Sourdough Pita - Great Blog Swap PLUS Giveaway

Chef Alison of AliBabka

In honor of the first anniversary of the Kosher Connection I have been randomly assigned a fellow kosher blogger to be inspired by. It my my great pleasure to introduce my muse this week, AliBabka. The author is Chef Alison (Barnett) Gütwaks, is a recent graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) in NY. It was important to her to get a well rounded culinary education and not limit herself to kosher culinary colleges. I enjoyed reading about the challenges she faced as a torah-observant Jew cooking in a non-kosher environment.

While reading through AliBabka in search of a recipe I would like to make my own, I enjoyed the creativity, wit, and professional experience that Chef Alison brings to the table. (No pun intended.)

Pita in a pan from AliBabka

In the post "Mo-Rockin In Your Kitchen", guest blogger Elisheva Avital writes about two Moroccan flat breads I have been wanting to try my hand at, pita and moufletta. With the easy access to fresh pita I enjoy in Israel, it's not often I find time to make my own, even if it is healthier and/or tastier. But I thought my blog was in need of both a sourdough entry and a pita recipe. In order to make the recipe my own, I converted her recipe to 90% Whole Wheat Sourdough Pita.


Ingredients:

• 2 cups sourdough starter
• a few drops of water as needed to get the dough to come together
• 2.5-3 cups flour
• 2 tsps salt
• 2 Tblsp olive oil
• 1 squirt of honey (optional, there is no need to substitute another sweetener.)

1. Mix all ingredients except the salt.
2. Knead well, then let rise several hours or overnight.
3. Add salt, knead well, divide into 6-8 balls.
4. Let dough rest.
5. Preheat oven to 475 F/ 250 C or maximum temperature. If you have a pizza stone, preheat that too. In not, preheat the heaviest pan/cookie sheet you have.
6. Gently roll out each ball to about 1 cm (a little less than 1/2 an inch) thick. The thinner you make them, the crispier they will be; thicker and they will be breadier. (I used a silicon mat and silicon rolling pin and backed the pita on parchment paper.)
7. When the oven is hot, carefully toss in the dough rounds without letting too much heat out of your oven. 
8. Bake 2-5 minutes depending on how thick the dough is. I flipped mine after about 3 minutes, then let them bake for another minute, at which time they puffed up.

This was my first time attempting pita, and I am proud to say, THEY PUFFED! My pocket bread had a pocket! I had rolled my pitas very thin, so they split open a little too easily, but would have made great chips. They were quite recognizably "sour". 

I served them as a light dinner with hummus, sauerkraut, "Live Tehina", and "Live Matbucha".

And now for the very sourdough-appropriate GIVEAWAY...

To celebrate one year of Kosher Connection, we are giving away two prizes from Emile Henry. A Bread Cloche valued at $130 and a 4.2 qt Dutch Oven valued at $170! Use the Rafflecopter below to win. You can enter up to 23 ways! Two winners will be chosen at random. 

The contest winners will be contacted via email. They will have 48 hours to respond before other winners are chosen. This contest is open to United States residents over the age of 18. (So sorry! I love all my foreign and under-age readers, but I don't make the rules.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway