Thursday, August 28, 2008

Savory Pockets

You can tell a lot about a person by what they keep in their pockets. As the lady who does the laundry in our house, I've become a connoisseur of pocket contents. A little boy is likely to have a string, rocks, and sticks that resemble guns. A little girl might have Polly Pocket accessories, lip gloss, pieces of paper with phone numbers on them, and a glitter pen. The husband's pockets might yield small quantities of change (the laundry room rules say finders keepers here), receipts, and ear plugs. And my pockets have wads of Kleenex in them. (I think I've mentioned my allergies before).

A pocket is a source of possibilities, a place of potential. It is an empty vessel waiting to be filled with whatever you choose. The same is true for bread pockets, also called pita bread. This month the lovely Ilva of Lucullien Delights chose pita pockets as the bread of the month for the Bread Baking Babes. Yeah!



I've always enjoyed pita bread. For some reason it opens me up to creative sandwich possibilities in a way that two plain slices of bread do not. So I was thrilled to take on the challenge of creating my first ever pita bread.

The dough is quite simple to make and went together easily, although my dough was quite wet and I wondered if I'd done something wrong. But when I put my rolled rounds into the oven on my preheated stone, they puffed up as if by magic. What fun!

We stuffed our pitas with spicy barbecued chicken, Persian cucumber slices, and a creamy gorgonzola dressing. A pocketful of deliciousness. The recipe and directions are on Lucullian Delights. Be sure and check out the other Bread Baking Babes for their pita success stories: Tanna at My Kitchen In Half Cups, Glenna at A Fridge Full of Food, Karen at Bake My Day, Mary at The Sourdough, Gorel at Grain Doe, Sara at I Like to Cook, Monique at Living on Bread and Water, Lien at Notitie Van Lien, and Katie at Thyme for Cooking.

If you'd like to bake along with us and be a Bread Baking Buddy, you have till the 10th to bake the pitas and send a link to Ilva. Then you'll receive a badge you can proudly display on your site and the satisfaction of knowing how to make your own delicious pita pockets!


Lastly, here's a cautionary video that explains that not all pockets are filled with good things. (Plus it's been making us laugh at the Cookie Baker house all week.)

25 comments:

  1. "A pocket is a source of possibilities, a place of potential. It is an empty vessel waiting to be filled with whatever you choose." So true!! Never thought of it that way before.

    Haha, hilarious video :0D

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  2. So true about a little boy's pocket contents. I invariably find rocks in my son's pockets! Your pockets look delicious, the pitas I mean. :)

    And that video, well, let's just say I'll have the Hot Pockets jingle in my head all day! lol!

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  3. You are incredible!
    How long am I going to be thinking 'Hot Pocket' . . .
    Magic puff you got . . . my first batch was all flat, tasty but flat.

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  4. OH we had the same laundry room rule at the house in Cambridge too! The cat doesn't have pockets though so my change collection isn't as large as it used to be. Those pockets look scrumptious.

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  5. oooh yummo! pita and cucumber! how tasty!

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  6. Your pockets look so wonderfully fluffy! Delicious.

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  7. Your pocket bread looks so good!

    I enjoyed the video. We don't have Hot Pockets here. Doesn't sound like we are missing much. But we have mass produced Cornish pasties, which is very similar to a pocket concept. They can be right nasty!

    My daughter had pockets full of lucky rocks. I have saved a good few of them and enjoy remembering how many times I pulled them out of her coat pockets. I love those lucky rocks!

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  8. What a funny video! we don't have hot pocket here, but enough junk in the supermarkets to know what kind of bread it is ;)
    Love your pita's!

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  9. Aw..those look so good and I'm drooling over your filling! (ah, not exactly óver it, I'm somewhat civilized).

    Nice and tender pockets!!

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  10. You are so right, pitas are so much more inspiring than two slices of bread! I love your filling, must try it!

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  11. What a wonderful post! I'm jealous of your pockets, Lynn. You had me at gorgonzola

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  12. jim gaffigan cracks me up.
    pita pockets make me drool.
    boy, i'm a sight to see--drooling and cracking up at the same time. :)

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  13. Your pitas look fantastic!

    I have to say I do not miss Hot Pockets. That video is very funny---and very true!

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  14. Did I eat it? Or rub it all over my face?... My back hurts!

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  15. Oh how I love that hot pocket bit, always makes me laugh. Especially since my husband eats those horrible things.
    Loving the homemade pita!

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  16. What gorgeous pitas! I really the thick Greek style pitas (or at least they're the ones I always get in Greek restaurants) and that's what these look like. In response to your comment on my blog, yes it's the Carole Walters' book. I just took out her cookie book from the library and I already know I want to buy it! She has some really great looking recipes.

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  17. Yum! :-)
    This weekend in Bremerton on the waterfront is the annual Blackberry Festival.
    This will be my first time. I am so excited!
    Blackberry wine, soda, cobblers, shortcake, slugs, etc . . .

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  18. Way to go, Lynn! Awesome looking pitas--isn't it fun to watch them puff?

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  19. I've no idea what a Hot Pocket is, I'm not sure I want to know, but I can easily imagine a house full of children running around singing 'diarrhea pocket'. Well, that's got to be funnier than the Wiggles, if not less irritating :)

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  20. This looks excellent! I hadn't figured out what to make for food this coming week yet, but stuffed pitas sound like a great change for me!

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  21. this look good . Ideal for brunch yummy. At least not something full of sugar. :-)

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  22. I love making pita bread, they are so fun to stuff with goodies!! Yours look great!

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  23. Mmmm, looks delicious .Nice filling and beautiful pictures !

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  24. Hi,

    Love your pictures. Stunning as always!

    Cheers!

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  25. I made these pockets, and as a phobic -bread-baker, I was so impressed at how easy they are! I spent the rest of the evening telling everyone just how clever I was. I will never buy the shop-made ones again.

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