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Make Your Own Pita Bread
Pitas are a really versatile flatbread that can be used with a number of different cuisines. In fact, I’m declaring this week “Pita Week” and all of the recipes featured will involve pita bread. So why not make your own?
This recipe is pretty simple and although it takes just about 2 hours from start to finish, you’ll only have about 30 minutes of hands-on time. It yields 16 pitas but if you want to save some of the dough for later, it can be refrigerated for use a few days later.
Getting the pitas to “puff” so you get the pocket in the middle took a bit of trying. You have to have the pan at the perfect heat so they will puff but not burn. It took me about 3 pitas before I had the heat right. Pocket-less pitas are still great! In fact, tomorrow’s recipe calls for those so even your “mistake” pitas are still great to use. They are also great to cut up and dip into hummus, tsaziki, and bean dips.
Make Your Own Pita Bread Recipe
By Published: April 23, 2012
- Yield: 16 pitas (16 Servings)
- Prep: 2 hrs 0 min
- Cook: 35 mins
- Ready In: 2 hrs 35 mins
Pitas are a really versatile flatbread that can be used with a number of different cuisines. In fact, I'm declaring this week …
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups water warm
- 1 tbsp active dry yeast not instant
- 4 cups whole wheat flour
- 2 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil plus a bit more for cooking
- 1 cup unbleached flour
Instructions
- Place the yeast in the warm water and stir to dissolve. Let sit for 5 min.
- In a large mixing bowl, pour in 3 cups of the whole wheat flour and mix in the yeast mixture. Stir for 2 min with a wooden spoon (or your kitchen-aid dough hook). Cover the top of the bowl with plastic and let sit for 30 min.
- Next, sprinkle the salt and 1 tbsp of oil on top of the mixture and stir to incorporate. Stir in remaining cup of whole wheat flour and the unbleached flour. It will become difficult to stir this with a spoon. At this point, I took it out of the bowl and began to knead it on my countertop until the flour was incorporated and the dough was mildly sticky.
- Lightly oil a bowl and place your dough in there under plastic wrap. Let rise for 40 minutes or until doubled in size.
- Divide dough into 16 parts. Roll them out into flat rounds. If you have a tortilla press, this works really well.
- Heat a skillet to medium high heat. Coat the surface with olive oil using a paper towel. Set a timer for two minutes and then place your first rolled out pita on the skillet. This is where it should begin to puff. After about 30 seconds, flip it. Flip one or two more times during the two minutes.
- Place the pita in foil to keep warm until serving. Place any unused dough in the refrigerator to use at a later time. Just remember to get the dough to room temperature before cooking.
- Store your pitas at room temperature for up to 2 days. Toast or warm before serving.
- Cuisine: Mediterrarean
- Course: Appetizer
- Skill Level: Moderate
I like this recipe, the last one I tried was a baked Pita. They overcooked too easily. I will give this one a try.
[...] recipe comes together rather quickly and if you already have your homemade pita bread on hand, this could be a super-quick weeknight [...]
[...] that was quick and easy and my kids wouldn’t whine about. With just a few ingredients and my homemade pita bread, we were good to go. I told my kids they were having hamburgers. They bought it and ate these up [...]