Whole Wheat Pita Bread

Ingredients

• 1 cup very warm water
• 1 tbsp active dry yeast
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2+ cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vegetable oil

Directions

Put 1 cup very warm water, yeast, and sugar in medium bowl. Add 2 cups whole wheat flour, salt, and oil. Mix well. Turn out onto a floured board and knead for 5 minutes, adding flour as necessary.

Let dough stand, covered, in bowl at room temperature until almost doubled, 45-60 minutes. Punch down dough.

Turn dough onto lightly floured surface. Divide dough into 8 equal parts. Shape each part into a ball and let sit for 5 minutes.

Roll out each ball into a circle 6 inches in diameter (if you have a small tortilla press, you can use one for this) and place on an ungreased, floured cookie sheet. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let stand in a warm place until nearly doubled, about 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 500F, remove plastic wrap and bake pitas until lightly browned and puffy, 5 to 7 minutes. This is the fun part, we call it "Oven TV" at our house, as the pitas puff up like balloons.

Remove from cookie sheet and place on paper toweling or cooling racks. You can cover with a slightly damp dish towel to keep them nice and moist. Cool. To eat, cut in half with pizza cutter or kitchen scissors, fill with desired toppings.

The pocket is formed from the hot air produced inside the bread. It's important to let the bread rise long enough, particularly once it is rolled out into the pita breads. Also, if you must decrease the amount of sugar, the rising time will be longer, I learned this first hand, my "low sugar" pitas became pizza crusts instead!

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