Pitta

Extract from ‘Fearless Food’ by Lynda Booth, 2017

A pizza stone gives great results, but the pitta may also be cooked on a hot baking tray.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Place 200ml warm water in a jug and sprinkle on the yeast.
  2. Stir and leave for about 5 minutes to activate.

Making the dough in a mixer

  1. If you have a stand mixer, place the flour, salt and sugar in the bowl.
  2. Using the dough hook attachment, mix the ingredients together on a low speed.
  3. Stir the yeast and water mixture and add to the flour, along with some extra warm water until you have a soft but only slightly sticky dough.
  4. Continue kneading the dough with the dough hook for about 5 minutes until it is smooth and elastic.
  5. Now add in the olive oil and knead again.
  6. It will take a few minutes for this to be incorporated.

Making the dough by hand

  1. If making the dough by hand, place the flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl.
  2. Drizzle in the yeast and water and, with your hand outstretched like a claw, mix the liquid into the flour.
  3. Add more water as required to bring the dough together into a soft ball.
  4. Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes.
  5. Rub in the olive oil (in two or three stages) and knead again until the oil has been incorporated.
  6. Place the dough in a bowl large enough to allow for its expansion.
  7. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave to rest for at least 1-2 hours or until the dough has doubled in volume.
  8. The exact timing will depend on the temperature of the room.

To cut, shape, roll and bake

  1. If using a pizza stone, place it in a cold oven one hour in advance and turn the oven up to its highest setting.
  2. If you do not have a pizza stone, preheat a heavy baking tray in the oven for 10 minutes prior to cooking the pittas.
  3. Scoop the dough out onto a lightly floured counter.
  4. With a knife or a dough scraper, divide the dough into ten pieces of about 80g each.
  5. Place one piece of dough on an unfloured section of the counter.
  6. Working with flourless hands, cup your right hand over the dough and using a little downward pressure, move in an anticlockwise direction until the ball of dough becomes a perfectly smooth round.
  7. Place each ball on a lightly floured tray and allow to rest for about 15 minutes.
  8. After the resting period, place a ball of dough on a lightly floured counter and roll it out to a thickness of about ½ cm or less.
  9. Repeat with the remaining dough.
  10. Place 2 pittas on a floured paddle and with a quick jerking movement of the wrist, transfer to the pizza stone or the preheated baking tray.
  11. Bake until they puff up and are still quite pale - a little hint of color is fine but no more.
  12. Remove from the oven to a wire rack.
  13. Repeat with the remaining pittas.
  14. While they are still warm, stack the pittas on top of one another in one or two piles and keep covered loosely with tin foil or clingfilm.
  15. If making in advance, rewarm in the oven, wrapped in foil.
  16. The pittas are best eaten on the day.
  17. Freeze any leftover pittas for up to three months.

OVERNIGHT FERMENTATION

If you are having people over for brunch, it is probably best to make the pitta dough the night before.