Homemade Pita Bread

Nick and I both love hummus and I try to keep a batch of it in the fridge so we can snack on it during the week with vegetables. I keep meaning to buy some pita bread to eat with the hummus, but the last two weeks I have forgotten. I thought about it again today and figured I could easily find a recipe online for homemade pita bread. I ended up merging recipes from The Fresh Loaf and my friend Ally at Culinary Infatuation. Not only were these incredibly easy to make, but tasted a thousand times better than any store bought pita I have had before. And watching them puff into saucers while in the oven will make you giddy too 😉

More about making the pita bread and the recipe after the break…

My notes are in red.

Pita Bread

Makes 8 pitas

3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 Tablespoon sugar or honey
1 packet yeast [I used instant]
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups water, roughly at room temperature
2 tablespoons olive oil, vegetable oil, butter, or shortening

Mix the yeast in with the flour, salt, and sugar. Add the olive oil and 1 1/4 cup water and stir together with a wooden spoon. All of the ingredients should form a ball. If some of the flour will not stick to the ball, add more water [I had to add a bit more water].

Once all of the ingredients form a ball, place the ball on a work surface, such as a cutting board, and knead the dough for approximately 10 minutes. If you are using an electric mixer, mix it at low speed for 10 minutes. [I did it by hand and 10 minutes was dead on as far as a time estimate.]

When you are done kneading the dough, place it in a bowl that has been lightly coated with oil. Form a ball out of the dough and place it into the bowl, rolling the ball of dough around in the bowl so that it has a light coat of oil on all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel and set aside to rise until it has doubled in size, approximately 90 minutes. [Mine doubled in about 40 minutes; maybe it was because I used instant yeast, but that is what The Fresh Loaf used, or perhaps the space was just ultra warm?]

When it has doubled in size, punch the dough down to release some of the trapped gases and divide it into 8 pieces. [I used a kitchen scale to ensure they were all about the same size.] Roll each piece into a ball, cover the balls with a damp kitchen towel, and let them rest for 20 minutes. This step allows the dough to relax so that it’ll be easier to shape.

While the dough is resting, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. If you have a baking stone, put it in the oven to preheat as well. If you do not have a baking stone, turn a cookie sheet upside down and place it on the middle rack of the oven while you are preheating the oven. This will be the surface on which you bake your pitas.

After the dough has relaxed for 20 minutes, spread a light coating of flour on a work surface and place one of the balls of dough there. Sprinkle a little bit of flour on top of the dough and use a rolling pin or your hands to stretch and flatten the dough. You should be able to roll it out to between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick – 6 inches in diameter. If the dough does not stretch sufficiently you can cover it with the damp towel and let it rest 5 to 10 minutes before trying again.

Place discs on a lightly greased baking sheet [I used parchment paper] and let rise, uncovered, until barely doubled in thickness, about 30-45 minutes.

Open the oven and place as many pitas as you can fit on the hot baking surface [I made 2 at a time on my baking stone]. They should be baked through and puffy after 3 minutes. If you want your pitas to be crispy and brown you can bake them for an additional 3 to 5 minutes, but it isn’t necessary [I baked mine for about 5 minutes each].

Check out that puff!

The perfect sandwich: