03.15.12

I am on a quest to provide more whole foods to my family. Granted, I still buy Pepperidge Farm Goldfish crackers, and Nutter Butter Peanut Butter Sandwiches every so often. But, I figured I'd take every opportunity I can to make things with real ingredients and whole grains. So, today I tackled homemade whole wheat pitas. I got the inspiration and the recipe from Annie's Eats a few weeks ago. Since then, I've been on the search for whole wheat bread flour. I researched and found that, although I could have just substituted whole wheat flour, but the bread flour makes the bread have a better consistency. I was off to find whole wheat bread flour. I scoured the town (I live in a BIG town! The largest town in the country, by the way.) I even had my trusty sidekick, Nicole, scope out a market for me. She actually went there twice and finally delivered a bag of whole wheat bread flour to me yesterday. I was so excited! I knew that today would be the day my family would dine on wheaty goodness.

With plenty of time to mix, rise, form, rest, bake I got my recipe out and started to make the dough for the pitas. Um, turns out the recipe just called for 1 1/4 cups of wheat flour and 1 1/4 cups of bread flour. I didn't need whole wheat bread flour after all. Oops. Sorry Nicole.  The final product was awesome. All without the help of any white flour. Go whole grains!

The recipe also calls for instant yeast. Again, with a little googling, I found out that I didn't need instant yeast, as long I proofed the yeast in some of the water before mixing the dough.

Whole Wheat Pita Bread (from Annie's Eats)
makes 8 medium sized pitas


Ingredients:
2¼ tsp. instant yeast
1 tbsp. honey
1¼ cups warm water (105˚-115˚ F), divided
1½ cups bread flour, divided
1½ cups whole wheat flour, divided
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp. salt
Cornmeal, for sprinkling

Directions:
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the yeast, honey and ½ cup of the water.  Stir gently to blend.  Whisk ¼ cup of the bread flour and ¼ cup of the whole wheat flour into the yeast mixture until smooth.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside until doubled in bulk and bubbly, about 45 minutes.

 Transfer the ball of dough to a lightly oiled bowl, turning once to coat, and let rise in a warm draft-free place, about 1 hour, until doubled in bulk.Remove the plastic wrap and return the bowl to the mixer stand, fitted with the dough hook.  Add in the remaining ¾ cup of warm water, 1¼ cups bread flour, 1¼ cups whole wheat flour, olive oil and salt.  Knead on low speed until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. 


Place an oven rack in the middle position.  Place a baking stone in the oven (if using) and preheat to 500˚ F.
Once the dough has risen, transfer to a lightly floured work surface, punch down the dough and divide into 8 equal pieces.  Form each piece into a ball.  Flatten one ball at a time into a disk, then stretch out into a 6½-7 inch circle.  Transfer the rounds to a baking sheet or other work surface lightly sprinkled with cornmeal.  Once all the rounds have been shaped, loosely cover with clean kitchen towels.  Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes, until slightly puffy.

All 8 pitas didn't fit on on baking sheet!

Transfer 4 pitas, 1 at a time, onto the baking surface.  (Note: These can be baked on a baking stone or directly on the oven racks.  I use a pizza stone, but either method is fine.) Bake 2 minutes, until puffed and pale golden.  Gently flip the pitas over using tongs and bake 1 minute more.

Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.  Repeat with the remaining pitas.  Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Dinner tonight was some roasted chicken an a green salad topped with fried goat cheese. Yes, FRIED goat cheese.

Fried Goat Cheese

You will need

1 egg, beaten
1 "log" of goat cheese sliced into 1/2 inch slices
1/2 cup of panko bread crumbs
2 Tbsp all purpose flour
3 Tbsp canola oil

(Note: To cleanly slice the goat cheese, run a very sharp knife under hot water between slicing each piece.)

Set up a "coating station" with your goat cheese slices, a small bowl for your flour, your beaten egg, and a bowl with your panko crumbs.

Dip each slice of cheese into the flour, then the egg, then the crumbs.  In a small sauté pan, heat oil over medium high heat. When you can drop a bread crumb into the oil and have it sizzle, place the slices of coated cheese into the pan. Cook for about 2 minutes on each side until they are golden. Remove from the pan and drain on paper towel.

I like to use these gooey, crunchy nuggets to top a green salad.