Make your own pita bread!

When I was a child, we had some close family friends who were from Syria, and I always loved the food I ate at their home, especially the hummus! I didn't know what it was called or how it was made, but it was great. I'm thrilled hummus has come into the mainstream. I haven't quite worked out a good recipe for making it myself yet (I suspect it's a hardware issue), but I've found several sources for inexpensive commercial hummus. Unfortunately, I cannot find decent pita bread for dipping, which is a must for me. So, in the tradition of good homemakers around the world, I've learned to make my own!

Ingredients:

• 4 cups flour (I use 1/2 whole wheat flour)
• 1 1/2 cups hot water
• 1 TBSP dry yeast
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 TBSP sugar
• 1 TBSP olive oil

Mix half of the flour and all the rest of the ingredients well, then let proof for 20 minutes or so, to make sure your yeast is active. Then knead in the rest of the flour to make a soft dough. Let rise once, then punch down and form into 12 equal sized balls.

Heat your oven to 500°F. I like to bake the pitas on my pizza stone, but a heavy baking pan will work also.

Roll out your balls of dough one at a time and bake 3 minutes, turn, then bake for an additional 3 minutes.

They will puff up like a pillow while baking

I like to start one pita, then roll out the next and let it rest for the 3 minutes the first one is baking. They seem to puff up better if they rest for a bit after rolling out.

Once cool, store in a plastic bag in the refrigerator or freezer.