whole wheat pita bread

PJ Hamel’s whole-wheat pita combines golden whole-wheat flour with bread flour for soft, golden rounds with a subtle nutty flavour. The selected dough includes olive oil and orange juice, and is served with her separately prepared chopped salad.

Both flours, table salt, instant yeast, lukewarm water, olive oil and orange juice are mixed and kneaded into a smooth dough. It rises in a lightly greased bowl until nearly doubled.

The dough is gently deflated, divided into eight balls and rested before being rolled into circles. This selected method bakes them on an ungreased baking sheet, turning the expanding rounds near the end.

Plain olive oil is brushed over the baked pitas, which are lightly wrapped in a cotton towel to keep them soft. The salad combines diced tomato and unpeeled cucumber with table salt and olive oil, with scallions and lemon juice optional.

Hamel serves the pita with that chopped salad. She explains that the dough’s orange juice tempers the mildly tannic whole-wheat flavour, while also offering water as a separate substitution.