Saturday 9 March 2013

Pita for You, Pita for Me

Me and the kids are heading to Spring & Rawky's tonight for dinner:)  Spring's my cooking partner in crime...she makes the BEST cakes and is my go to for them because I'm not so good at them.  I found a recipe for Bacon Jam and I'm pretty sure we have a date to make some next week:) 

Anyways, there's going to be a bunch of people there and about 10 plus kids, most of them girls...poor Connor is going to be so outnumbered!!  Spring's doing up some souvlaki and other stuff and she asked if I would bring some pita's.  I've never made them before and the funny thing is I was looking at some pita recipes to try when she asked...must've been a sign:)  So here I am spending my Saturday making pitas.  I'm doing 2 different recipes to see what the difference is, mostly in method since 1 batch is doing a slow rise in the fridge for about 4 or so hours.  


The slow rise in the fridge recipe comes from a blog called Smitten Kitchen, I've found some pretty good stuff there so check it out.  The other recipe is one I ended up having to change up a bit from my 55 Classic Recipes: Bread from Around the World and it's the one I'm going to play with here:)

Pita Bread
(adapted from 55 Classic Recipes: Bread from Around the World)

225 grams Unbleached All-Purpose Flour, plus extra for dusting
6 grams Active Dry Yeast
1 Tsp Sugar
1 Tsp Salt
2/3 c. Warm Water
2 Tsp EVOO

To start it off, I proofed the yeast using 1/4 c. of the water and adding the sugar, mixing it a bit.  Then I added the yeast and let it proof for 10 minutes. 

Once the yeast was proofed I put all of the other ingredients in my mixing bowl and dumped in the yeast mixture.  I mixed that all up until everything was wet and mixed together and then let it sit for 20 minutes to autolyse it.  I did this because I'm all out of bread flour and all purpose has less gluten in it and this is a way to let the gluten start to work before kneading.

Waiting to Knead

After the 20 minutes was up, I kneading the dough for 5 minutes in my Kitchen Aid stand mixer with a dough hook.  It was still really sticky so I added another 2 tbsp of flour and let it mix another minute. 

I lightly floured my counter and dumped the dough out onto it and gave it a quick knead by hand until it was smooth and elastic.  I lightly greased a large bowl and added the dough to it, turning it over and giving it a light spray with oil.  I covered it with some plastic wrap that I had sprayed with oil and then a tea towel and put it on the fridge to rise for about an hour.


After the dough was done rising, I punched it down and divided it into 6 equal pieces on a my lightly floured counter and shaped them into balls.  Then I covered them with an oiled plastic wrap and left them to rest for 5 minutes.


Once they had rested, I refloured my counter and took each ball and rolled it into an oval about 6 inches long and 1/4" thick and placed them on a lightly floured  tea towel and covered them with a piece of lightly oiled plastic wrap again.  Then I left them to rise again for about 25 minutes.


I preheated my oven to 450F and placed one rack on the middle upper level and one on the middle lower level with my baking stones in preheating as well. 

After the 25 minutes was up I placed 2 pitas on each stone and baked them for 5 minutes, letting them puff up nicely.  They did start to brown a little, but no big deal, for me anyways. 


Once they were done I placed them on my wire rack to cool down and then put them in a basket with a tea towel over them to help keep them soft until I went to Spring & Rawky's. 

For some reason, on a whim, I decided to make up some Chipotle Roasted Red Pepper Hummus:)  This is a recipe I adapted from Epicure's Roasted Red Pepper Hummus and is the first time I've added chipotle to hummus.  I've always loved the Sabra Chipotle Hummus you can get at the grocery store so me being me, I want to see what I can do:)


Chipotle Roasted Red Pepper Hummus
(Adapted from Epicure Selections)

1 19 oz. Can Chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 Tbsp Epicure Hummus Dip Mix
1 Tbsp Epicure Roasted Red Pepper Dip Mix
2 Tbsp Sundried Tomatos, minced
1 Tsp Ground Cumin
1/2 Tbsp Dried Cilantro
1 1/2 Tsp Chipotle Chili Powder
1/4 c. Warm Water
3 Tbsp Lemon Juice
5 Tbsp EVOO
1/4 c. Tahini, optional
(I didn't have any, was gonna make some, got lazy & didn't, wish I did)


Take all ingredients and put in food processor.  Process until smooth.  For me, it's usually a minute or so, I don't like it very chunky. 


That's some nice looking hummus if I do say so:)

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