- Whole-Whole-Wheat Pita Bread

Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

We experimented with pita tonight and it wasn't an experiment at all - it's easier than pie. We call this Whole-Whole-Wheat Pita because all of the whole-wheat pita recipes online call for part white flour. We don't get it because this recipe worked out so perfectly, we can't imagine why white flour is needed.

Our most favorite way to eat this bread will be described in the next post called "Lubneh Dip with Pita Bread and Cucumbers." We will just salivate til then.

This is adapted from chow.com. We used King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour and couldn't find any flax seed so we skipped that.

Whole Whole Wheat Pita Bread

2 cups whole-wheat flour
1 package active-dry yeast
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons just-ground flax seed
2 tablespoons flour for dusting
3/4 to 1 cup water

Mix flour, sea salt, freshly ground flax seed (use a clean coffee grinder - or spice grinder) and yeast and stir to combine.

Add water slowly, stirring with a spatula and eventually your paws as flour becomes a dough. Only add water til the dough is stiff and rather dry dough. Form into a ball and knead it til your wrists ache. Or use a mixer with a bread hook. Knead it until it's stiff and elastic and smooth. Probably 10 minutes.

Divvy up the dough into 8 pieces, roll each into a ball and cover with a damp flour sack towel. Leave the dough undisturbed to rise for an hour or so, until doubled. Flatten each ball into a disc and roll it out on a floured surface.




Heat the oven to a scorching 500F, and bake each round on the middle rack for about six minutes. Transfer to a plate and cover with a damp towel. Eat warm with dinner. Store any extra in a plastic bag in the fridge.

Tips from Guthrie: We dogs used a bread mixer, even for this little smidgen of dough, and we were writing our blog and looking for handsome pictures of ourselves so we accidentally let it knead for 20 minutes. Oh, it was lusciously elastic when we put it to bed to rise. Go for 20 minutes of kneading. When we went to bake them we found 6 minutes was Far too long. We used a pizza stone in the oven and thought they were best at 3-4 minutes. But we rolled them thin, too. They puff up in the oven, and then deflate (if they're not too crispy).

Tips from Elias: Just read the next post. Read the next post. This is how we like to eat it most: Pita with Lubneh and Cucumbers.