I am writing about a simple recipe that I thought before was harder to make. I was wrong on that though.
Bob got a recipe and immediately me and Jean tackle it.
I try to buy a good active yeast and put the rest in a sealed container and store in the refrigerator, but I often find that the yeast here in the Philippines is already dead, or just not working very well.
We used to buy Pita Bread at our local SM Mall, but they have been “out of stock” for a long time, so Bob asked me to make some to satisfy his craving!
Pita bread can be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Anyway here’s the recipe for the pita bread.
Pita Bread Recipe:
Ingredients:
- 1 cup water ( make it warm not boiling, on my water I just put in the microwave for 30-35 seconds)
- 2 teaspoon active dry yeast (hard to find good yeast in the Philippines that last longer in the fridge, so I put 3 teaspoon)
- 2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour ( the other 1/2 cup use it when kneading the flour)
- 1 – 2 teaspoons of salt
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
Procedure:
- Put the 3 teaspoon yeast to a mixing bowl, put the warm water with the yeast. Let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes until you see the yeast dissolved. Add the flour, together with the salt and the olive oil. Mix it together until it formed into a dough.
- Sprinkle the clean surface of your counter with the flour and put your dough. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes until the dough become smooth. While kneading you might have to add more flour for the dough not to stick with your hands and the counter.
- Put some olive oil to the mixing bowl, the one you used to mix all the ingredients. Put the kneaded dough there, put some oil on top of the dough. Cover it with clean cloth or cling wrap. I used cling wrap. Let the dough rise until its almost doubled when you originally put in the bowl. Approximately an hour to 2 hours.
- After the dough was rising, gently deflate the dough and divide the though into 8 equal parts. Put all the dough again on the floured surface.
- Use a floured rolling pin, roll one of the pieces into a circle like 8 inches to 9 inches wide about almost quarter of inches in thickness. Keep turning and lifting dough as you roll the dough. Make sure the dough is not sticking on the counter. Sprinkle flour if its sticking.
- When cooking the dough, I put like a tablespoon of oil in the skillet in medium heat. Lower the heat if necessary. When it’s hot, drop the rolled dough and turn the dough every 3 to 5 seconds. Keep doing it until the dough is done. Keep an eye it gets burn easy. Just eyeball the pita if its done cooking or to your liking.
- Let it coll in a plate and cut it in half with scissors. Open the inside of the pita and you can put anything you like. For us we like to put salad inside or some meatballs or some ham.
***I just used a small amount from the dough, so I just got one or 2 like an almost the size of tennis ball and keep the rest in the fridge. If you don’t use all the dough, wrap the one that you are not using in a cling wrap and put it in an air tight container. Put it on the fridge until the next time you use it. Pita can be in the fridge for one week.***
Good luck everyone and have fun cooking!
Feyma, thanks for the recipe for the pita bread, I love pita with greek gyros, yummy.
Also, re your question on how much I paid to neuter my late black lab, Rambo, it was cheap, because the vet is my late husband’s nephew and he just did it for us for $50.00, normally it will cost around $200-250.00, and he was already an adult when we had him neutered. a puppy should cost less, I wouild think.
Hi Vivien – You’re welcome. Greek gyros, yep it’s really yummy…
Good thing to have a vet in the family, it really makes the cost way down. My cousin did neuter our other cat awhile back and it just cost us like less than 10 bucks for it. Wish his here but he already went abroad.
Good to see you here again. Thank you for stopping by. Have a lovely day!
Feyma – We are hardly out of pita bread at home. It’s my wife’s choice of bread. Early in our marriage, the traditional breakfast at home consisted of pita bread, olive oil, sasar (sp), scrambled eggs, olives, hummus and falafel. Missed those mornings of long ago. Used as a sandwich instead of the customary hamburger bun, the pita pocket keeps the meat, tomatoes, greens and sauces from squeezing out to the sides when you bite on the sandwich, like the Burger King double whopper.
Hi John – Can’t blame her, pita bread is really good. Do you guys make it yourself? Some of the stuff you put inside your pita bread sounds good too. I’m going to try some of those. LOL
Thank you for sharing. Good to see you here again.Have a wonderful day!
Unfortunately, no, Feyma, we don’t make pita bread ourselves. They are available in almost all the grocery stores here, as you know, but probably not as fresh as yours as you make them yourself.
John,
I love hummus, but have been unable to find it in grocery stores here. I did find it in a Middle Eastern restaurant in Davao. It was pretty good. When I”m in the states I eat quite a bit.
Hi PapaDuck – Check with RandyC (his site is http://JourneyToSamal.com ). Randy makes his own hummus here, and he can tell you where you will probably be able to find the ingredients, how to make it, etc. I don’t think it is all that difficult to do.
Bob,
Thanks for the info on the hummus recipe. Sounds good.
Hi PapaDuck – I just saw hummus at healthy option the other day. Do you have that store in Manila?
Good luck to you!
Mrs Feyma,
Will go online and see if there are any up here. Thanks so much for the info.
Hi John – It’s okay not to make your own there. At least the store replace the old one every few days. Unlike here, even if it’s stale the store still selling it. Very frustrating.
Cheers!
Hi Feyma – I like cooking, do it about 90% of the time at home. Will have to give this one ago. Seems easy enough.
Hi Brenton – It’s really easy… Bob told me that he like it if the dough already stays in the fridge for a few days. Our kids love it too. For sandwiches our kids wants to use the pita bread now. Oh boy, I have to make plenty of dough then…
Try to make it and let us know. Have fun.
Take care!
Hi Feyma – Already sent wife an email to get extra ingredients required. I will let you know.
I love baking and always wondered what it is like to bake in the Philippines, especially to find ingredients. Why do you think the yeast is dead? Is it old already? Thank you for sharing your experiences and recipes in the kitchen!
Hi Maria – That’s me and my daughter and niece now. We do cook a lot now. Speaking of ingredients, don’t rely on the sales people at the grocery store. They just don’t have that much knowledge of the ingredients. If you’re talking to them it seems like it’s all foreign to them. For me it’s better to look what I needed for myself than wasting my time talking to them. I’m trying my best avoiding being annoyed at them and I might say stuff that I will regret later. Better stay away on that situation. Not to be an airhead here. You know what I mean.
Somehow the yeast here don’t stay good for a long time. But it’s good when you open it. I even put in an air tight container.
Nice to see you here. Have a great day!
Thanks for the recipe Feyma! I’ll share it with Marlyn. She bakes other types of bread, and we love pita. She just wasn’t sure how to make sure it has the “pockets”. I guess it just happens with the correct combination of ingredients and heat.
Take care.
Pete