Pita Bread and Hummus

I'm finally posting something healthy. YEAH!

This hummus is so good. When I'm eating it, I can hardly believe that it's basically just garbanzo beans, lemon juice, and sesame paste. If I'm not careful, I can down this whole recipe all by myself.

I used to buy pita bread, but then I started making my own flat bread. It's just so easy and saves me a trip to the grocery store in town that carries the decent pita bread.
Tuscan Flat Bread
adapted from Epicurious.com

1 cup lukewarm water (90°F to 100°F)
2 1/4-ounce package dry yeast or two 0.6-ounce packages fresh yeast, crumbled
2 1/2 cups (about) all purpose flour
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 tablespoon coarse sea salt (you may want to adjust this a bit. The original recipe says tells you to sprinkle 1 Tbs salt on top and not mix it in with the dough. I reduced that to 1/2 Tbs and mixed it in but it's still a bit salty.)
(I also add a tsp or more of dried rosemary)

Pour 1 cup lukewarm water into small bowl; sprinkle with yeast and add 1 tsp sugar. Let stand until yeast mixture becomes spongy.

Add yeast mixture to 2 cups flour, salt and 2 Tbs oil in the bowl of your electric mixer fitted with the dough hook and mix. Add more flour as needed. Remove dough from mixer and knead by hand for a bit. Coat bowl with oil. Add dough; turn to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let stand in warm draft-free area until doubled, about 1 hour 15 minutes.

Brush baking sheet with 1 tablespoon oil. Punch down dough. Turn out onto floured work surface and shape into 11-inch round. Transfer dough to prepared tart pan or baking sheet. Cover loosely with plastic. Let rise until dough is almost doubled, about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Press fingertips into dough, creating indentations. Brush with remaining 2 tablespoons oil. Sprinkle with salt. Bake until golden, about 28 minutes. Cool bread in pan on rack 10 minutes. Remove bread from pan; cool completely.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Press fingertips into dough, creating indentations. Brush with remaining 2 tablespoons oil. Sprinkle with salt (if desired). Bake until golden, about 28 minutes. Cool bread in pan on rack 10 minutes. Remove bread from pan; cool completely.

Hummus

barefoot contessa cookbook

Ingredients

nocoupons

• 4 garlic cloves
• 2 cups canned chickpeas, drained, liquid reserved
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/3 cup tahini (sesame paste)- for my local peeps, you can find this at Hyvee. A little pricey, but you'll get 5 or so batches of hummus out of it
  
• 6 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
  
• 2 tablespoons water or liquid from the chickpeas
• 8 dashes hot sauce

Directions

Turn on the food processor fitted with the steel blade and drop the garlic down the feed tube; process until it's minced. Add the rest of the ingredients to the food processor and process until the hummus is coarsely pureed. Taste, for seasoning, and serve chilled or at room temperature.