Instructions

1. Mix the water, the yeast, and one half the flour for about 2 minutes, I used my mixer with the dough hooks, and let it stand for at least ten minutes, or until the sponge gets bubbly maybe as much as half an hour.
2. Fire up the mixer again, add the oil and salt, and then the rest of the flour half a cup at a time until the dough starts pulling cleanly away from the sides of the bowl.
3. The amount of the flour will depend on the humidity and things like that.
4. Let the mixer run on for another five, six minutes or so, then the real*fun* begins.
5. Turn the dough out on a lightly floured board, if you have Wondra flour use that, and give it the*business*.
6. Push away with the heels of your hands, fold over, give it a quarter turn and repete, keep this up as the days frustrations disappear in the warmth and sensuous feeling of well worked dough.
7. Gawds, but I love making bread.
8. Oil the dough lightly and put it in a covered bowl someplace warm till it doubles or better in volume.
9. Turn it out on the board again, punch down and knead lightly.
10. Now, put it in a storage bag at least 3 times the volume of the dough, suck most of the air out and put it in the fridge.
11. Now you have the ready-to-use pita.
12. To bake, pinch off a chunk about the size of a small lemon, let it warm up and then stretch it out to about say nine inches or so.
13. Leave it on the board it will begin to rise slightly.
14. There are two ways to bake the pitas.
15. If you want to heat up the oven, crank it up to 450, If you have a chunk of quarry tile in there use it, or use an overturned baking sheet.
16. Lay thepita dough gently and let it bake until it balloons up, Three minutes max.
17. If it doesn't the tile wasn't sufficiently heated up it'll still be edible but not so nice.
18. OR.
19. On the stovetop get a large skillet, cast iron is best, over fairly high heat.
20. When it's barely smoking, grease it very lightly, Use a paper towel with a bit of oil, then put the pita down gently.
21. In about twenty seconds, turn it over.
22. Cook about a minute till the bubbles begin to form, then turn it over again until it balloons fully.
23. The total cooking time should be no more than three minutes or so and you've got your fresh pita.
24. The dough should keep in the fridge for up to a week, just use as desired.