• 2 cups warm water (115°F)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
• 5 1/2 cups to 6 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt

If you work away from home during the day or even if you work at home, you can make up a sponge, using about half the flour. Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm water. Add 1/4 cup of the all-purpose flour. Stir with a whisk and let sit for 10 minutes to give the yeast a chance to get going.

When you get back to the sponge later on, add the salt and enough flour to make a dough that’s a bit stiff − one you can easily knead by hand. Turn the dough out of the bowl onto a floured surface and knead it until smooth and bouncy, adding only enough more flour to keep it from sticking to the board or you. Give it a rest for about 5 minutes to relax the gluten and make it more cooperative about being shaped.

Divide the dough into 8 pieces. Flatten each piece with your hand, then roll each piece with a floured rolling pin, or a pin with a cover, on a floured surface into a circle about 6‚Äù in diameter and 1/8‚Äù thick. You may need to let the pieces rest occasionally to relax the dough. Sprinkle baking sheets with cornmeal and place two circles on each. Or place circles on pieces of parchment paper. Let the dough circles rest here for at least 15 minutes while you preheat your CBO oven as instructed in the "User‚Äôs Manual" to a hot 500°F.

When the pita circles have finished resting, place the baking sheets on the oven bottom. If you're using a baking stone, make sure it's on the oven floor. Use a pizza peel to transfer the pitas-on-parchment to the oven. Close the oven door and keep it shut for 1 minute. Don't peek or the pocket may not form. It's this initially fast, hot searing of the outside dough of the pita that makes it separate from the inside. The carbon dioxide gas created by the yeast expands inside and accentuates the separation until the pita blows up like a balloon and the pocket is created.

At the end of 1 minute, place the sheet on a rack higher in the oven and continue baking anywhere from 3 to 7 minutes, until the pitas have blown up into balloons and are lightly browned. When they're done, remove the baking sheet from the oven, slide the pitas off and let them cool. They will probably deflate somewhat after cooling. Once they're thoroughly cool, you can press more air out of them so they take up less storage room.