Wholewheat Pitta Bread.

I've always fancied having a go at making some pitta breads but always thought it was going to be a bit of a faff. How wrong was I! These are so easy to make and ridiculously cheap, 22p for six! I will definitely be adding these to our regular menu as they are just so lovely and simple to make.

You'll need:
9oz Wholemeal Flour
7g Sachet of Dried Yeast
6floz Lukewarm Water

Method:
Mix the flour and yeast together in a bowl and make a well in the middle.
Add the water until it starts to form a dough (you may not need it all)
Kneed for 5-10 minutes and divide into 6 balls.
Roll out the balls to a thin pitta shape and place on an oiled baking tray. Remember your dough will rise so you need to roll it thinner than you think.
Pre heat oven too 250C/230Cfan/Gas 9
Leave in a warm place until the pittas have doubled in size.
Bake in the oven for 5-10 minutes or until they are just starting to colour.
Place them on a wire rack to cool.
Enjoy!

Tasty Wholewheat Loaf.

I love bread, there's nothing better than on a cold day tearing up a slice of bread and dunking it into a thick soup, however I do not love what is in bread, shop bought bread to be exact.

Here are what's in one of the top selling UK brands of wholemeal bread.
Wholemeal Wheat Flour, Water, Kibbled Malted Wheat, Wheat Protein, Yeast, Sugar, Vegetable Oil, Salt, Malted Barley Flour, Vinegar, Soya Flour, Emulsifiers: E471, E472e; Preservative: Calcium Propionate (added to inhibit mould growth); Flour Treatment Agent: Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C).

Here's what's in mine.
Wholewheat flour, Water, Yeast, Olive oil, Dark brown sugar, Salt.

Yep, that's it, 6 ingredients, you can also completely omit the salt if you want to. It's taken me a while to get this recipe right, we've had dry bread, soggy bread, crumbly bread, sunken bread and finally we have this lovely soft bread and best of all it only cost 88p!

You'll need:
16floz Lukewarm Water
1.5lb Wholemeal Flour
3 tbps Olive Oil
2 tsp Dried Yeast
3 tsp Brown sugar
1 tsp salt
50g Seeds (optional)

I was given a bread maker and it's fab, if you don't have one I can highly recommend getting one if bread is something you eat a lot of, if you do, throw it all in and set it to "quick" (the booklet will tell you to only do white bread on quick, but I've tried on the wholewheat setting and it's turned out horrible and heavy every time.

Dont have a breadmaker?
Don't worry you can still make this.

Put your dry ingredients in a bowl and make a well in the middle.
Add the oil and most of the water and mix into a dough. (add more water if necessary)
Kneed on a lightly floured surface for a good 10 minutes, until smooth and elasticy, put in a bowl and cover with cling film and leave in a warm place (I use my airing cupboard) until doubled in size.
Pre heat the oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas mark 7.
Turn the now double in sized dough onto a floured surface and kneed again to knock the air out.
Shape the dough into rugby shape and put in your loaf tin.
Cover with a clean tea towel and leave to rise again in a warm place for 30mins.
Bake the bread for 15 minutes then reduce the temperature to 190C/fan 170C/gas mark 5 for a further 30 mins, the loaf should sound hollow when "tapped on the bottom" *snigger*

The bread will last for 3 days (yeah right!) in a air tight container.

Enjoy your tasty bread.