Easy. Economical. Nutritious. Delicious. Ok, I know those aren’t actually stand-alone sentences. When I was a teacher, I had no tolerance for fragments. Sigh. After “conversing” with a 1-year old all day, my language skills are rapidly deteriorating. Anyway, I try to keep those 4 words in mind anytime I post a new recipe around here. Today’s recipe for pita bread is no exception. It fits the bill on all 4. Wait! I can already hear it. Some of you are skeptical. Making Bread? Easy? I promise, this is not rocket science. You can do it! Oh, and the best part? From the time you start mixing the dough until the time you pull the last piping hot piece of pita bread out of the oven: 1 hour. Seriously. Some of us would have a hard time running to the store & back in that time. Pair it with homemade hummus for a yummy snack/meal. Ok, on to the recipe.
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Back in January I checked out several different recipes before finally settling on this recipe written up in a post on Farmgirl Fare (Sidenote: If you enjoy cooking, photography, and/or gardening, her blog is a fun read.) I started making my own pita bread and haven’t looked back.
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I’ll post the recipe here, but won’t bother trying to reinvent the wheel. FF does a great job of giving detailed directions (with pictures for all you visual learners like me). Read through them a couple times until you feel comfortable, then dive in! Note: While FF mixes her dough by hand, I prefer using my electic mixer. It may have something to do with my pathetic lack of upper body strength. Hmmm. Maybe if I lived on 240 remote acres in Missouri, I would do it by hand too. I’ve also made a few minor changes to the steps. Read through each and decide which one works best for you.
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Farmgirl’s Pita Bread
makes 8
1 c. warm water
2 t. active dry yeast
1 T. sugar
2 T. olive oil
1-2 t. salt
2 1/2 c. flour, plus more for rolling out dough
2 8″ squares of aluminum foil
- Put the warm water in the bowl of an electric mixer; sprinkle yeast & sugar over the top and let it sit for 5 minutes. Add the olive oil & salt, mixing to combine. Slowly add the flour until the dough forms a ball and starts to clean the sides of the bowl. If the dough is too moist, add a small amount of additional flour (it should still be just slightly sticky).
- Continue to knead the dough in the mixing bowl for 3-5 more minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.
- Divide the dough into 8 pieces on a lightly floured surface. Roll into balls, dust lightly with flour, and cover with a damp tea towel. Let rest for 30 minutes. Use the palm of your hand to flatten each ball into a disk (I do 2 at a time, rotating them into the oven). Finish with a rolling pin, flattening the dough into a disk about 6″ in diameter and 3/16″ thick. Don’t worry if they’re not perfectly round; mine never are.
- Place 1 round on each of the 2 squares of foil and slide them into the oven. Bake for 5-8 minutes, or until they are puffed* and/or a light brown. When you remove the 2 pockets breads from the oven, stack them up and wrap them in a large, clean towel. This will keep the bread soft while the tops fall, leaving a pocket in the center. Continue rolling the dough out 2 at a time, rotating them through the oven until you have finished all 8.
- If serving immediately, cut them in half (so you can fill the pocket) and serve warm or at room temperature. If freezing, let cool, wrap tightly in aluminum foil, place in a zipper bag, and freeze. Thaw frozen pitas before using (this only takes about 5 minutes at room temperature). To reheat, stack several in a pile, wrap with foil, and place in a 375 degree oven for 10 to 15 minutes.
* Farmgirl is right — they don’t always puff up nicely. In fact, mine puff maybe 25% of the time. I just call them flatbread instead. They still taste great. My mom says the key is to roll the dough as opposed to “stretching” it. Apparently, I am not very good at rolling.
Thanks for the Pita Bread Recipe !
I have a 5 dollar dinner post on Greek Gyros and your pita bread recipe can get the price down on this dinner even more. Who knew Pita bread was so easy to make !
I have been dying to make this recipe since the day that you posted it, but I forced myself to finish up the store bought pitas in the freezer first, and then we traveled for five weeks, so today was finally the day. Keeping your 25% puff ratio in mind, I planned to store the puffed pitas and use the flat ones for mini pizzas for dinner. I made a batch of all-purpose flour pitas and then a batch of whole wheat. Both batches were delicious, but 15 out of the 16 circles puffed. I felt a little mean pushing the air out of the oh-so-cooperative little fellows, but the pizza toppings were waiting for flatbread, so it had to be done. I'm sure that it was just beginners luck, but the only deviations that I took from the recipe were to avoid use of a rolling pin (as mine has yet to arrive in the country) and use just my hands to squish and stretch the balls and use cookie sheets instead of tin foil. Thanks for the inspiration. My family is hooked. No more dry store-bought pitas for us.
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