Pita Bread Syrian Food

PITA BREAD

Steps:

• Set a pizza stone on the bottom rack of your oven and preheat to 500 degrees F.
• In a bowl, combine the warm water and yeast. Let it stand until foamy, about 10 minutes. *If you have never worked with active dry yeast before, please read up on how this works.*.
• In a food processor, pulse the flour and salt together. While the machine is on, pour in the yeast mixture through the processor feed/hole. Then pour in the warm milk. Process the dough until it forms a ball.
• Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead it a few times. Form the dough into a ball. Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough ball to the bowl. Turn the dough ball to coat all sides with the oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
• Lightly dust a work surface with flour. Punch down the dough and cut it in half. then cut each half into 8 pieces and roll them into balls. Then flatten them into 6 inch rounds. Arrange the rounds on the work surface, cover with plastic wrap and let rise until puffy - about 25 minutes.
• Using a lightly floured pizza peel (or floured spatula) slide 4 of the rounds onto the hot pizza stone and bake for about 5 minutes, or until the pitas puff up. Repeat with the remaining 4 rounds.
• Serve hot or wrap in foil to keep warm.
• *Note: the flattened, unbaked pita rounds can be frozen for up to 1 month. Let them thaw completely, then let them rest at room temperature for about 20 minutes before baking.

QUICK AND EASY SYRIAN-LEBANESE-POCKET-PITA BREAD!

Steps:

• Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a large sturdy bowl (hard plastic or stainless steel). Form a little well in the center.
• Heat the water in a microwave safe dish for one minute.
• Pour the water into the flour well and mix the ingredients with a spatula as far you can. Place a dish of cool water in a bowl next to you as you begin to knead by hand.
• Knead the dough in the bowl by hand for at least 5-10 minutes, dipping your fingertips into the bowl of water as you knead. This will help create a smooth, elastic finish. You know your dough is ready when the surface is smooth and doesn't have pock-marks. The dough will feel slightly sticky as you knead it, but should not stick to your hands.
• Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and cut with a knife (or separate by hand) into equal sized pieces - 8 for larger rounds or 20 for small pitettes. Roll each piece into a smooth ball and lay on clean dish cloth or floured cutting board or surface, keeping them covered with another cloth.
• Once all of the balls are rolled and resting, cover them with a clean cloth and lightly pat the cloth with water on your finger tips to keep them moist, or spray lightly with a water mister. Let the balls rest for 30 minutes.
• After 30 minutes rest, preheat oven to 450 degrees with a baking stone or pizza pan on bottom rack inserted.
• As the oven preheats, roll each ball on a lightly floured surface into a flat round, no thicker than 1/4". The thinner the round, the better your pocket. Turn them over to roll them, trying to keep the round as best you can. If the dough sticks to the rolling pin, dip your finger tips in a little flour and coat the surface of the round as you roll. Make sure the edges are rolled out equally and not thicker than the center. Lay each round on the cloth or floured surface to rest again as the oven preheats. Keep them in the order your rolled them.
• Once the oven is ready, bake each round (or several at a time depending on size) on your baking stone, being careful to place them BOTTOM SIDE UP for 90 seconds to 2 minutes. The rounds should start to bubble on top and will "poof" up with the pocket. Once the pocket is formed, remove them from the oven and place onto clean surface to cool. The bottoms will be just starting to brown as you remove them from the oven.
• Once completely cooled, they can be stored in a freezer bag and frozen until ready to use - they will thaw quickly on the counter.

SYRIAN SALAD

Steps:

• In a large salad bowl, combine the first 13 ingredients. Sprinkle with feta and Parmesan cheeses. In a jar with a tight-fitting lid, combine dressing ingredients; shake well. Drizzle over salad; toss to coat.

SYRIAN BREAD

Steps:

• Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select Dough cycle; press Start.
• Preheat oven to 475 degrees F (245 degrees C).
• Once the dough has risen, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into eight equal pieces and form into rounds. Cover the rounds with a damp cloth and let rest.
• Roll dough into thin flat circles, about 8 inches in diameter. Cook two at a time on preheated baking sheets or a baking stone until puffed up and golden brown, about 5 minutes. Repeat for remaining loaves.