Monday, December 01, 2008

Ta da - I rolled out of bed this morning - just a bit before seven and after eating two bananas (Egyptian bananas are not very large) I headed out for a walk - yes you read it right - I am endeavouring to get back on the workout schedule - walked for a total of 40 minutes - had a 10 minute break - sat and watched the sea - must admit my pace certainly slowed as I got closer to home - but hey I did it. Now I am going to work on getting some baking done for Christmas - not doing a whole lot - but want a few favourites around.

I think I may have briefly touched on my new bread making endeavour - pocket or pita bread. Now I have no problem making 'western' bread - but I do struggle with making pocket bread - Aymn very kindly brought me 50 kg of flour - so I have been playing around learning how to make it 'properly'. Must admit that the first few tries were not very successful. I brought back yeast from Canada - and it works really well. But still did not have a very great success rate with getting the pockets to puff up. Aymn asked a friend of his what the problem was - showed him a 'sample' of the bread I had made - this friend is a baker - and he gave me a couple of tips - so following those tips I made bread the other day - 25 pockets and out of 25 17 puffed up - YEAH. Of course the downer was that Aymn came along and criticized the ones that did not puff - I had done this wrong or that wrong and next time do not do this or do that - ARGH - managed to really take the wind out of my sails - so to speak - but I got over it - and am quite proud of my accomplishments - would have taken pictures by I did not have my camera at the time - next time I will take pics and post them. Must admit the bread I make is much better than the stuff Aymn made - it was tough as cardboard - at least mine is quite tender. The recipe is very easy - but the trick is to get it to puff up - and I am slowly getting it right. I feel quite tickled when I have a piece of bread and I can make pocket sandwiches now - WOO HOO. Such a life I lead.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do share your recipe for the pita bread.

I would love to try making it fresh.

Sadiyah

Lynn said...

Me too! I would love the recipe to try.

Good for you! Sounds amazing. 17 out of 25 is awesome! And besides.. ....we eat pita like the greeks....we put stuff on Top of it. We eat a lot of pita pizzas around here. So who cares if the "pocket" doesn't appear. : D

on the edge said...

To puff or not to puff , that is The question , lol ! Or as Clinton said ... " I did not inhale !' LOL !Seriously , this is quit a accomplishment Lady !!! And even the best pita's go flat after about 15 minutes of puff , so what's the big deal if they taste good ?

on the edge said...

Hope you had a nice Eid with the family there !