Whole Wheat Pita Bread (Page 607)

RECIPE #864

• Date: Wednesday, November 5, 2008 -- 10pm
• Location: Bloomington, IN
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Dining Companion: Matty
• Recipe Rating: B
  

I have been craving some homemade bread and this pita recipe jumped out at me a couple weeks ago. The recipe was exactly what you would expect: throw together a whole wheat bread dough. Knead. Let rise. Divide into discs and roll out into pita shapes. Let rise. Bake. The only thing that was a little odd was the baking step. The Book called for the pita to be baked directly on the oven rack. It is certainly the case that you want to bake pita on a surface that is already hot, but the oven rack is not ideal for this purpose. Oven racks (at least the ones I have) have a lot of gaps in them, and the pita sank through. Eventually, as it rose, it came out of the cracks, but the pita still ended up with some oven rack indentations on them (as you can see in the picture). Plus, it was hard to flip them because they were sunken through the rack in weird ways. I think this would have worked better had the pita been placed on a baking sheet that was already in the oven, or better yet, a pizza stone. It wasn't a major issue, but it is something I would change if I made it again. My other complaint is that I wasn't a huge fan of the texture of this pita. I wish I could identify the way in which it seemed wrong to me, but I had a hard time pinpointing it. It certainly wasn't bad recipe, but I have made better pita.

Here is the recipe.

After a very busy and very challenging week, I had a lovely weekend in Boston with some of my very best friends. I flew into Boston Friday after I taught my classes, and there I met up with Emilee and Rachel, my roommates from my senior year in college and my dear, dear friends. Rach lives in Boston now (so we all stayed at her place all weekend!), and Emilee flew in from California with her absolutely adorable 7 and a half month old son Sam. This little reunion of ours was multi-purpose. On Saturday afternoon at 2pm, Em and I threw Rachel and her husband Eric a baby shower (Rachel is pregnant and due in January!). Then Saturday evening, at 7pm, Em and Rach threw me and Matt an engagement party! It was a busy day, but it was so full of celebration and love -- I had a great time (I think we all did!). Plus, since Matt and I are having a super-small wedding this summer, it really meant a lot to us to be able to celebrate with our friends in Boston. I spent 5 years there in graduate school, and Matt has been there about 2 and a half years now. We certainly care about a lot of people in the Boston area and it was great to see them, and celebrate!

It was a very special few days. Despite having lived quite far apart for more than six years now, Emilee, Rachel, and I are still very close, and that is a huge blessing. It was great to have a weekend together, all staying in the same apartment, chatting, cooking, and just having a good time. It reminded me very much of our time together in college! Plus, now we had Sam there with us, who is the sweetest, most well-behaved baby I have ever met. He was such a trooper all weekend, smiling and laughing through both parties. Here he is with my special gentleman this morning before Sam and Emilee headed back to California:


I'm back in Indiana now, ready for a (hopefully!) calmer week. I am feeling refreshed after my wonderful weekend!