Four of the major flatbreads of the world are pizza, pide, pita and naan. The dough for the first three is very much the same; flour, salt, yeast, oil (olive) and water. For naan the oil becomes ghee or butter and yoghurt is added to the ingredients to produce an unique texture and flavour. Naan is traditionally baked in a very hot tandoor oven which very few people have at home here in Australia.
Pita is sometimes baked in a traditional oven and sometimes on a hot plate or even in a frypan. By chance I discovered the ideal baking method; the hooded barbecue.
To prepare your barbecue to bake pita, set your baking stone onto the hotplate of your hooded barbecue and light the burners under the hotplate. Close the hood and allow the temperature to rise to around 200C. If you don't have a hotplate but only grills, I suggest using a rack or trivet to lift your baking stone about 50mm above the grill bars. The baking stone I have is 400mm by 355mm. I think I bought it from my local Bunnings hardware store.
You don't need to light the bbq now; wait until you have the dough ready.
Pita Dough
Ingredients
500gms baker's flour
10gms fresh yeast or 5gms dry yeast
10gms salt
20mls olive oil
340mls lukewarm water
Method
In a jug, dissolve the yeast with the water.
In a large bowl combine the flour, salt and oil.
Pour the water and yeast into the bowl and mix to form a dough. It should be quite sticky but don't be tempted to add extra flour. In my experience the problem many people have with their bread making is making the dough too dry, depriving it of its required elasticity.
Turn the dough out onto your bench and start kneading, stretching the dough by pushing it away from you, rolling it back toward you, turning the dough 90 degrees and repeating the same procedure.
After 10 to 15 minutes of firm kneading the dough should be soft and pliable. If you want to do it the easy way you can use your bench mixer with the dough hook. However, I really enjoy the therapeutic nature of kneading by hand.
When you are happy with your dough return it to the bowl, cover with a damp tea towel and allow it to prove in a draught free place until doubled in size. This will take one to one and a half hours.
Now is the time to set your bbq as described above.
Now divide the proven dough into 100gm pieces, roll into balls and place them on a floured board or bench, cover with the damp tea towel and let rest for 15 to 20 minutes while your bbq heats up.
When the bbq is ready, on a well flour dusted surface, use a rolling pin to roll the dough into an 180mm round. It should be around 5mm thick. You will have to dust the dough and the bench to prevent the dough sticking to the rolling pin or bench.
When you have two pieces of pita ready, open the bbq and place them directly onto the baking stone and close the lid. If you only have a small stone you may have to bake one at a time.
The pita should take 2 minutes 45 seconds for the first side. They will blow up as in the photo above and have patches of brown on the underside. Now is the time to use a spatula or a pair of tongs to flip them over and bake for another 2 minutes 30 seconds until lightly brown on the bottom again. Remove them to a clean tea towel and cover with the other half of the tea towel.
While your first pita or pitas are baking, roll the next two so that they are ready for the bbq when the first come out.
Your pita is now ready to serve with your favourite dip like our heavenly hummus, stuff the naturally formed pocket with your favourite filling or use to make your favourite wrap.
These pita freeze very well.
In the next few days I will be posting a recipe for naan using the same method.
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