Maybe you are rolling them out too thin? Using a pizza stone also might help, since it transfers heat much better.

The pita recipe on this site has always puffed up for me.

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/pitabread

The link above was a fairly foolproof recipe, or so I found. Im fairly new at bread and I got most of the pitas to puff. One thing I noticed was that after I rolled the dough into balls, I kept forgetting to replace the cover over them as I grabbed and put in the oven. The ones I didnt cover didnt pop as well as the outside had dried out a bit.

I also jack my oven up as high as it goes before i put the temperature down right before putting any breads in, but my oven generally sits 20 or so degrees colder than it should. I figure with this recipe, since you are opening and closing the door to change the pitas as they come out, a little extra heat could never hurt.

I wish you luck, they are so satisfying to watch puff up.

I had to laugh when I read your post....I remembered the first time I tried to make Pita bread...as a newly married (to a Syrian man) home maker tryint REALLY hard to cook all things Arabic!! What I ended up with were really pretty tiles and rocks!!! I have since figured it out and have found that if you roll them out too thin, Tortillas is what you get....also, make sure your oven is as hot as you can get it, unless it is a commercial oven!! I usually BAKE mine on between 475 and 500.....make SURE your oven is on bake, not broil!! Also, there is a Middle Eastern cook book that is the best I have found in my 35 years of having Arabic Friends (the marriage didn't last) and even my mother-in-law who spoke no English loved this cookbook....it is called " Sahtein" and was put out in 1976 by a group of Arabic women in Detroit. If you will email me, I will send you the address so you can write to them and see if you can get a copy. I managed to find 2 for my daughters on Ebay but they are wicked hard to find!!! Oh and as for the bread, I found that letting it have plenty of time to rise really helped before I baked them. Good Luck!!!

Jann

jannrn1@gmail.com

I like to add whole wheat flour to pitas. This is the recipe I use:

http://etherwork.net/recipes/flatbread.html#pita

We've made these on the stovetop, in the oven AND on the barbecue. They invariably puff up but I'm afraid I don't know exactly what I do to make that happen.

-Elizabeth

I am looking for a syrian bread recipe.  It is not the flat pita type.  This one has a 2 inch rise, is chewy spongey in texture. 

thank you, linda