I know that I have been away from my blog a little bit longer this time. A lot has been going on but it's all good. I am preparing for a trip back home to see my family while I am taking care of things on my U.S. home front. I am looking forward to going going back home and as always I dread the good byes. Over the years, I have come to accept that I am terrible with saying goodbye to loved ones and I wish I never had to do it. The truth though is that in life everything has an expiration date ... and we need to savor the moment, get the most out of life experiences before they come to an end!
These past few weeks, I have also started preparing my vegetable garden. Added lots of new soil and got rid of all the weeds. I will keep you updated... My goal is to enjoy some nice tomatoes, eggplants and zucchini this year.
I have also been continuing with my cooking classes something that's very fulfilling to me. I just had a great class two days ago. It was a full class with 18 people attending my hands-on class on Mediterranean vegetarian dishes. It was a lot of fun meeting new friends and also seeing some of my old cooking pals. We cooked, we joked a lot, we listened to Greek music and in the end we all enjoyed a nice meal together. What else can I ask for!
So my creative baking juices have been flowing these last few days and they have resulted into some action :-). The result is some pita bread! Easy and fun to make. I love pita pockets - they are so versatile! I use them to make sandwiches, serve them with dips, bake them and make simple pita chips for snacks and just eat them as part of any meal throughout the day.
Growing-up we used to eat pita bread along with our kebabs. We would always eat pita pockets that were filled with kebabs, chopped parsley, tomatoes, cucumbers and onions - yum! We would also make a variety of sandwiches with pita pockets which as you might already know can be different sizes and shapes.
Remember that you can always use white whole wheat flour which is a lot healthier than just white flour. I have started experimenting more and more substituting that in all of my recipes.
Pita Bread
2 teaspoons dry yeast
1 cup and 2 ½ ounces lukewarm water
1 1/3 tablespoon olive oil
3 ½ cups white whole wheat unbleached flour
1 teaspoon salt
In a large bowl combine the dry yeast, olive oil and lukewarm water.
Stir well and add ¼ cup flour in that. Cover with a towel and set aside for
5 – 10 minutes.
Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees. Place in the hot oven the baking sheets you will be using.
Add the salt, and the remaining flour.
On a floured surface, start kneading the dough with your hands for about five minutes or until the dough is shiny, has a lot of elasticity and doesn’t stick to the hands.
Place back into the bowl. Spray some olive oil all over it and cover with a moist towel. Place in a warm area and let it rise for an hour and a half.
Divide into 12 round balls.
Place them on a baking sheet and let them rise for another 10 minutes.
On a floured surface, roll out each one of them into a 5-7 centimeters circle with approximately ½ centimeter thickness.
Set them aside for another 10 minutes before baking. Place on the hot non-greased baking sheets and into the oven.
Bake for about 1 ½ minutes on each side.
The dough will puff up creating the desired pocket.
Flip once. Let them cool off on a wire rack.
Serve warm or at room temperature.
Tip of the day - storing pita bread in the freezer.
You can store them for a few months. After your pita pockets have cooled off completely, you can stack them in a zip log bag separating them with some parchment paper. Close the bag and store in your freezer. Take out as many as you need each time and then place back into the freezer.
Enjoy!
I hope to communicate with you once more before I take off for Europe but if I don't make it I will make sure that I post my baking Easter creations from Cyprus.
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