#olga bread

Homemade beef "doner" (not my recipe, probably incorrect & not doner but w/e). Homemade cucumber salad w/ lemon & pepper dressing, homemade yogurt sauce & homemade greek style Pita bread. Specifically the bread from Olga's kitchen (soft and sweet and flexible).

Y’all. This shit was the bomb diggity. It was...so good. Oh. 

It was also a fuck ton of work but holy gods, so worth it!

Full disclosure: This was saved like...gosh, so many weeks back I can’t even remember WHEN we made this, and I have since misplaced the recipe for the “doner” so, mea culpa, but fret not cause that PITA BREAD Y’all.

It’s like the weirdest mix of pita and crepe. (Enjooooy)

It is a very sweet dough, you use honey to make it, and in fact, you start out with milk and honey in a pot and you bring the milk up to a certain temp. You use yeast and some sugar and...not THAT much flour. It is a very sticky dough. 

The hardest part is probably deciding if the dough is kneaded enough. If you do it too much, you can get a very stiff not flexible pita that tastes really just...meh. Because it is overworked. (Did anyone else hear that in Paul’s accent or is that just me?). 

The second hardest part is dividing it evenly if you are like me, an American who never heard of weighing things EVER when it comes to cooking (it is so much better gosh I need a scale y’all). Cause then you just...eyeball it. And that...I mean you get mostly the same results I guess. But I bet if I’d had a scale, it would have been better.

Anywho! Take your weird sticky sweet dough that smells actually really similarly to yeast rolls now that I think of it? Divide into small balls, pick a size and pick an even number. Let rise! Cover with a slightly damp towel or pop some olive oil on them (not too much!) and cover with cling wrap. 

Once they have risen and you are questioning if maybe you should have made them even smaller (not joking), you’re gonna gently roll ‘em out! The trick is to roll them to an even thickness, and also y’know, a good shape for wrapping food in, but also to do that without COMPLETELY knocking all the air out. 

AND NOW THE WEIRDEST BIT.

You don’t throw these bad boys into your super pre-heated oven with cookie sheet and watch them puff like a traditional pita. Nope!

You have a decently hot skillet with a little bit of oil (not much!) brushed on, and you take your dough and slap it on that bad boy! Do NOT touch once it hits the griddle. Let it sizzle and cook and watch as parts of it start to puff, but only a little bit. These don’t actually form a huge continuous pocket like other pita recipes do. Flip when it releases on its own. I burned like, 3 before I recognized wtf that looks like so no worries if you burn some, we live and learn yes? Alright yes good. 

Rinse and repeat with all your lovely little dough balls. 

and I answered their ask privately but I figured, why not share it.  

 I found i can get more than 16 out of this recipe and you wont have to worry about left overs (we have to worry about the bread making it to dinner time haha)

1 Cup milk

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup margarine

1tsp salt

1 package active dry yeast

1/4 cup warm water

1tsp sugar

4 cups flour, divided

1 egg

~Scald milk and remove to large bowl.  Add honey, margarine and salt to milk and stir until margarine is melted. Set aside; cool to lukewarm.

 In small cup or bowl combine yeast, warm water and sugar; stir until sugar is dissolved and set aside until milk mixture is cooled.

Add 1 1/2 cups of the flour to the lukewarm milk mixture and beat well.  Beat in egg and yeast mixture until thoroughly combined.  Add remaining 2 1/2 cups of flour, a little at a time, until a sticky dough is formed.  Turn out on a floured surface and knead for about two minutes.  The dough will be sticky but do not add more flour.  Place dough in oiled bowl, turning once to oil the whole surface of dough.  Cover and let stand in warm place until the dough doubles in bulk.  

Punch down  the dough and remove to working surface and divide into 16 equal pieces.  Roll out each piece to a circle 8-10 unches in diameter. Don't worry if the circles aren't perfect but they must be no thicker than 1/8th inch.   Heat a large dry skillet over medium-high heat; do not use any oil or grease.  Bake each circle 15 seconds, flip and bake another 10 seconds on the other side, unti mottled brown spots appear.  Do not overcook.  Bread should be flexible.