Pita bread, the story about trees and wheat - Pane pitta, la storia di alberi e di grano - Pita, priča o drveću i žitu

Long time ago, when I was a child, I went with my family to a journey. We have traveled from the northern Croatian cost, through the nearest mountainous hinterland up to the biggest and most important city in Croatia - Zagreb, but we have traveled ahead through the beautiful countryside where my grandparents lived in a quiet village so similar to thousends of small villages scattered tidily in the flat and rich Croatian countryside. It was so, so long time ago, when hours didn't ran so fast and there were time for everything. Life was simple and easy, people were never late and knew how to enjoyed the life!

So we stopped for a visit to my grandparents only for few days before we went away and continued our journey to Belgrade, the capital city of what once has been my homeland - beautiful, united and proud ex-homeland. Years ago this country tragically disappeared...but this is another long and very complicated story to tell.

Our journey was long, but nothing forced us to arrive to our destination too quickly...and we offten stopped for a break. In those days the high-way was not so fast and crowded, it was a bit larger and straight then the ordinary roads and we have traveled slowly and relaxed.

We gradually entered into the region of Slavonia and we traveled in the shade of big, awesome oak trees. This was the majestic Spačva forest. Suddenly we stopped at this lovely motel surrounded by the barrel-shaped bungalows and the image of those small round huts with sloping roofs remained fixed in my memory. The forest is still there, full of those ancient trees hiding stories of yesteryear!
If you speak about hardwood in my country, you don't have to mention its name, it always comes to the oak wood! Oak wood for enormous wine barrels and small brandy kegs. Oak wood for parquet and furniture. All that need to be lasting and strong was build from the oak wood...in the past and nowadays.
Few months ago I remembered again this journey we did together long time ago, it happened that I've discovered twelve-dots.com  and their beautiful and so essential design. And when my new cuttingboard arrived it was natural to write few words about majestic Croatian woods and oak trees and to bake some sort of bread. Oak trees and golden wheat are the essence of the vast region of Slavonia. Art and crafts are coming back to their old origins offering the beauty to the world!

PITA BREAD

250 gr wheat flour
1 tsp salt
7 gr fresh yeast
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil
160 ml of cold water
a bit of bread flour

Dissolve yeast and sugar in water.
Combine olive oil, some water with the yeast and flour and begin to knead. Gradually add all the water to the mixture and at the end add the salt, knead the dough until it will become smooth and elastic, about 5-10 minutes. The dough should not be soft, if needed add other flour to the dough, 1 or 2 tablespoons.
Form a ball of the dough and grease a bit its surface with olive oil. Let the dough rise for about 1 hour in a bowl covered with plastic wrap. The dough should double in volume.
Meanwhile heat the oven and the baking tray to 220 ° C.
Transfer the dough on a floured surface and knead the dough for about 3-5 minutes to eliminate the air from the dough. Divide the dough into 6-8 equal parts and form small dough-balls. Leave the dough-balls covered with a cloth  to avoid getting the dough dry while you form the pita breads. Roll the dough-balls with a rolling pin to get irregular circular pita breads 3 mm thick.
When the baking tray become hot sprinkle it with bread flour, arrange the pita breads on the baking tray and bake for 5-10 minutes. Leave them slightly pale and soft.
Take pita breads out of the oven, arrange them on a wooden cuttingboard and let them cool covered with a cloth to remain soft.

PITTA

250g di farina "00"

1 cucchiaini di sale

7 gr di lievito di birra fresco

1/2 cucchiaino di zucchero

1 cucchiaio di olio di oliva

160 ml di acqua fredda
un po' di farina di grano duro

Sciogliere il lievito e lo zucchero nell'acqua.

Unire l'olio di oliva e un po' di acqua con il lievito alla farina e cominciare ad impastate. Aggiungere gradualmente tutta l'acqua all'impasto e infine aggiungere anche il sale e lavorare l'impasto fino a quando risulterà morbido ed elastico, circa 5-10 minuti. L'impasto non deve essere molle, se servirà si può aggiungere all'impasto altra farina, 1 o 2 cucchiai.
Formare una sfera di pasta e ungerla leggermente con l'olio di oliva. Far lievitare l’impasto per circa 1 ora in una ciotola coperta con la pellicola trasparente. L’impasto deve raddoppiare di volume.
Nel frattempo scaldare il forno e la teglia a 220°C.
Trasferire l’impasto su un piano di lavoro infarinato e far uscire tutta l'aria dall'impasto lavorando l'impasto per circa 3-5 minuti. Dividere l'impasto in 6-8 parti uguali e formare delle sfere di pasta. Lasciare le sfere di pasta coperte con un canovaccio per non farle seccare mentre formate i pani pitta. Stendere le sfere di pasta con il matterello e ottenere le forme circolari irregolari spesse 3 mm.
Quando la teglia sarà calda cospargerla con la farina di grano duro, sistemare le pitta nella teglia e farle cuocere da 5-10 minuti. Lasciarle leggermente pallide e morbide in superficie. 
Sfornare le pitta, adagiarle su un tagliere di legno e lasciarle raffreddare coperte da un canovaccio per rimanere morbide.

PITA

250 gr glatkog brašna

1 žličice soli

7 gr svježeg kvasca

1/2 žličice šećera

1 žlica maslinovog ulja

160 ml hladne vede
malo oštrog brašna

Rastopiti kvasac i šećer u vodi.

Dodati maslinovo ulje i malo vode s kvascem u brašno, te početi mijesiti tijesto. Postepeno dadavati ostalu vodu u tijesto, a na kraju dodati i sol i mijesti oko 5-10 minuta da se umijesi glatko i elastično tijesto. Tijesto ne treba biti mekano, pa ako treba, dodati u tijesto još 1 ili 2 žlice brašna.
Oblikovati kuglu od tijesta i lagano ju premazati maslinovim uljem. Ostaviti tijesto da se diže oko 1 sat u zdjeli pokrivenoj prozirnom folijom. Tijesto treba udvostručiti početni volumen.
U međuvremenu zagrijte pećnicu i pleh za pečenje na 220°C.
Istresti tijesto na pobrašnjenu rednu površinu i mijesti tijesto 3-5 minuta da sav zrak izađe iz tijesta. Podijeliti tijesto na 6-8 jednakih dijelova i oblikovati ih u loptice.  Ostaviti loptice od tijesta prekrivene kuhinjskom krpom da se ne suše dok formirate pite. Razvući loptice od tijesta u diskova nepravilnog oblika i debljine 3 mm.
Kad se pleh zagrije posuti ga oštrim brašnom, poslagati pite na vrući pleh i peći  ih 5-10 minuta. Pite trebaju ostati blijede i mekane.
Izvaditi pite iz pećnice, poslagati ih na kuhinjsku dasku i ostaviti da se ohlade pokrivene kuhinjskom krpom da bi ostale mekane.