Pitas

     My kitchen. Mostly a lab for humble experiments, sometimes influenced by a recipe found online, altered by substituting every other ingredient for a variation that we can find locally.
     Living in the land of creepily sweet bread (often stuffed with red beans or topped with "crispy pork flakes"), I'd like to improve at making my own bread.
     This month's experiment: pitas. These turned out well with a nice pita-pocket in the center of about 65% of the pitas that came out of the oven. I don't really know how that happens, but I think it's impressive.

     First, I mixed:
     -1 cup flour
     -1 Tablespoon wheat germ
     -2 teaspoons salt
     -2 teaspoons yeast
     -1 Tablespoon sugar.

     Then I added 1 cup of warm water and 1 Tablespoon of oil. I beat it vigorously for 3 minutes, then I added about another cup and two thirds until the dough was really moist but not ridiculously sticky.

I kneaded it for about 7 minutes, then formed it into a large, tight ball. I used my metal scraper to divide it into 8 pieces...

Then I formed each piece into a ball and covered them with a damp towel for 30 minutes to rest. While they were resting, I preheated the oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. After 30 minutes, I used a rolling pin to flatten each pita to be pretty thin (I'm not really sure how thin... not like paper, but definitely thinner than 1/2 inch).

I placed them on tin foil because I read somewhere that this creates "softer heat" and then I put the tin foil directly on the oven rack and baked the pitas 5-8 minutes until they puffed up in the middle and were golden brown.

We have tried these with tuna, with jelly, with fruit and yogurt, and even as pita pizzas!