Pita bread or Arabic bread

Procedure

Pita bread or Arabic bread is very easy to prepare. Per l'impasto CON LIEVITO MADRE, put in a bowl the flour, aggiungere il lievito madre a pezzettini e l'acqua. Knead, by hand or better with a knear or planetary, finché l'acqua non è stata assorbita e l'impasto non inizia a diventare omogeneo. Add salt first, kneading until absorbed, e poi l'olio. Once you get a homogeneous dough, transfer it to the worktop and knead by hand for 5 minutes vigorously, finché l'impasto non sarà liscio ed elastico.

Per l'impasto con LIEVITO DI BIRRA FRESCO è sufficiente seguire lo stesso procedimento ma sciogliendo prima il lievito di birra fresco in poca acqua a 26 gradi (and here we go back to the kitchen thermometer that I've told you so many times to buy).

L'impasto con LIEVITO DI BIRRA SECCO è il più semplice, perché è sufficiente aggiungere il lievito di birra in granuli alla farina e procedere poi unendo l'acqua e via via come vi ho descritto sopra.

Una volta fatto l'impasto, you can decide whether to cover it with food film and store it in the fridge overnight, in modo da fare maturare l'impasto, or whether to leave in the day. In the first case, once you have completed rest in the refrigerator, pita bread should be brought back to room temperature and then it must rise until doubling. If you haven't put it in the fridge, just cover it with food film and wait for it to double.

When the dough has doubled, divide it into balls weighing 80-100 grams maximum. Round them up (pirlandole as for brioche or panettone) and cover with food film. L'impasto deve nuovamente raddoppiare, but it's going to take a little time.

When the dough balls will be doubled in volume, spread them with your fingertips on the worktop lightly sprinkled with semoless or flour. You have to get a flat disc, thin but not too (about half a centimeter). Cover the dough discs and leave to rise for 15-20 minutes.

For cooking, you can choose between the static oven at the highest temperature or (recommended) a cast-iron or lava stone plate. In this case, preheat the plate (better if with sheddingflamma on the stove) and, once hot, put on the pita bread and cover with a lid, so that the heat spreads evenly. When you see small bubbles forming on the surface, girate la pita e cuocetela per pochi secondi sull'altro lato. Then, turn it over again and let it cook over low heat and always covered: as you see in the VIDEO TUTORIAL, the surface of the pita will swell and the bread will look like a balloon. All cooking should last very little, 3-4 minutes maximum. Once cooked, put the pita on a wire rack. When you cook the other pite, stack them on the previous ones: this way the heat will keep the Arabic bread moist. Pite should be eaten fresh, because just made are very soft and yielding and you can open in half and stuff or even roll.