Sunday, August 19, 2012

Homemade Pita Bread

As part of our healthy eating plan, we’ve drastically cut down on meat and have turned to other sources of protein. One that we like a lot is hummus, though again, I’m still going to feed the kids meat, they’re growing and I’m not a fan of any extreme diet, especially for kids. We adults can subject themselves to whatever nonsense we want, but kids need a balanced diet.

Anyway, hummus is good, especially with some killer bread. Our friend has started a baking business and his bread is at the Coop. He makes this really good spelt pita bread. It’s not necessarily the spelt that attracted me, it’s just that his bread is all natural with no preservatives. It’s not easy to find pita bread that doesn’t contain preservatives, much like it’s hard to find chocolate chips that are made with real vanilla. They are good at sneaking this stuff in.

The problem with buying pita bread is that there’s never enough. You get a package and between four bread loving people, it’s gone too quickly. You have to pace yourself and be aware of how much you’re eating because you don’t want to be the one who eats more than their share. The answer to this problem? Make our own.

Now I would never have imagined making pita bread because I figured there was some magical process to making it hollow, but it turns out that it’s not that hard, especially when you have the King Arthur Flour whole grains cookbook. That book is truly amazing. There are recipes for everything relating to bread, and there is not only a spelt pita recipe, but a whole wheat one, as well. I went with the whole wheat.

The bread was fairly simple to make, and employing my awesome pizza stone, made pretty good pita bread. As the recipe indicates, the bread not only tastes good, but it has killer texture. It’s not rough and coarse like regular whole wheat pita bread, and even has a soft, chewy texture. We all love it, and best of all, we can make large batches and eat to our heart’s content. Pita with hummus and olives or fresh tomatoes. Pita with olive oil and tomatoes. Pita with butter. Talk about going Pita crazy.

Looks like we’re onto to something good. Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to brighteyedbaker for the pic.

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