YES- THE PITA.

Let me tell you a little bit about why I love the Pita. During my four month stay in the Middle East I ate probably 2-3 pitas every single day. I ate them with everything; curry, jam, ben gurion rice, eggs and cheese (for breakfast), and pretty much anything else you can think of. I really grew to love the pita, the same way I love the baguette. (maybe that's a cooking experiment for another time.)
Every culture has a unique way of eating bread. Thanks to globalization, many of these breads are available around the world, but believe me, you cannot get pitas like those in Jerusalem. I have been sorely dissapointed with the state of Pitas in America, but granted I have only tried grocery store. So I have embarked on the pita cooking experience in order to re-capture this lost love, that my friend Clarissa shows us so vivdly in the picture below.

Clarissa T. - Amman, Jordan.

Pita Bread

Makes 8 pitas

3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 Tablespoon sugar or honey
1 packet yeast (or, if from bulk, 2 teaspoons yeast)
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups water, roughly at room temperature
2tablespoons olive oil, vegetable oil, butter, or shortening

See the rest of the recipe here...

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/pitabread

I really liked this online recipe, because the author describes very well each step, and why you need to do it.This is my first attempt EVER at cooking anything with yeast. and to be honest it SCARES ME!! Does yeast scare anyone else?

Well my yeast experience turned out just fine. I always thought that it was such a bummer that you have to let the dough rise for so long with yeast. But now I realize that it really isn't a big deal. It's not like you have to watch the bread rise. Just leave it and walk away.

Risen Dough ready to be rolled out.

I followed the directions, and rolled the dough into eight balls, but after a few large, non-puffy, pitas I decided to split the balls. So I would recommend splitting the dough into at least 12 dough balls.

My only concern thoughout the baking process was about the puffyness of my pitas. They just didn't look like the picture in the recipe, and weren't creating great pockets. But my FINAL pita almost entirely puffed up. I was hopeful. :) And that ladies and gentlemen, is what we call a sucess!

The final pita!

I will DEFINATELY make these again.They tasted very similar to the ones I ate in the middle east. The recipe was not difficult. I absolutely loved these. I even went all out and smashed some honey and butter with my spoon for the full effect of nostalgia. -- at the Jerusalem Center we got really creative and a honeybutter trend got started. It caught on with such ferocity that the cooks had to stop buing honey because we were simply eating too much. This, of course, caused drama because all we wanted was our honey butter. "what do you mean honey is too expensieve here? I paid 10 grand and I want my honey!" basically was the jist of the argument.

I will just have to keep reminding myself why I gained weight in Jerusalem, yep... you guessed it... It was pretty much soley due to thse flyffy little pockets of bread.... mmmm..... delicious

Happy baking

Stephanie