Yesterday, I wanted to have some bread for a sandwich, like a some tuna salad, but didn't have the time to make "sandwich" bread, and, didn't start the easy "no knead" bread the night before. So I thought I'd try my hand at some Pita. I'm not a lover of the thick kind you buy at the store. I like a thinner pita, the size doesn't matter to me, but it's the thin part I like most. So, I got out Peter Reinharts' book, Crust and Crumb and gave his recipe a whirl. I didn't start making it until 2:30 in the afternoon and had some greenhouse duties to do, so I didn't want anything to fuss over. What a great recipe this is. There are a few tricks to making this, like a hot oven and a stone or quarry tile in the bottom of the oven that's preheated for at least 1/2 hour to 475 degrees. I tried a few on a heated sheet tray, but the stone pitas worked so much better. I misted the stone with water before putting the dough that I rolled nice and thin on it, and what do you know. They puffed up like a balloon. Only took 3 minutes to bake too! The couple that I tried on the sheet tray, even though I misted the tray, didn't puff as evenly as the ones baked on the stone. Of course, the entire time I was baking these, I was thinking what a nice job a wood fired oven would do! This is a keeper in my repertoire of breads for sure. I'll post a picture and Peters recipe a bit later!
