Pitta and man'oushe recipe

In a smaller bowl mix the flour and salt

In a large bowl add the yeast to the water and swish (Dissolving/activating the yeast is the specified method for active dry yeast. For simplicity I've kept the same method for all types of yeast)

Tip the flour and salt mix into the water/yeast combo and combine with your hands. It will be dry. Use a scraper to remove from the outside of the bowl

Cover the dough with the smaller bowl/something else. Leave for ten minutes

Punch down, and stretch and fold it in, working around the centre … this will take around ten seconds or so

Leave it another ten minutes

Punch, stretch and fold again

Leave it for ten minutes

Punch stretch and fold for a third time

Leave it for ten minutes

And punch, stretch and fold for a fourth time

Leave it for an hour

Put the oven on to pre-heat at 240°C with a baking tray in it (when we made them we didn't have a spare baking tray, so we just put them on the wire rack and it still worked)

Pour the dough onto a floured surface

Divide into six

Flatten each piece, and pull up the sides to the middle

Turn over to form a small ball – you'll notice it will have a bit of a "skin" on top

Leave for about five minutes

Squash down and use a rolling pin to roll about 15 cm diameter (will be around 4mm thick) … I find that flouring the pitta gently as I'm rolling is more effective than flouring the pin

Put on floured baking sheet, leave for five to ten minutes or so

Bake on the pre-heated tray at 240°C for about 15 minutes (keep an eye on it – it will puff up after about 7 minutes, then brown gradually … if it looks like it's burning then you've definitely left it too long)

Once out and cooled a little put in a paper bag if you want it to stay soft for the next day