500gstrong white bread flour or plain/all-purpose flour , plus some for dusting
1tablespoonextra virgin olive oil
½teaspoonrock salt
100mlsunflower or vegetable oil, for frying
Instructions
In a large mixing bowl mix dried yeast, sugar and lukewarm water. Leave in a warm spot for about 10 mins until it becomes bubbly and frothy.
In another bowl, mix together flour, rock salt and olive oil. Add this to the mix of water and yeast.
Using your hands, knead everything together for about 5 to 10 minutes until you get an elastic and sticky dough.
Make a rounded dough ball, leave it at the bottom of the mixing bowl. Cover with a clean and wet tea towel and leave in a warm spot until it doubles in size.
Once the pita bread dough has risen, knead it on a dusted surface for about a minute. Cut the dough in half and each half into 4-5 portions (you will get 8-10 portions in total).
On a dusted surface, roll each of the dough portions so that it is about 3mm thick.
In a large frying pan, add about 1 ½ tablespoon sunflower/vegetable oil and set on medium-high heat. When hot, add first rolled pita bread and fry for about 2-3 minutes each side until slightly brown on top. Take off the heat and set aside. Repeat with the remaining portions of bread. Serve immediately with your favourite dips, spreads, salads or as a side dish.
Notes
IMPORTANT:
When using yeast, make sure you don’t add anything too hot to the dough. Hot temperatures kill off the yeast and the dough won’t rise.
For best results, avoid using sea salt in this gyro pita bread recipe. Sea salt has got higher levels of sodium which may prevent the dough from rising. Use rock salt instead.
Sometimes it can be too cold indoors for the dough to rise fast. Put it in a cold (closed) oven where it rises relatively quickly, no matter the weather conditions.
Top tip:To speed up the frying/baking process, fry the bread in two separate frying pans - this will save you about half of the baking time!Possible swaps:
strong white bread flour for plain/all-purpose flour