Kıbrıs Pidesi (Cypriot Pitta Bread)

Kıbrıs Pidesi (Cypriot Pitta Bread)

Beautiful, soft and puffy, pitta bread pockets, ready to fill up with whatever comes off the mangal. This has been such a fab pastime with the kids over the past few weeks. I usually don’t bother making them myself as my local turkish grocers sells them (but I haven’t been there in over 2 months) and they are so easy to just pick up and fill with grilled hellim or bbq kebab, but the homemade flavour and texture, like most things, is just amazing. 

Makes 6-8 pide 

INGREDIENTS

225ml lukewarm water 

100ml lukewarm milk

1/2 tsp salt 

1/2 tsp sugar 

2 tbsp olive oil

1 sachet instant dry yeast (7g)

500g strong bread flour 

METHOD

Put the water and milk in a jug, stir in the sugar to dissolve, then add the yeast. Leave, covered for 5-10 mins until it activates and bubbles. *Even though it’s instant dry yeast, bread making always works so much better for me when I use dry active yeast this way rather than stirring in with the flour. 

Sift the flour into a large bowl, stir in the salt, then make a well in the centre. Stir the oil into in the liquid/yeast mixture and pour it all into the well in the bowl and bring everything together with your hands. Place on a surface (add a little extra flour for dusting if necessary) and knead for a 8-10 mins until nice and smooth (or in a stand mixer / a hand mixer with dough hooks), tuck the dough under to form a nice ball, then place in an large bowl (greased with a little olive oil), cover the bowl with cling film and leave to one side to prove for an hour. 

After an hour, take the dough out of the bowl and weigh it (mine on average weighs roughly 800g everytime I make this recipe, so I divide the dough into roughly 100g pieces to give me 8equal sized pieces of dough for the second prove).

Start to preheat your oven to the hottest setting now (mine goes up to 260C fan) and lay an upturned baking tray at the bottom of the oven ready to sit the pide on.

Once you have divided the dough into 8 equal pieces, roll them into smooth balls, again tucking the dough under, lay all the dough balls in a tray, cover the tray with cling film and leave to prove for another 20 mins. 

After 20 mins, your oven will be super hot so very lightly flour your work surface and with a rolling pin, roll out each of the balls into an oval shape - I like mine thin but not too thin so roll them out to the thickness you like but make sure they are a nice long oval shape (roughly 20x10cm), Cypriot pitta shape and size. If you roll them out too thin they might go too crispy and could be a little to open and stuff your kebab into!

My oven takes 2 pide at a time, as I like an even cook for all of them, but they are quick to cook and I wrap the cooked ones in a clean tea towel while I make the others. 

Lay two of the uncooked pitta on a flat tray or large board and quickly and carefully transfer them to the upturned hot baking tray at the bottom of the oven and quickly close the oven door. Set your timer for 2 mins 30 secs (they usually take anything from 2-3 minutes to cook and puff up, so keep an eye on them), once they have puffed up and have been in the oven for around 2 1/2 mins, quickly open the oven door and carefully turn them over for another 30 seconds to 1 min, then take them out, wrap them in the clean tea towel, then repeat the cooking process with the 4 remaining pitta. 

I will quickly reheat these on the grills of the bbq later before eating.