Whole Wheat Pita Bread

I am so happy to be back blogging. {smile}

And

I'm really happy to get to bring you one of my "new" favorite recipes. 

{Pita Bread} 

I think it's my favorite now because it empowered me and made me feel like I achieved something.  I had no clue people made Pita Bread at home!! Did you?? But it's really not hard. Just takes time. And if you're anything like me you don't like to wait, or have the time when the waiting is done. But bread is a lot easier and flexible than ever. Let me explain.. here it goes:

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons honey

2-2 1/2 cups lukewarm warm water, divided

4 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast, (two 1/4-ounce packages)

3 cups (13 1/2-ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour

3 cups (13 1/2-ounces) whole wheat flour

1 Tablespoon kosher salt

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (plus 2 Tablespoons for coating)

cornmeal for dusting

Other things you'll need:

Kitchen Aid with bread hook (or your strong hands, haha)

Wet Towel for the rising process

Kitchen scale (if you're like me and like things exact)

 Rolling Pin

Lots of room for the last rising process (I used our kitchen table)

Cookie Sheet

Ok.

 Combine Honey & 1 cup Warm Water in the bowl with the bread hook and mix on low speed until combined. Then add the packs of yeast set aside for 5-10 minutes. Then add in that same bowl the Flour, salt, 1/4 cup of oil and 1 cup of warm water and mix on medium-low speed until combined. Kneed dough on medium-high for 4 minutes.

 Take the dough out onto a floured surface and make into a ball. Then drizzle the bowl with 1 T Olive oil (I cleaned the bowl first), spread around.

 Then place the dough in it and turn until coated with oil. 

Cover the bowl with a wet towel for 1 hour in a draft free spot.

 After 1 hour punch down the dough. 

(This is where I let the dough go crazy and didn't use it for another few hours, I just kept punching it down and letting it rise until the kids were in bed) 

And take out again to a lightly floured surface. Make 12 even sized sections and roll them each up into a ball.

 I weighed each on our kitchen scale to 3  3/4 ounces. 

 Then I rolled them out to about 7 inches in diameter.

 Let each pita rise on a lightly floured surface for another 1 hour before baking.

 Lightly dust a cooking sheet with corn meal. And put 3 pitas on.

 Bake 4 minutes. (really watch them, it's neat, they blow up like balloons) in a 500 degree oven.

 Let them cool and serve warm. Really yummy with Hummus!!

Hopefully I didn't forget anything. Let me know if I did. Because it's been a few weeks now since I made this. Thanks. And the amazing thing about pita bread is it can be kept frozen for up to 6 months. So if you don't plan on eating it within 3 days, do that. They come out of the freezer just as fresh.

Enjoy!