We are always too excited about the snacks at Suppose Creative Guild meetings to take photos of them (I’ll try harder next time), but they must be shared nonetheless. The guild eats are always beautiful, but more importantly, delicious. Last month Anita brought homemade pitas and hummus. It was just so good I begged for the recipe. Since there are no images to tempt you, you’ll just have to imagine a bowl heaping of perfectly blended and perfectly seasoned hummus speckled with cilantro, surrounded with fluffly warm pita triangles just begging to be devoured. If you’re imagination is good enough, you’ll be wanting this:
Anita’s Hummus
- 1 can garbanzo beans
- juice from half of a lemon
- 1 1/2 Tbsp tahini (sesame paste – this is not absolutely necessary, but I like it)
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 clove of garlic
- 1-2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp cumin (or more to taste)
- salt to taste
- small handful of cilantro (or flat leaf parsley)
Add to food processor and mix until smooth.
I play around with this recipe a lot – sometimes I’ll use other white beans, or experiment with other seasonings. Adding a roasted red pepper is also yummy.
Anita’s Pitas
- 1 package active dry yeast
- 1 tsp sugar (or honey)
- 1 1/2 cups warm water
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 1/2 cups flour, plus more for dusting [I like to mix half white, and half whole wheat - sometimes I need to add a little more flour, just make sure that it's still slightly sticky but pulls away from the side of your mixing bowl]
- 1 tsp olive oil
In the bowl of a heavy-duty electric mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine the yeast, sugar, and warm water; stir to blend. Let the yeast stand until foamy, about 5 to 10 minutes.
Stir in the salt. Add the flour, a little at a time, mixing at the lowest speed until all the flour has been incorporated and the dough gathers into a ball. Turn the mixing speed up to medium or medium high and knead until smooth and elastic (if you stretch it, you should see a “baker’s window”). Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, turn it over to coat, and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to rise until double in size, about 1 1/2 hours. Can keep in fridge up to about 3 days, but usually turns out best if you use it earlier.
Place a large pizza stone on the lower oven rack, preheat the oven (and stone) to 475 degrees F.
Punch the dough down, divide it into 8 pieces, and gather each piece into a ball; keeping all of them lightly floured and covered while you work. Allow the balls of dough to rest, covered, for 15 minutes so they will be easier to roll out.
Using a rolling pin, roll each dough ball into a circle that is about 8-inches in diameter and 1/4-inch thick. Make sure the circle is totally smooth, with no creases or seams in the dough, which can prevent the pitas from puffing up properly. Cover the disks as you roll them out, but do not stack them up. Put 2 pita rounds at a time on the hot pizza stone and bake for 3 to 4 minutes, or until the bread puffs up like a balloon and is pale golden. If you would rather have flat bread, poke the dough with a fork. Watch closely; they bake fast. They take about 3 minutes in my oven. Remove the bread from the oven and place on a rack to cool for 5 minutes; they will naturally deflate, leaving a pocket in the center (unless you poked them!). Wrap the pitas in a large kitchen towel to keep them soft.
