Greek pita bread is easy to make, delicious and filling. Great to make in advance on the stove and just heat up on the barbeque later on. Sever with lamb skewers, slices of tomatoes, cucumber, red onion and tzatziki sauce, or with a lovely Feta cheese salad and some black olives.
This recipe uses thyme and rosemary, but you can also add garlic if you want to add some extra flavour to the bread.
You need:
2 teaspoons yeast
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
½ teaspoon of dried thyme
½ teaspoon of dried rosemary
2 teaspoons of virgin olive oil (greek olive oil if possible)
320 grams of all-purpose flour
160 ml of room temperature milk
80 ml lukewarm water
1 tablespoon olive oil for frying
Plenty of flaky sea salt for serving
How you make them:
Mix the olive oil, water, milk, sugar and yeast in a bowl. Set aside for about 5 minutes until the yeast has activated and started to form foam.
In another bowl, mix together the dry ingredients; flour, thyme, rosemary and salt.
Add the yeast mixture to the dry ingredients in batches. Make sure each batch is incorporated before pouring in the next batch.
Tip out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead for 4-5 minutes until the dough becomes smooth or use a mixer.
Brush a bowl with oil and transfer the dough to the bowl. Cover the bowl with a towel or cling film. Let the dough rise for 40 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.
After the dough has doubled in size, place a frying pan, (of at least 20 cm in diameter,) on medium on the stove.
Gently press the air out of the dough and divide the dough into 6 equal size pieces.
Oil a work surface and roll out the pieces into approx. 20 cm flat circles.
Fry the pita bread in a dry frying pan for about 1-2 minutes on each side until the bread gets a little colour and puffs up a bit. Due to the work surface being oiled, there is no need to add extra oil to the frying pan.
When the bread comes out of the pan, add plenty of sea salt to each piece.
Serve the pita bread with Mediterranean sauces and barbeque skewers or just with a salad of red onion, feta chees, tomatoes and cucumber. Enjoy with a good bottle of red wine.
