Pita Chips from Homemade Pitas

I've recently come to realize how incredibly out of shape I've gotten.  Something about the winter makes me hate exercise.  I think it is because it is always raining and dark when I get home from work during the winter, making jogging outside a pain.  Also, I hate treadmills and have an aversion towards working out in a gym in front of other people.  Clearly I need to work on these phobias in the future, but luckily it is summer now so I can jog outside again. Huzzah!  :-)

In an effort to get healthier I've made a midyear resolution to not eat any more "junk" food....unless I make it myself ;-).  This way if I really have a craving I can still have treats, but without all the extra salt/preservatives/high fructose corn syrup.  I'm a firm believer that there is no such thing as homemade "junk" food. If it's made with love, how could it be junk!? Well, we'll see how long this resolution lasts, but I'm having fun so far. 

Pita chips have been a weakness of mine ever since I started snacking on them during my lab meetings.  Salty and crispy and perfect to dip in hummus.  Luckily it turns out they are super simple to make at home and even better than the ones in the bag.  I love that I can flavor them however I want when I make them at home.   Spicy AND garlicky?  Yes please!

Perhaps I should make a "you too can bake bread!" series.  This recipe would certainly been in it.  The pitas by themselves are easy and super delicious.

For the pitas, adapted from Good Eats n Sweet Treats

Ingredients
Makes 8 pitas

3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 packet instant dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water

Method

Sift together the flour, salt, sugar and yeast.  Make a little well in the middle and add the warm water. You are supposed to add 2 tablespoons of oil at this point, but I totally forgot and the pitas still turned out amazing, so I'll continue to leave it out in the future.

With a wooden spoon stir the water into the flour until it forms a ball.  If it is too dry (not all the flour is incorporated) add more warm water 1 tablespoon at a time.  If it is too wet (you can't knead it without it sticking to everything) add more flour, 1 tablespoon at a time.

Knead the dough for 10 minutes.  I kneaded it by hand, you could probably also use a stand mixer.

Place the ball of dough in a clean, oiled bowl.  Cover and let rise until doubled in size--this should take between 1 and 2 hrs. Punch down the dough and divide into eight equal (or if you are me kind of similarly sized) pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, then let the balls sit, covered, for 20 minutes.

While the dough is resting place a cookie sheet in the oven and preheat the oven to 450F.  Take each of the balls and stretch by hand until they are about 1/4" thick and 6' in diameter.  You know, pita shaped!! =]  Throw them (so you don't burn yourself!) two at a time onto the hot sheet.  Bake for 3-5 minutes until golden brown.  Pull the done ones out with a set of tongs and throw the next batch in.

Cool and enjoy!

For the pita chips

Ingredients

Pitas, homemade or store bought
Olive oil
Salt
Spices--black pepper, cayenne pepper, garlic salt, or any other combination

Method

Preheat oven to 350F.

Massage the whole pitas with olive oil, just enough so that the spices will stick on the outside.  Sprinkle with spices.  I used sea salt, cayenne and garlic powder.  I didn't measure, I just sprinkled.

Cut the seasoned pitas into chip sized pieces. Bake for 15 minutes on a cookie sheet, stirring once, until the chips are very crispy and browned.

Cool a bit and enjoy.  :-)  They are GREAT with fresh hummus or salsa.  ooooh, or guacamole!

Skillet Cornbread

I haven't been very inspired to cook much recently, so this recipe is from when I made my mom's baked beans. I've been living off of roasted veggies and take-out. Sometimes I just get into a funk. I NEED to start eating better/healthier though as I keep feeling super sluggish! How do you get out of cooking funks?

This cornbread isn't the absolute best cornbread I've ever eaten, but it is super easy, fast, vegan, made from pantry staples and still freakin' delicious. Also, it is a sweet cornbread. If you omit the honey and add some savory spices and jalapenos I'm sure it would be delicious as well.

Best of all? It only messes up two bowls and a non-stick skillet (which you can just wipe out). Awesome for us lazies I tell you, awesome!

I based my recipe on Peggy's skillet cornbread recipe found here.

PS.  I just found her blog and I LOVE it.  Check it out.  

First you mix wet and dry, separately.  

 

Then, mix them together and pour into a pre-heated skillet.  

 

Bake for a short bit (15 min). 

And enjoy!

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Skillet Cornbread

by June-9-2011

An easy vegan cornbread. Sweet style.

Ingredients

• 1C Cornmeal
• 1/2C Whole wheat pastry flour
• 1tsp Salt
• 1tsp Baking powder
• 1tsp Baking soda
• 1C Soy milk
• 1Tbs Lemon Juice
• 1/4C Applesauce
• 2Tbs Honey
• 2Tbs Vegan butter, melted

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400F and heat a 9" nonstick (or greased conventional) skillet. 2. Mix soy milk and lemon juice in a small mixing bowl, set aside. 3. Sift together corn meal, flour, baking power, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
4. Whisk applesauce, honey and melted vegan butter into the soy milk mixture.
5. Make a well in the dry ingredient, add the wet ingredients to the center and mix until combined. 6. Carefully remove the heating skilled from the oven and pour in the batter. 7. Bake for 15 minutes. Cool and enjoy served with vegan butter and honey!

Details

Prep time: 5 mins Cook time: 15 mins Total time: 20 mins Yield: 8 slices

Zucchini Bread, Healthified (kinda)

 

This week I received a bunch of beautiful zucchinis in my CSA box.  Zucchinis remind me of home--they were always overrunning the veggie gardens.  I enjoyed trying to think of ways to use all of them.  I was especially proud to manage to fit one into a dish that a certified zucchini hater (Mr. C) would eat, my gallo pinto!  

After a series of restless nights with some awful dreams (including one where Max (see below, right) was terribly beat up), I really wanted to make some comforting food. 

Well, long story short, I snuck some more zucchinis into Mr. C's diet and made a healthy-ish dessert bread that is really great AND comforting ..and vegan......and easy. :-) 

I might have put some dark chocolate chips in Mr. C's to make it more appealing to the veggie hater.

Hope everyone's dreams are better than mine have been! 

Vegan Zucchini Bread

adapted from hell yeah it's vegan

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Zucchini Bread

by Karla May-1-2011

My recipe for vegan zucchini bread.

Ingredients

• 6Tbs Ground Flaxseeds
• 1/2C +1Tbs Warm Water
• 1/2C Oil
• 1/2C Applesauce, unsweetened
• 2C Raw Sugar
• 1Tsp Vanilla
• 3 (medium) Zucchinis, grated
• 3C Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
• 1Tsp Salt
• 1Tbs Baking Soda
• 1Tsp Baking Powder
• 1Tbs Cinnamon
• 1Tsp Nutmeg
• 1/2Tsp Allspice
• 1/2-1C Chocolate Chips

Instructions

1.) Prep: Whisk together flaxseed and water. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease 2 loaf pans. 2.) Mix together all ingredients up to and including the zucchini, until combined. 3.) Mix together the remaining ingredients (except chocolate chips), add in wet ingredients and mix just until combined. Stir in chocolate chips gently and split batter into 2 loaf pans. 4.) Bake at 350F for about 1hr or until a fork comes out clean. Cool and enjoy! (I didnt cool, it was doughy and delicious).

Details

Prep time: 20 mins Cook time: 1 hour Total time: 1 hour 20 mins Yield: 2 Loaves

Zucchini

Beer Bread!

This bread is so good that I no longer buy bread, ever.  It is also well-liked by all and one of my most requested recipes. If you love bread but have been afraid to try baking it at home, I urge you to give this recipe a try.

Commercial bread making ovens rely on steam injectors to develop a nice chewy crust.  This recipe manages to achieve the same result by trapping the steam from a somewhat wet dough by using a lidded dutch oven for baking.  The vinegar gives the bread a nice sour touch and the flavor of the bread is greatly influenced by the flavor of the beer used.  I find that a wheat beer or stout give the best flavor.  In this case I used a very hoppy beer that was given to me by a super awesome lab-mate.  The bread tasted really, really hoppy.  I personally loved this flavor, but it might surprise someone expecting a "normal" bread flavor.  If you are not a big fan of beer, a Guinness or a Heff will give awesome flavor without seeming "beer-y".   

Beer Bread. 

Adapted from Nine Bean-rows.

Ingredients:
3 Cups Bread Flour (the highest rated on cooks illustrated is King Arthur)
1 Packet Dry Yeast (I used active dry)
1 tbs Salt
2/3 Cup Warm Water
2/3 Cup Beer
1Tbs vinegar (white, white wine, apple cider, or rice)

Method:
1. Mix together dry ingredients, either in a stand mixer or with a whisk.  Add the warm water to the beer and sprinkle over the dry ingredients.  Add the vinegar and mix (with the bread hook or a wooden spoon) until combined. 
2. Place combined dough in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel and let rise 12-24 hrs.  It should rise in a place that is average to warm room temp (65+).  Because it is so cold in my condo that includes turning on the space heater, hopefully this isn't true for you!  It should look airy and slightly wet after rising and should be at least double in size.

3. Lightly flour a piece of parchment paper (not waxed paper, tried that once, no go) and knead the bread around on it until it is easy to shape into a ball.  You may need to add additional flour.  All together this should not take more than a minute or two.  Once shaped into a ball let the bread rise (in a bowl, on the parchment paper) for an additional 2 hours until doubled in size.  This time it should resemble an uncooked loaf.

4. Pre-heat oven to 500F with your cooking pan inside.  This should either be a dutch oven or a large heavy pot that has a lid.  After 30 minutes reduce oven temperature to 425F and add bread (on parchment paper) directly to the pot.  Cover with the lid and bake for 30 minutes.

5.  Remove the lid and bake an additional 10 to 15 minutes until the crust is nice and brown.

If you enjoy the bread there is an entire movement based on this strategy of bread making.  I urge you to try other recipes and let me know how they are!!  There is even a cookbook.  A cookbook that I would love, by the way ;-) ;-)