How To: Make pita bread from scratch

Maria demonstrates how to make pita bread. First, she runs hot water over her mixing bowl to warm it. Then, take a cup of warm water and dump it in the bowl. Add one package of active, dry yeast. Then add a tablespoon of sugar. Let that sit for about five minutes. It should bubble up in that time. Next, add a teaspoon of sea salt, two tablespoons of olive oil, and one cup of flour. Using the dough hook on her mixer she stirs in the flour. Next, add a half cup of flour at a time to the mixture until you have added a total of two and a half cups. Stir until it forms a dough that pulls away from the sides. While you are stirring preheat your oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit . Then knead the dough into a circle. Cut the dough into eight sections. Let the sections sit for about five minutes. Then roll each section into a ball. Put a little bit of flour on the pita to keep it from sticking to the rolling pin. Roll out each ball until it is thin and flat. Then place the rolled out dough onto a generous amount of tinfoil. Next place it in the oven for 5 to 8 minutes, watching it carefully. The pita should puff up in that time. Then remove the pita from the oven and wrap it loosely in the tin foil to keep the pockets. Repeat this for each pita. When you are done cooking they are ready to cut and stuff.