How to Make Easy Homemade Pita Bread Cooking Lessons from The Kitchn

By sandycon

Ingredients

• to recipe for those who are just getting into baking and don't feel quite ready to make a full
• Emma

Details

Servings 8
Adapted from thekitchn.com

Preparation

Step 1

How to Make Easy Homemade Pita Bread Cooking Lessons from The Kitchn | The Kitchn

How to Make Easy Homemade Pita Bread

In the oven or on the stovetop, pita is an easy bread to make at home.

Whether we're talking falafel or deli ham, pockets of pita bread are one of my top choices for sandwiches. So portable! So neatly contained! So easy to eat! The pitas you make at home are worlds apart from the stuff you buy in stores, and watching them puff to glorious heights in your oven or on your stovetop is culinary magic at its best. Here's how we do it.

Pita is actually a very straightforward bread dough: water, flour, yeast, salt, and that's about it. What makes it puff so impressively is the dual action of water turning to steam and the yeast becoming hyperactive when both are hit with the heat from the oven or stovetop. The pita has been rolled so thin that this action forces the top and the bottom of the dough to separate and balloon outwards.

You can make pita bread either in the oven or on the stovetop, and there are advantages and disadvantages to both. In the oven, pitas puff up much more grandly and make softer pockets, but they stay pale-colored and fairly mild-tasting. On the stovetop, you lose some of the impressive puffing, but gain tasty and crunchy toasted spots on the surface of the dough. You can also make several pitas at once in the oven, where you can only make one at a time on the stovetop. Both methods work equally well, so the choice is yours!

Pita is also great make-ahead bread. I often prepare the dough through the first rise, punch it down, and then keep it refrigerated for up to a week. The flavor actually improves after a few days of chilling. You can bake the whole batch at once or cut off just what you need to make one or two flatbreads at a time.

I make and love homemade pita just as much now as I did when I first wrote this tutorial. It's an easy and nearly fool-proof recipe for those who are just getting into baking and don't feel quite ready to make a full-on sandwich bread. It's also a good one if you're cooking for just one or two people and maybe have a hard time finishing an entire loaf of bread before it goes bad. I love that I can make the dough for this ahead of time and pinch off just enough for one quick pita whenever I want it. Yum. -

How to Make Homemade Pita Bread

Makes 8 rounds

1 cup warm water (not hot or boiling)

Mixing bowl

Mix the water and yeast together, and let sit for about five minutes until the yeast is dissolved. Add 2 1/2 cups of the flour (saving the last half cup for kneading), salt, and olive oil (if using). Stir until a shaggy dough is formed.

Sprinkle a little of the extra flour onto your clean work surface and turn out the dough. Knead the dough for about 5-7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic. Add more flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking to your hands or the work surface, but try to be sparing. It's better to use too little flour than too much. If you get tired, stop and let the dough rest for a few minutes before finishing kneading.

Clean the bowl you used to mix the dough and film it with a little olive oil. Set the dough in the bowl and turn it until it's coated with oil. Cover with a clean dishcloth or plastic wrap and let the dough rise until it's doubled in bulk, 1-2 hours.

Using a floured rolling pin, roll one of the pieces into a circle 8-9 inches wide and about a quarter inch thick. Lift and turn the dough frequently as your oll to make sure the dough isn't sticking to your counter. Sprinkle with a little extra flour if its starting to stick. If the dough starts to spring back, set it aside to rest for a few minutes, then continue rolling. Repeat with the other pieces of dough. (Once you get into a rhythm, you can be cooking one pita while rolling the next one out.)

While shaping the pitas, heat the oven to 450°. If you have a

, put it in the oven to heat. If you don't have a baking stone, place a large baking sheet on the middle rack to heat.

Place the rolled-out pitas directly on the baking stone or baking sheets (as many as will fit), and bake for about 3 minutes. I've found it easiest to carry the pita flat on the palm of my hand and then flip it over onto the baking stone. The pita will start to puff up after a minute or two and is done when it has fully ballooned. Cover baked pitas with a clean dishtowel while cooking any remaining pitas.

Warm a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat until a few bead of water sizzle immediately on contact. Drizzle a little oil in the pan and wipe off the excess.

Additional Notes:

Sometimes you get pitas that won't puff. The problem is usually that the oven or the skillet aren't hot enough. Make sure both are thoroughly pre-heated before cooking. Even pitas that don't puff are still delicious and can be used wraps or torn into pieces for dipping in hummus.

Make Ahead

I make pita bread about once every two weeks. It is far cheaper than buying it in the stores, and FAR better. I use 1/2 unbleached bread flour and 1/2 white whole wheat. I love watching them "puff".

Thank you! I cannot buy good pita here, nothing available but the nasty, dry, hard, commercial pita pockets, but hadn't really searched out a recipe to make it myself. I'm going to have to stock up on hummus and veggies now.

Thanks for a simple yet delicious recipe! I've been looking for a great pita recipe and this is it. Looks like I'll have to make a few batches of falafel and hummus now.

Would this work with 100% whole wheat flour?

@VeryDelishVeg - 100% whole wheat will give you a denser pita, but it should still work. Don't expect as much of a rise from the dough - just let it rest for at least an hour. You could also try half white and half whole wheat flour.

I made this recipe Monday night, and it was fabulous! I used about 1/3 white whole wheat flour, and "baked" them on the grill since it was on anyway to grill some fish. They puffed and came out perfect. Will definitely make them again.

I just made this and they came out really hard and dense. Any thoughts on what I might have done wrong? Did I knead it too much??? It said 10 minutes and I gave it a good 10 minutes. I used the bread machine yeast in the jar. Added it to warm water and then mixed in the flour, salt and olive oil. Also kept the flour to 2 1/2 cups before kneading, as instructed....I can't figure out where I went wrong.

Any thoughts on mixing it up with the flour and add-ins? Whole-wheat or brown rice flour, flax seeds, etc.?

pita bread with sweet potato and rosemary mixed right into the dough

Thank you!!! I grew up in an area where finding fresh, delicious, pita, even at a grocery store, was easy, but now live mostly in areas where people don't even know what pita is. I've learned to make my own tabbouleh, falafel, and hummus, so it's high time I start making my own pita, too!

I was just looking up how to make pitas last night, and was so disappointed Alton Brown didn't have an episode on them. Will be trying this recipe tonight!

@Halle Michelle - I've made these with half whole wheat a few times with good results. They're not quite as soft and puffy, but still delicious. I think as long as you keep about half AP flour, you're good to go.

@Gardenstater - Do you mean over a charcoal grill? These are FABULOUS! They don't puff quite as much, but make a great wrap (like in this recipe for kabobs:

Do these have to be made thin or can you make it thick to get a fluffier pita? "Authentic" Israeli pitas are very thick, soft and sturdy, not the kind that tears easily when you try to open it or stuff it. My husband will be thrilled if I can figure out how to make that at home.

(I will reduce the salt by just a pinch or two next time I make these.)

I've made these many times in my home oven. I recommend turning the oven to the highest setting and preheating it for at least 20 minutes WITH the pizza stone in the oven the entire time. (I quit using pizza stones because they all broke from heat shock eventually---now I use inexpensive unglazed quarry tiles from Home Depot. Just as good and not one has broken yet!)

The higher heat and thoroughly preheated stone mimics a brick oven closer than anything.

Maker

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