Syrian Pita Bread

Total Time: 2 hrs 30 mins Preparation Time: 2 hrs Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup warm water
• 3 3/8 teaspoons active dry yeast (1 1/2 envelopes)
• 6 cups bread flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 cups warm milk
• extra-virgin olive oil, for the bowl

Recipe

• 1 set a pizza stone on the bottom rack of your oven and preheat to 500 degrees f.
• 2 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.*.
• 3 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.
• 4 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.
• 5 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.
• 6 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.
• 7 serve hot or wrap in foil to keep warm.
• 8 *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.