Whole wheat pita bread

If you want to skip my "boring war story" and get to the recipe just scroll down to the part that says "This is what I did" In blue. 

Some events in life leave us no choice but to improvise or be inventors. In 1991, during the war in Iraq many people closed their shops and stores. Bread, the simplest food, was just nowhere to be found. Food was rationed, or I guess I should say ingredients were rationed. Every family, depending on how many family members they had, received a certain amount of flour, rice, sugar, oil and a few other things. 

We used the stove/oven to make bread most of the time. The ovens ran on gas that was delivered to our house in a tank, we usually had about 2 or 3 full tanks at a time, but eventually we ran out and there was nobody delivering because most people stayed home during those 40 days and did not work. 

One thing we were still getting was oil for our heaters and lamps (there was no electricity, of course). So eventually someone figured out how to make pita bread on top of one of the heaters. I'm not sure who exactly it was that discovered this, but the news traveled from home to home and once we heard about it we decided to try. 

The secret was the type of heater used. It was called the "Aladdin" heater. Ex. below

In addition to the heater we needed a piece of window screen (metal mesh not plastic). We took the top of the heater off and put the screen around the open top. The wick is round and at the bottom of the heater, the cylinder is filled with hot air and heats up the screen on top and that is what cooks the bread! 

Recently I've been wanting to make my own pita bread and figured out how to recreate this sort of setting. It is not perfect, but it worked!

This is what I did!!!

Instead of the heater I just used the stove. We have a gas stove so it is perfect, not sure an electrical stove would work. Instead of the cylinder of the heater I used a big aluminum can, that had some peanuts or something, washed it and made sure all the glue around the outside was burned off before cooking on it. Then for the top I just used a splatter shield that has a handle, it is exactly the same thing as a window screen! 

Ingredients:

1 pack of dry quick rising yeast

1 and 1/2 cups warm water

3 cups of flour (Whole wheat if you want your bread whole wheat)

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of sugar

A little bit of oil.

Directions: 

Dissolve the yeast and sugar in a half cup of warm water, cover and let sit for about 10 minutes. When the top is frothy it is ready.

In a bowl add the flour, salt yeast mix and the remaining cup of warm water. Mix until it is sticky or like elastic. Take it out of the bowl and kneed on a flat surface for about 3 minutes. Coat the bowl with some vegetable oil place the dough in the bowl, turn it over so both sides are coated with oil. Cover and let rise for 2-3 hours. 

When the dough is ready pinch off small sections and flatten them on a flour covered surface. The diameter no bigger than that of your metal can, and the thickness about 3 millimeters. 

The can must be open on both sides so make sure to use a can opener to open the bottom, then place it on top of the stove. place the screen on top of the can and turn on to medium heat/flame. 

Place the dough on top of the screen. Wait for 30 seconds and the top should start to bubble, either in several small bubbles:

Or one big bubble that makes it's way through the whole piece:

After the bubbles appear wait a few more seconds then flip it over to cook the other side. There is no specific timing for this, I would say experiment with 20-30 seconds or changing the amount of heat. 

If the dough does not bubble at all that's ok, just flip it over anyway so it does not burn.

Once both sides are cooked they are ready!

It's a little time consuming but good for a weekend or a day off and it really does taste a lot better than store bought pita bread! 

I've also prepared a snack to go with this bread. Labne (a thick yogurt) with Zaatar (Thyme mix) and olive oil. This makes a great dip for pita bread and is a common breakfast item! 

I hope you enjoyed reading and let me know if you try it out or if you have any questions!! 

Love, Peace and FOOD!