Greek Pita Bread
Greek pita differs from Arabic pita in that it is not empty inside. The reason for this is that the latter is prepared in the oven, while the former is fried in a pan. The Greek pita is perfect to serve as the base to put gyros or souvlaki on top, it's great to dip it into scordalia or tzatziki as well.
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2 tbsps. dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
2/3 cup milk
1/3 cup warm water
2½ - 3 cups flour
1 tsp. coarse salt
1 tsp. thyme
1 tbsp. olive oil
Preparation time: 1 hr. 30 mins
Difficulty level: Medium-up
Servings: 6
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Ingredients
Preparation
Combine the sugar, yeast, water and milk in a bowl. Set the bowl aside for 5 minutes.
In another bowl, combine flour, salt and thyme
Add the oil to the yeast mixture and stir.
Gradually add the yeast mixture to the flour mixture quarter amount each time. Make sure to completely incorporate each amount before adding the next.
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured working surface. Knead for 4-5 minutes until the dough becomes smooth. You can use a mixer on low speed with kneading hook. You should get a nice soft dough that doesn't stick to your fingers. If it does add more flour.
Brush a bowl with some oil and put the dough in.
Cover with a towel and let it rest until it doubles in size (about 40 minutes), then put it on the working surface, press on the dough to remove the air, shape it like a baguette and cut into 6 equal pieces.
Put a non-stick frying pan over medium heat.
Lightly oil the working surface. Use a rolling pin to roll out each piece of dough to a circle 20 cm in diameter.
Fry the pita bread in a very hot skillet for 1-2 minutes on each side, until they puff up slightly and get nice light brown color.