Pita Bread

  • Prep Time: 3 hrs
  • Total Time: 3 hrs 3 mins
  • Yield: 12pita breads
  • About This Recipe

    “An inexpensive recipe for pitas/pocket bread.”

    Ingredients

  • 3 1/2 cupsbread flour( plus extra for dusting)
  • 1teaspoonsalt
  • 1packetdry active yeast
  • 1teaspoonsugar
  • 1teaspoonolive oil
  • 1 1/3 cupswater
  • Directions

  • Sift flour and salt together in a large bowl.
  • Combine yeast, sugar and 1/3 cup very warm water-give a quick stir and set aside for 5 minutes to activate yeast.
  • Make a well in the flour/salt mixture and add the yeast, 1 cup warm water and the olive oil.
  • Gently stir to gather dough into a ball-you may need a touch more water-depending on where you live, altitude.
  • Turn out and knead for 10 minutes.
  • Put into a LIGHTLY greased large bowl, cover and place in a warm spot for around 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
  • Punch down and knead to smooth.
  • Cut dough into 12 pieces, form into rounds, roll out and place on a dusted baking sheet, cover and let rest for 45 minutes.
  • Preheat oven to 500F degrees.
  • I use my large cast iron skillet for this part, so I place it in the oven and when really hot I place in two pitas and let bake for around 3 minutes-you can broil for 1 minute if you like, just to get the tops browned.
  • I wrap the cooked pitas in a slightly damp tea towel for a minute or two-then cool and place in plastic bags.
  • This process can also be done on a cooking sheet.
  • Reviews

  • “These turned out wonderful, I made them last week and froze 2. They came out perfect as well.They do taste better then store bought. I will be making these often. Thank you.”

  • “Very good and very easy to make.Like some other reviewers, I used my bread machine to mix up the dough.Just threw all the ingredients in the bread pan and ran it all the way through the dough cycle, then followed the rest of the directions beginning with step 7.I didn’t even sift the flour and salt, as directed.I prefer to make everything whole wheat when I can, but I was too timid to use all whole wheat flour the first time trying this.Instead, I used 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour and 2 cups stoneground whole wheat flour.I got good results with this.I divided dough into 12 pieces at first, but quickly decided that this wouldn’t make pitas as large as I wanted.I ended up making only 4 large rounds, which I cut in half after baking.This gave me pitas that were closer to the size of the ones I would buy in the store.There wasn’t any instruction on how thick/thin to roll out the dough, but I kept mine pretty thick (just under 1/2″), and they came out just like I wanted them.Even at this size and thickness, I baked each one of them for 3 minutes and they were done.(I used a timer.)I didn’t bother broiling them because I didn’t trust myself not to burn them!I baked them one at a time on a cooking stone that I placed in the oven before turning it on.500 degrees on the middle rack worked just fine for me.I only baked one at a time, since I wasn’t sure how they’d turn out, but with such a short baking time, I’d probably just bake them one at a time again next time, too.I just slid a spatula under them and used my hand to help carry them to the oven, where I just sort of tossed them onto the baking stone!They puffed up and cooked exactly like they were supposed to, I think. Since I cooked them one at a time, I would wrap one in the damp towel until the next one came out of the oven, then the newly baked one would go into the towel while another was baking.Once I removed them from the damp towel, I cut each of them in half using scissors and placed them all in a ziploc bag.They were very soft and pliable, and each of them had a pocket, but (like many of the pitas I’ve bought from the store) one half of the pocket was rather thin, so you couldn’t stuff the pockets too well without tearing them.I don’t know if this is because I made mine larger and thicker than directed or not.At any rate, they were quite good, and I will definitely be making them again!”

  • “These were good .. will make them again, they taste a lot better than store-bought pita!!”

  • “Used whole wheat flour instead of regular (3.25 cups), and loaded the ingredients into my bread machine on “dough” cycle in place of steps 1-6.Rolled into 6 pita breads (I like them big enough to stuff sandwich-style), rose a 2nd time, and baked… and these pocketed PERFECTLY!I hadn’t realized pocketing could be that simple.”

  • “I wish I could give you more than five stars for this recipe! These do take a little time – but they’re worth every minute. I used whole wheat flour and the taste is incredible! While time consuming, they were very easy to make and 11 out of the 12 came out absolutely perfect with a great pocket. I may never buy store pitas again!”

  • “These were great.I doubled the batch and only 3 didn’t puff up.I have made them before and none of them puffed.I think the difference was to use a screaming hot oven and pizza stone.I only baked them 2 mins at 500 degrees but next time I think I will try longer.They seemed a little doughy to me.I also used 1 cup of whole wheat flour.Turned out great!Will make again.Update: I love these and are trying to make them faster.I made the dough in the bread machine to speed things up.I also made 100% white whole wheat.I got 17 pitas out of the dough and maybe 5 didn’t rise?Not too bad.They tasted great!Next time I might skip the oil also.”

  • “AWWWW, YEAH!When I was taking them out of the oven (of my cast iron skillet) I was bummed about how white the tops were.So, I grabbed some olive oil and some of the roasted garlic I made earlier today, mixed them together, and brushed it over the top.Then I grabbed a little sea salt and sprinkled that on top and pit them all on a cookie sheet under the broiler.I removed them as they were brown and toasty.HOLY COW!I am NEVER buying pita again!”

  • “Great recipe.Very easy to make.We cooked ours on top of the stove in a hot skillet and it worked just fine.”

  • “Fantastic!>br/br/br/br/br/br/

  • “These were great!!!!I made them once before and had only 50% of them make pockets.This time it was 100%.I made 6 pitas that I cut in half to stuff.I baked them 2 at a time on a baking stone which worked perfectly.The last 2 burned but that was because DH and I got to nattering.I did find that a LIGHT dusting was not quite enough as I had to peel them off the baking sheet – next time I’ll be a heavier duster. :)They were also thicker and more bread like than I expected (taste was all there though) and I think I just need to roll them out a bit thinner next time.MUCH nicer than store bought.Thanks!”

  • “Great easy to follow recipe, my kids loved them! Thanks for sharing! :)”

  • “Completely loved this recipe!!Will be making again!Thank you for sharing!”

  • “good taste, its hard to make them pop up”

  • “Great pita bread. First time mine have puffed.Will use this recipe from now on.”

  • “I tried this recipe today and it turned out great. I followed the steps of the recipe but used instant yeast instead. The finished dough yields about 12 pita breads which are quite delicious. I am very pleased with the final product. This was my first attempt at pita bread and I am very encouraged to try more recipes. Thanks very much. I will try again.”

  • “These turned out great and had a nice pocket!”

  • “Best pita recipe I’ve tried, and they even puffed for me! :)”

  • “I love this recipe!It tastes just like the bread at my favorite Middle Eastern restaurant!I used whole wheat flour and my Kitchenaid to mix the dough.Thanks to those who suggested the Kitchenaid.It was much easier that way.”

  • “This was a great pita recipe, it was very easy to make though a bit time consuming. It was easy to multi task though as most of the time is just waiting for various stages of rise. I mixed and kneaded mine in my Kitchenaid mixer with the dough hook. Reduced the kneading time down to 6 minutes as it seemed very kneaded by that time and elastic. I also kept a damp towel on the rounds until they went into the oven as another reviewer suggested. I pressed my pockets down a bit when they came out of the oven as they puff up a lot!”

  • “About to make a third time.1st time I didn’t let them rest 45 mins, 2nd, I let a couple rest for a while and noted an improvement in puffiness.I had used a stovetop skillet as that’s how we make rotis here.The family loved the pita! This time I will do it as specified, in the oven and with resting.Easy as.Thanks DiB’s, we cannot buy pita bread here so it’s a valuable recipe for me, I’ve added it to my facebook page : ))”

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