Whole Wheat Pita with Middle Eastern Salad
Whole Wheat Pita with Middle Eastern Salad
(13)
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| dairy free, whole grain | |
| Hands-on time: | |
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| Baking time: | |
| Total time: | |
| Yield: | 8 pitas |
Ingredients
Pita
- 1 3/4 cups King Arthur Organic 100% White Whole Wheat Flour
- 1 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
- 1 to 1 1/8 cups lukewarm water*
- 2 tablespoons orange juice
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- plain or herb/spice infused olive oil, to brush on finished pitas
- *Use the greater amount in winter or in a dry climate; the lesser amount in summer or a humid climate.
Middle Eastern Chopped Salad
- 2 cups diced tomato
- 2 cups diced cucumber, unpeeled
- heaping 1/8 teaspopn salt, or to taste
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 6 scallions, white and part of the green part, sliced; optional
- 2 to 3 teaspoons lemon juice, to taste; optional
Directions
1) Combine all of the pita ingredients (except the oil for brushing), and mix and knead to make a soft, smooth dough.
2) Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl or large measuring cup, cover it, and let it rise for 60 to 90 minutes, till it's just about doubled in bulk. Towards the end of the rising time, start to preheat your oven to 450°F, with a pizza stone on the bottom shelf, if you have one.
3) Gently deflate the dough, and divide it into 8 pieces. Shape each piece into a ball, cover them, and let them rest for 10 minutes.
4) Working with two pieces of dough at a time, roll each into a 6" circle. If you roll the dough about 7" wide, it'll shrink back to about 6".
5) Carefully flop the dough onto the hot pizza stone. If you're not using a pizza stone, put it on an ungreased baking sheet, and put the baking sheet on your oven's bottom rack.
6) Bake for 4 minutes. The pitas should rise enthusiastically. If they're on a stone, they'll probably puff up like balloons; if they're on a baking sheet, they'll still expand; just not as vigorously.
7) Turn the pitas over, and bake for an additional 60 seconds.
8) Remove them from the oven, and brush with your favorite olive oil, plain or flavored. Wrap lightly in a cotton towel, to keep them soft. Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough.
9) Serve pitas with chopped salad.
Yield: 8 pitas.
To make the chopped salad: While the pita dough is rising, combine all of the salad ingredients, seasoning with salt and lemon juice to taste. Let the salad rest at room temperature while you prepare the pitas.
Reviews
- 04/19/2012
- Amazing! I made this pita bread to go with homemade falafel. By far this was the best meal I have ever made. Like others, I used parchment paper to roll out the pita dough. I did not have processed OJ, so I juiced an orange. This will be my go to for pita from now on. I will never buy pita again. I have never had pita bread this good, not even in Greek restaurants. Thank you.
04/11/2012- Everything about this recipe is great. I would recommend adding a couple herbs to the salad, basil, and mint help really freshen it up. Baking these can be a bit tricky at home as it is hard to get your oven hot enough. Having a baking stone and an oven that can achieve 500 degrees is the only way to go, otherwise you just wont get that puff from the pita.
- 09/22/2011
- this is the only pita bread recipe i will use, the texture of the pita is chewy, and sweet , the o.j in the mix makes the wheat calm down, but it is still flavorful, try i give it 5*****
- 08/18/2011
- I have been a customer and fan of yours for about 3 years now. I buy your 25lb of AP flour about every 6 months or so. But I have a cabinet full of all kinds of ingredients that I buy just because I get excited over your catalog and website and your BLOG!!!
I have your Whole Grain Baking cookbook and I mill my own whole grains, mainly wheat. Admittedly, I really dislike the take of whole wheat. I so wish I loved it but I hate it actually. I can"t eat anything made with 100% whole grain. It's got to always have a larger proportion of white flour.
I just made these pitas today and I LOVE them! Preparation is so simple! I enjoyed not having to pull out my huge and heavy Electrolux mixer. I kneaded it by hand.
The first pair I placed on my pizza stone didn't puff at all! So I just rolled the others thinner and larger than the 6" suggested and WOW!!
One puffed like a blow fish and remained that way. Gave my husband that one. I just can't believe that I actually like the flavor of these things! I made them with the salad and we're used to that salad because we make it quite often except I'd never used lemon. Oh, I won't make it without lemon from now on.
KAF I really love you guys! I'm not a baker and most anything I bake comes out wrong but these were awesome. I can't wait for my babies to wake up from their naps so they can have them.
Soo happy to hear your success with this recipe! Hope you and yours enjoy! :) ~JDT@KAF
- 06/20/2011
- I made this for the first time yesterday and in general thought it was great. I had the same issue as some of the other posters in that some of my pitas didn't puff up. The under-performing pitas were the ones that had to wait their turn for the oven, so I suspect that was the issue. I will try this recipe again and test my theory. I also probably over-handled to dough a bit in the rolling process. The pitas that did puff impressed my non-baker friends, which is always a plus for any recipe.
The dough may have sat too long before hitting the oven, which would make sense if the others puffed up fine. You could try heating up your baking sheet (if you are using that instead of a stone)first to see if that helps and perhaps you should do two sheets of pitas at a time to shorten the wait for the oven. ~Amy
- 04/06/2011
- 10/29/2010
- I've made this recipe twice now (though both times I've halved it as I'm cooking for one). The first time I made it, my pitas didn't puff very well, but I think that was due to me not kneading the dough long enough and then rolling the dough out a little too thick. The next time I kneaded the dough a little longer and measured to make sure I was rolling the dough into 6 inch circles. Perfect puffing! I couldn't believe how nicely they turned out. I also skipped the OJ the second time just because I didn't have any on hand. Having tasted it both ways, I think I actually prefer it without as I like that stronger whole wheat flavor. Like some other commenters, I rolled out on parchment paper, though I then flipped them over onto the pizza stone and peeled the paper off. I also flipped them after just 2.5 minutes so that they would be even thickness on both sides. The trick now is to try not to eat them all in one sitting!
- 10/21/2010
- I loved this pita! I finally bought some white whole wheat flour when I was at the KAF store last week, and I had been looking for a good recipe to use it. I make whole wheat pita all the time from another recipe, but I loved how much softer and gentler the flavor was compared to regular whole wheat flour. I mixed up the dough early in the day and stuck it in the fridge for a few hours, then about an hour before baking I pulled it out to come up to room temp. I also made tiny boules out of each 1/8th of dough and let them rest a few minutes before rolling out because I wanted my pita to be as round as possible. After a nice long pre-heat for my baking stone, these puffed up like balloons in the four minutes the recipe suggests. Delicious!
- 10/10/2010
- These are so easy. I agree with the other reviewer that they are certainly salty and I shall reduce the salt next time, perhaps 1/4 teaspoon. I don't own a rolling pin. I pressed these disks with my hands into circles, threw them on a lightly oiled baking sheet and popped them into a Hamiltion Beach countertop oven. They are perfect! Thanks for a super recipe!
- 10/04/2010
- These were so good. The only problem I had was that the last few pitas didn't puff up. I doubled the recipe and maybe they rose too much waiting their turn and so they didn't puff up?
Yes,this may be the effect of a doubled recipe and a longer wait. You might consider stalling some of the last few pitas in a cool place while they wait their turn to bake. Irene @ KAF
