Pita Bread and the Appropriate Condiment

When one is a bit peckish and has a couple hours to spare, the go-to treat has got to be pita bread and hummus. I have been making this treat in tandem for many years, and I will point out some of the pitfalls and quagmires that one is likely to encounter. One does not have to make these two dishes simultaneously; however, it is highly recommended.

Pita Bread

This recipe has evolved a bit from when I first starting baking pita bread. Know that I no longer use measuring devices of any kind; this is not due to skill, but rather an acknowledgement that perfection is not a requirement.

Recipe (and comments):

• 1 cup of warm water
  • Shoot for around 100°F/38°C or warm to the touch
  • Better to overestimate than underestimate
• A little sugar (think 25 grains or so)
• 1 package of yeast
  • This is 2 1/2 teaspoons, if from a jar
  • This is 2 heaping teaspoons, if you are lazy
• 1/8 cup oil
  • Do not use Olive Oil
  • I recommend Rape Seed Oil, which is now called Canola Oil
• 3/4 Tablespoon salt
• 3 cups white flour, approximately

Process:

Start by dissolving the sugar in the warm water in a large bowl. Dump the yeast onto the surface of the water and let sit while you organize the rest of the ingredients. Toss a good amount of flour into the bowl and add the salt on top of that. Salt is used to enhance the flavor; however, it has a habit of killing the yeast. Disguise the salt in the flour. Start thoroughly incorporating.

Add the oil and mix. I have made the mistake of using olive oil once; its flavor is so pronounced that it ruined the pita. Do not use olive oil; save it for the hummus. Continue adding white flour until the dough loses most of its stickiness. Note that you want some stickiness to remain as a lack of stickiness would lead to a final product that is too dry.

I have had luck with mixing whole wheat flour with the white flour up to a ratio of 60/40 whole wheat to white. White flour contains more gluten, which will help form a nicer dough. On the other hand, know that I have been unsuccessful in mixing rye flour with white flour – think Mischbrot (70/30 ratio). The resulting pita was too bready and not fluffy enough.

Once mixed, work the dough on your countertop for a couple minutes before placing back into the bowl. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise for an hour or more. The dough should have doubled in size before moving onto the next step.

This is a great time to make the hummus.

Remove the fermenting dough from the bowl and punch out the air. With your best estimation skills, portion the dough into eight equal-sized pieces. Roll these sections into balls and place on a flour-dusted space. Preheat the oven to 500°F/260°C; know that European ovens seem to be limited to 250°C, which seems to also be sufficient.

The time it takes for your oven to preheat is the amount of time needed to relax the gluten in your pita balls. After punching down the dough, portioning and forming into balls, the gluten is quite constricted. This second pause is not intended for another rising, but rather a time for the gluten to mellow. If one tried to roll out the dough immediately, they would experience the dough resisting. Wait until the oven hits its temperature and then quickly work the dough with a rolling pin into circle with a thickness less than that of your pinkie. I bake four at a time.

Officially, you should bake for three minutes, flip each pita bread and then bake for a final three minutes. I choose laziness and bake for six minutes, acknowledging that my pita is not symmetrically formed (i.e., the bottom is a bit thicker than the top). While baking in such a high temperature, the outside of the pita quickly forms a skin. As the moisture inside the pita evaporates and cannot escape this skin, the pita bread balloons. Given this, be very careful when removing them from the oven as some pitas may form geyser-like steam vents, which can burn.

Let sit for a couple minutes and then enjoy.

Hummus

I once traveled with my little brother to Istanbul. We stayed in a youth hostile, which had a dining area on its roof. As I enjoyed their hummus, I asked if I could learn how to make it from their chefs. I was kindly escorted into the kitchen, which was quite small and staffed with three annoyed guys – all smoking, no hairnets. It was from this experience that I not only learned to make an easy hummus, but also to never eat anything prepared at that youth hostile again.

Recipe:

• 2 drained and rinsed cans of Garbanzo Beans or Chickpeas
• 1 cup of Tahini (which is ground sesame seeds)
• 1/3 cup of water
• 1/3 cup of lemon juice
• 1/3 cup of olive oil
• Salt to taste (do not skimp on this)

Prior to this culinary tutelage, I had always used garlic in my hummus. I was informed that garlic was only used by Greeks; people in Turkey do not use garlic in their hummus. Since then, I have never again used garlic.

If you have access to a nice food processor, you are free to combine the ingredients in any manner you wish; however, I always recommend breaking down the chickpeas first. For those like me without great equipment, I would recommend the following so that your glorified food chopper can handle pureeing this pita bread condiment:

First break down the garbanzo beans. Add the water and lemon juice so that you have a nice slurry and the beans are further pureed. Add the olive oil and mix further. The final addition of tahini will thicken the hummus to the right consistency. You may be surprised as to how much tahini you are using; this is okay, this is delicious. Finally, salt to taste.

An interesting aside: I had successfully bartered some kimchi for ‘cabbage salt’. This salt was simply a mixture of cabbage and other soup-related vegetables, which were put through a meat grinder, and heavily, heavily salted – it is pretty much salt with color and flavor. This was intended for soup stock, but I have found it to be fantastic in hummus. Otherwise, dill or dried tomatoes are equally good additives for additional flavor.

Final word of warning: your processing device is likely to heat up your hummus. Hot hummus is disgusting; cool hummus is better. Have patience before digging in.

Enjoy!