Pita Bread

Our church's Christmas party is this Saturday and after looking over the menu and felt a little overwhelmed, at least for a minute.  There is a reason why I love to cook and eat at home every night, it's because I know what I'm eating is safe and my boys and I won't get sick.  I really leave my comfort zone when I venture out to someone else's cooking.  Well, anyway, the dinner at the party is going to consist of foods reminiscent of meals from Christ's time, and one of the menu items was pita bread.  I thought about taking the easy way out and bringing corn tortillas for my family, it's a flat bread and will work just fine...but, dang it, I want pita bread now!  So, I had to make it. I looked at least 7 or 8 pita recipes online and liked certain aspects of each, so they got conglomerated into this one...I love it.  It's really easy and they turned out so good that I ate it straight up with nothing on it...you can't say that about regular pita bread, can you?  Really, it's so good, I'm definitely going to have to bring enough to share with the other gluten-free people at Church. :) Everyone deserves good bread!

This bread would also make an incredible naan replacement...in fact, I think that's what I'll use from now on.

And what makes this bread even more amazing is that its free from the top 8 allergens and is refined sugar-free, if you want it to be vegan, just sub agave syrup or brown rice syrup for the honey.

Pita Bread
1 1/4 cup warm water
1 tablespoon fast-rising yeast
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3 cups GF flour blend
1 teaspoon salt
1/4-1/2 cup additional warm water

Directions:
In a small bowl mix together water, yeast, honey, oil, and vinegar.  Let sit for 5 minutes to proof.

In a stand mixer, combine flour and salt.  Add in the yeast mixture and mix on low until combined.

Add in enough additional water to make the dough sticky but stay together as a ball.  This won't be the typical gluten-free bread dough which is a thick, sticky batter.  It's does actually resemble regular bread dough, but is quite a bit sticky. I added in just over 1/4 cup to get mine to the right consistency.

Once the consistency is right, mix it on high speed for 3-5 minutes.

Turn the dough out on a floured surface and divide into 8 pieces.

Flatten each piece with your fingers and the palm of your hand, shaping it into a round.  Each pita should be about 5-6 inches.  Place the rounds in a warm place (I placed mine on parchment paper on top of my range...it's always the perfect temp for rising breads, especially if you're preheating the oven at the same time). and cover them with a towel.  Let rise for 30 minutes or until they start to get puffy.

Place a pizza stone on the lowest rack of the oven and preheat the oven to 500F.  Spray the dough rounds lightly with water right before placing them in the oven. Bake each pita for 4-5 minutes, or until the bread puffs.  Make sure to keep the other rounds covered while the pitas in the oven are cooking.

Remove the pita from the oven and place in a brown paper bag and seal it to steam and soften the bread. After they've steamed for at least 5 minutes, place in Ziploc bags to keep them soft. When you cut them in half, if there isn't a hole in the middle, go ahead and slice down inside of the bread to make one.

The bread should keep for a couple of days in the fridge or for about a month or two in the freezer.

This post is featured on Allergy Friendly Fridays and Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays.