Whole Wheat Pita Bread

As many of you already know from this post, I have been on a hummus kick.  My sister and I have tried many different accompaniments to have with the hummus and we have decided that no matter how creative and adventurous we get, pita bread just taste the best with it.  During one of my middle of the night feedings with N last night, I decided to look up how to make pita bread on my own.  Since I already had some whole wheat flour, this morning I gave it a go! I did some research on the main ingredients of pita and adapted it to accommodate the things I already had in my pantry.  Most of my recipe is adapted from here, but this is my version:

Ingredients:
1 Packet of active dry yeast
3 Cups whole wheat flour (only 67cents/lb right now at Sprouts!)
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
not pictured:
olive oil, warm water

 Dissolve the yeast packet in 1/2 cup of warm water and mix. 

 Add sugar and mix.  Let sit for 15 minutes until the mixture is foamy.

 In a separate bowl, combine flour and salt.

This is the foamed up yeast mixture after sitting for 15 minutes:

Take the foamed yeast mixture and add it to the center of the flour/salt mixture.

Slowly add a cup of warm water and stir with a wooden spoon until everything is all mixed together.

Place your dough on a floured surface and knead it for 15 minutes.  This seems like a long time to stand there and knead but I brought the dough over to the baby and made faces at here while I kneaded.  Be creative, but make sure you knead for 15 minutes.  You know the dough is good to go when it is no longer sticky.

Coat a large bowl with olive oil and place your dough inside, turning it a couple times to make sure all the dough has some oil on it.  Let the dough sit in a warm place (I put mine by the kitchen window) for 3 hours.  It will double in size.  Being the impatient person that I am had a hard time waiting 3 whole hours for this! I was so excited to get to the fun part.  Here are some things I did to pass the time: a load of laundry, feed the baby, decorate a picture frame, get dinner ready, talk to the sister.

All those things I found to do while waiting 3 hours actually made the rising time go by really fast!  Take your now doubled dough and roll it into a long rope.

Pinch off small pieces of your rope and make some balls.  Place the balls on a floured surface, cover for 10 minutes.  While you're waiting for the 10 minutes to pass, place your oven rack on the very bottom and preheat the oven to 500 degrees.  Preheat your baking sheet too.

Roll out each ball into flat circles (mine are not perfect, they have character) :) Bake for 4 minutes.  The bread should be puffy.  Take it out of the oven and flip the pitas with a spatula and bake again for another 2 minutes.

I sprinkled mine with rosemary and ran to the door with one to shove in Josh's face when he got home from work.  

Most recipes say the bread can be stored in a pantry for up to a week!  Make these and some hummus this weekend to share with friends! DO IT!