, was the one for Pita Bread , on pages 72-73.  (We are not publishing recipes from the book, so if you like what you see, buy the book and bake along with or without us).

   

The recipe makes 12 seven-inch size pita breads.  Ingredients were:  All-purpose flour, salt, yeast, water, and olive oil. 

This recipe seemed to be the one that gave the group the most trouble, but even at that, "if at first you don't succeed, try, try, again..."  I was eager to see if I could get them to rise, expand properly, and have the pocket in the bread at the end of the day.

 

Eventually I did.  I had one pita with one pocket.  The air pocket never deflated, it just stayed like that until I slit it for a traditional pita pocket.  The rest all looked like this:
I have never made pitas before, so I might try another recipe for them to see if I can figure out what makes them rise and pocket properly every time.  The flavor on these is really good.   

I'm not really counting it as a big failure, because even without the proper pocket, it makes a great pita chip and it is nice just eating it like a cracker.  So, all in all, not a total loss.  In fact it is so good that way, I might just use the recipe for that instead of pita pockets.

This was the final recipe from the Yeast Breads section of the book, so I am happy to say that I made all the breads in that section and am already moving on with the rest of the group to the next section, which is Yeast-Risen Specialties, and includes 16 recipes.  We will be on this section from now until the New Year.   

 

If you would like to bake along or be a part of the Modern Baker group, you will find all that, plus a tab to link to the blogs posting the Breads, with the blogroll here.