Monday, September 08, 2008

By Bread Alone?

Yesterday morning I tried making two things I love but have never cooked before – pita bread and hummus. I'm not a big fan of white bread and so most pita that I can find in the store doesn't really please me. Honestly, I had no idea how easy it was to bake. Here's the recipe I used.

In a large bread bowl, combine:
2 cups lukewarm water
2 1/2 teaspoons yeast

Stir in 3 cups white flour. Make sure flour is incorporated well. Let sit for at least 30 minutes, up to 2 hours.

Stir in 2 1/2 - 3 cups whole wheat flour. Knead for 8 to 10 minutes.

Put dough into clean, oiled bowl and cover with a linen towel. Let rise 1 1/2 - 2 hours or until double in bulk.

Punch down. Divide dough into 16 equal pieces. Roll each piece out to an 8" circle.

Preheat oven to 450 and put a pizza stone in middle of rack. Put two circles of dough on stone and bake 3-4 minutes, until puffy and light.


The "magic" pocket part of the pita bread just happens all by itself! You look in the over after about 2 minutes and it's like a little balloon – all without your help or interference!


Hummus is even easier! I used this recipe from an amazing Middle Eastern cooking blog that I found while I was hunting for authentic hummus recipes. If you love good cooking, great writing, photography and interesting food check out Desert Candy.

Here's my lunch yesterday!


Ali had her pita stuffed with tuna salad since she's not a fan of hummus. We both snacked the rest of the day on plain, warm pita bread.

Was it Jesus who said that (wo)man can't live by bread alone? We might have to differ on this one!

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