Turned out great! I thought pitas would be very difficult to make, but your guide was a breeze. Thanks!

I just made a few pitas today for the first time. Followed the technique here, but did a wholewheat version [30%]. :) Though the 1st one was a bit too fat and oven wasn't heated up that nicely yet. It was real fun and certainly, quick! Sometimes i just love making flatbreads cause the results are known almost instantaneously after shaping..hehe

This goes with homemade tsatziki (of which my parents didn't like because they dun like any greek style food)

These are *amazing*. I've always utterly failed at making flatbread, but these were perfect. I did an experiment and tried some alternate grains. All of these were pillowy and soft and tasted great, with only a hint of difference between them:

(all are 1/2 regular flour and with olive oil)
1/2 millet flour - hint of perhaps a corn-like flavor
1/2 barley flour - distinct buttery biscuit flavor
1/2 whole grain spelt flour - country bread flavor
all regular flour - least favorite, doughy and bland in comparison to the rest.

These were so light and tasty with 50% whole grain flour, I'm going to try upping the whole grain amount and see how they do.

Thanks for a great recipe!

I agree with you Hudson about flavours, especially for flatbreads.

I use 100% wholemeal spelt flour and it works really well for pittas and chapattis.

For those that only like white bread, unbleached white spelt flour is a good substitute for ordinary white all purpose/bread flour because it still has some flavour.

These look great and I shall certainly be trying them! With yeast first, then I'll (try to) adapt them for sourdough.

My oven is in celsius - is 220° celsius anything like 400° farenheit???!!!

Great recipe! Followed exactly as written and we had exactly eight nice sized pitas! I love that they can be made so quickly. The kids marveled at the puffing in the oven. We had ours with a homemade hummus, VERY GOOD!
Thanks!

Mine did not puff either. I'm definitely not anywhere near being a baker, so I'm looking for tips regarding this recipe, not complaining. :) Does anyone know what types of things cause them not to puff?

I have made pitas with just regular bread dough, and had no problem.

qahtan

I looked online at alot of recipes for pita breads before deciding this was the best one to try. I've never made bread before. I liked it's flexibility, its simplicity, it's clear directions and photo steps and it's ease of use. I made my first batch yesterday and the first two weren't off the pan before they were being consumed. I managed to grab a photo but i don't have a place to upload it right now. I made mine with 1 cup whole wheat and 2 cups bread flour and they all turned out perfect. I never measure exact so i can also say this was a very flexible and forgiving recipe. I used a little bit of honey and a bit of sugar.

My only complaint is that my husband now said he's going to quit buying arabic bread from the store and i have to make it all.... We usually go through 10-15 a day here as a family! I said Yikes that doesn't sound like it will be much fun. Which brings me to my second question. Can this be doubled? Or is it better to make two seperate batches at the same time? I was thinking it might get hard to knead it if it was too big. Also has anyone tried making the pitas smaller? I liked the size but i was thinking smaller might last a little longer around here. Thank you so much for the recipe. We love it.

Kristy

Here in Israel, pitas are usually a bit thicker. Moist on the inside and with a hint of color on the outside. Perfect for filling up with unreasonable amounts of houmous, veggies and falafel... or with just butter and honey, when it's right out of the oven. Yum!

I have tried it several times at home and found it works fine with any light white bread dough. I also gave it a shot with whole wheat flour (100%) and it was a no no... very dry and heavy and the pocket just didnt come out right. Maybe the dough didn't have the needed elasticity to expand properly...

After I roll down the dough to it's final shape, I place the pitas on a thin metal oven grid, leave it to rise 10 minutes, just to get a bit of puffiness and throw a batch in the oven at at least 230 degrees celcius. As soon as there's an little colour, off it goes. :-)

I experimented with this recipe.  Half of the pitas I made I rolled too thin and they turned into saltine crackers.  The other half turned out great.  I think the key is to have the width consistent from edge to edge.

Pressing them out by hand makes it very hard to get them right.  Rolling pin is a must in my opinion. 

I made pita bread following this recipe and it turned out very well.  Thank you

 I have posted it here http://lilyng2000.blogspot.com/2007/01/pita-bread.html

this is indeed an enjoyable and tastey recipe. i also had some puffing issues. some of mine half-puffed, while others puffed fully. (by half-puff i mean, it has 2 or 3 medium sized bubbles inside of it, but not continuously through) i made these twice, first time being a complete novice, second time i experimented with rolling widths. i had the same results as my first batch even though i rolled them out much thinner. next time i try it i will test oven temperature.

i had it at 400 both times, by how much do you think i should increase the temerature?

Hello all,

I'm new to the site, though I've thoroughly enjoyed lurking for a couple of months now and have, thanks to you all, finally learned to make eadible sourdough. It's got a long way to go to make me really happy, but it's come a long way from the paving stones I produced without fail several years ago!

Floyd, your pitas look wonderful; I learned to make it from a recipe very close to yours, but they are cooked on a skillet on the stove top. The puffing isn't completely reliable (sometimes you just end up with flat bread), but the hot skillet also gives the pita a flavor that reminds me of the lebanese bakery I grew up frequenting. The pita cooks briefly on one side, then gets flipped right before bubbles appear. Puffing happens on the second side.

Thank you all for sharing your knowledge so generously!

edh

I was so surprised that these worked for me :)

They were so delicious.

I put a mixture of Wholewheat, Wholespelt and rye flours into these and they tasted looovely. I might try other flours experimented with. Barley flours sound delish! (I love barley pancakes)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34851581@N00/425773347/

thegreenbaker

 i've made this recipe 3 times, and i do love it.  at first i had some issues with getting them to puff up well, so i read all the responses and the next two times i decided to experiment with higher temperatures and rolling them out thinner. 

 sadly i still can't get them to puff up fully.  i get a good sized half bubble (one half of the pita bread puffs up while the other stays flat).

 so i was wondering if anyone knew what i am doing wrong.

they still taste delicious, it's just slightly annoying to have to cut half of the pita so the opening goes all the way through. 

thanks! 

pompeii,

It's not a sure fix because, as I said, I don't get a completely reliable puff on the stove top, but the recipe that I've used calls for letting the dough rest not only in the individual balls before rolling out, but also for 10-15 minutes after rolling out. I've found that leaving that step out seems to affect the puff to some extent.

Good luck!

edh

I made the pitas this weekend with half graham flour and they only sorta puffed. After the first two, I increased the oven temp to 450, left them in 6 minutes, then flipped them for another 2. Even at higher heat and longer time they never colored, but I think they puffed a bit more. I'm assuming the whole wheat flour is what prevented the full puffing, so I want to try again with AP flour.

They tasted good, just more like the roll-up flatbread kind of pita than the pocket pita. I have them in a plastic bag on the counter--it sure is nice not to have to go the store for pita!

I just made these for dinner tonight.  Very easy and much tastier than storebought!  I baked them two at a time and only figured out how to get full puff-ed-ness on the last set.  The others were partially puffed.  The thinner the better, it seems.

I baked them for 5 minutes, and I think I'll even go a minute or two longer next time.

Sue 

I have been wanting to make my own pita for a while, but it wasn't until this recipe was linked in a livejournal.com community that I got around to it. I really appreciated the step-by-step instructions with pictures. I used active dry yeast (and activated it in warm water), and 1 c. whole wheat flour + 2 c. all-purpose flour. I noticed that my dough was very sticky after adding the 1/4 c. water/yeast mixture and 1 c. water, so I probably added another 1/4-1/3 c. flour. My pita did not puff up as much as I expected, but after reading the comments, I think that leaving the rolled dough to rest for 15-20 minutes before baking would make a difference. The pita I baked last puffed more than that which I baked first. Anyway, I will never buy pita in the store again. I can't believe I ever condescended to eat store-bought pita when I can make it easily and it tastes MUCH better. Thanks for the recipe!

P.S. Here's a picture of my pita:

My girlfriend and I have had this for dinnerthe last two nights with homemade hummus and feta cheese, I have to say that it's probably the most delicious better-for-me-than-most foods that I've eaten at all. It's incredibly easy to make, and I'll probably start serving it with all kinds of dinner. Thank you!

I just made these for the third time, and every one puffed completely!  I started the oven at 450F instead of 400, and let it heat for about 30 minutes before starting to bake.  I figured so much heat is lost each time you open the door to switch batches, I would crank it up to see if it helped.

Of course, everyone's oven is just different enough to make you nuts, but I found a higher initial temperature made it work for me.  All the pitas had puffed fully after about 2 minutes, and I left them in the oven for another 2 after that.

Sue 

I've made pitas before, but this recipe has turned out the best.  I doubled the recipe using 50/50 whole wheat to AP and mixed it in the Bosch.  I rolled out most of them before beginning to bake so they would have a little rise time, and they turned out nice and puffy and soft!  Half of the pitas I poked overall with a fork, so they would be flat; my kids like these for making individual pizzas.  I got 18 pieces from doubling. 

On the non-puffing problems, they mostly seem to be related to whole wheat, I'm wondering if there has not been enough gluten development.  Maybe the addition of vital wheat gluten might help? Or just more kneading.  Just a thought, I didn't need it, but I know my wheat has a good protein%  and I mill it myself.   

Thanks for a good recipe and nice instructions!

Dana

I want to make pita bread, but I try to avoid all purpose flour due to health.  If anyone know how much of whole wheat, oat bran, and flaxseed I need to make 8 pita breads, please let me know.  Or if anyone has any  suggestion or idea, please let me know also.

Thank you.

Anhp

What an amazingly accurate recipe!!!!

Congratulations, this is an EXCELLENT recipe!!!!

Wow!!!!

The Pitas came out incredible!!!!

Thumbs up to you!!!!

Anhp,

As for a whole wheat recipe, I would recommend using maybe 50/50 with whole wheat and spelt, or whole wheat and whole wheat pastry flours, and then just adding maybe a teaspoon or two of vital wheat gluten to the mixture and maybe a little more liquids. You gotta experiment with it though, as it's never exact. Hope this helps! (I'm in the same boat you are with the avoiding-white-flour-at-all-costs-for-my-health)

Celestia 

And this, above all: To Thine Own Self Be True. 

Will you share you tsatziki recipe.  Our family loves it!  But we usually buy it.  Thanks! Albert

Hi Albert- my simple recipe for Tsatziki is

Start wih one carton of whole milk yogert- put in lined strainer for approx 1 hour to drain whey

peel, deseed and finely grate one cucumber- remove as much moisture as possible (I prefer the hand method of repeatedly squeezing small handfulls until I can't get anymore juice from the cuc

mix with drained yogert

to this add- 4 cloves crushed or finely minced garlic, 1t vinegar or lemon juice, 2T olive oil, salt and pepper to taste- adjust acid and oil to your liking

thats it! Store in fridge until ready to use- adjust ingred. to your families personal likings- we happen to be garlic lovers and I actually use 6 cloves per batch!

ENJOY

Happy Holiday to all,

Alison

I have lived in the middle east for almost 23 years and thoroughly enjoyed their cusine including pita bread, falafel,hummus and not to forget the ever so delicious shawarma.Pita bread was a regular in our home.Howeve since I have migrated to Canada we missd pita bread the most. Not anymore thanks to this great recipe of yours.They turned out wonderful!Each one puffed up so perfectly and my kids enjoyed watching them puff up.

However, there were a few things which needed correction....for example...

*mine got very crisp in the center where they browned. Do they have to brown up before being removed or I can remove them shortly after they puff up?

*I used clarified butter which gave a somewhat greasy look...can I omit oil/fat/butter/shortening?

*I rolled them out VERY thin...so thin tht u cud almost see through them.Is tht why they got so crispy in the center.

The pitas tht we got in Dubai were VERY soft AND CHEWY. Probably coz they were using all of the AP flour. I used 1 part of whole wheat and other 2 AP. I make our regular chapatis with the whole wheat and even they get crispy if not had immediately after removing from the skillet. Is the whole wheat flour the culprit, as we dont like the quality of the whole wheat we get here. Infact it saya 'durum atta' on the bag. What's the difference?

I have mentioned all tht I think might be making it crisp in the center and hence is unedible if u have a gravy or similar things to eat with.

Please tell me wht's wrong ?

Overall I think the recipe is GREAT!

 I consume 2  oat bran pitas a day for my lunch. With prices going up I think I'll just make them myself. I saw the question asked before, but about how much oatbran should I use in the recipe posted here. Do I need to add extra liquid in the recipe? Thanks for any help you can provide.

Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.

James Beard American chef (1903-1985)

Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I have now made these twice. So very good! Tonight I added wheat bran and germ to the AP flour. I used my tortilla press (for corn tortilla) to shape these puppies. Best idea I have had yet! They were perfectly round, as when I use a rolling pin they took on a tear drop shape.Also the thickness was more consistant. I let them rest for approx. 30 min before baking. This time all of them puffed up beautifully! We snarffed them before I remembered to take a picture- oops. Thanks again, Alison

Cool! I didn't realise there was a recipe here for Pitas.

I made them the other day sans recipe with some spare sourdough starter and they turned out very nice - but I learned something very important from it.  Half of my pitas didn't puff up correctly.  Why?

From what I can tell, Pitas won't rise and expand properly unless you roll the dough out as evenly as possible.

Stretching by hand gave me a great approximation of a Naan bread but the steam/gas did not form  a 'pocket' like Pitas should. 

Re: fat/oil - I didn't use any oil and the pitas were still great the next day.  I will definitely consider adding sugar next time to see if it yields a browner result.

Thanks for this recipe, I had hunted high and low on a way that worked to make pita.

They didn't come out quite right on the first try, think I had the measurements slightly out. But second time they were great

Thanks

Carl

this is the first time i've made pita bread and it was spot on for a first-timer.

normally I cook with cast iron, except when something needs to be on a larger surface, in which i use glass or thin cookie sheets. I did these on the cookie sheets, they puffed up a little, but not that much and not on the full surface, i took them out thinking they'd be done, but they were a little light all over, so I reheated on my cast iron skillet.

I saved one dough for the cast iron as a test. on the stovetop with my cast iron skillet the pitas puffed up PERFECTLY. so next time I'll do it this way.

still, even with them not being puffed all the way in the oven, they were just super tasty and easy and fairly quick - really really great!

thanks!!

pita breadpita bread 2

This recipe is almost identical to the one I have used for years to make pita (beginning in a commune thirty-some years ago). I highly recommend it to all you pita lovers.

 A modern tip I can add is that I use parchment paper under all breads that I bake directly on a stone, including pita. I tear a piece of parchment to fit an upside-down sheet pan, place my formed pitas, loaves, rolls, pizza, whatever, on it, and cover with Pam®-sprayed plastic wrap for proofing. Then, using the sheet pan like a peel, just slide the dough, parchment and all, off onto the hot stone. The parchment will get dark brown with long baking times, but it doesn't ever burn, and it doesn't affect the bread in any way that I've ever noticed. This works especially well with pizza; with a traditional peel, it seems that for me, at least, pizza always sticks, deforms, or ends up part way off the stone no matter how much cornmeal I use, and I don't much care for the flavor and texture that corn meal imparts anyway.

 I hope this helps.

 --Rich

All I have to say is that its a fab recipe. Being half arab and living in different arabic countries, I sure ate alot of it. Making it at home just reminded me of my youth. Bravo

Awesome recipe...it turned out great...thanks for the extensive directions!

Really good and easy recipe, no more store bought pitas for us. 

The key to getting the pita to puff up is to roll the dough evenly.  A good way to check this is to just run your hand over the pita, and you will feel any uneveness - a trick i learnt from making chapatis.

I get a very wholesome and tasy pita bread by adding 25% chick peas (boiled and then put through blender - with water) and genoerous amounst of powdered cumin and corrainader - yum! Vinod

I had a little leftover oatmeal bread dough and decided to experiment one day; rolled it out quite thin and baked them in a very hot oven, et voila!  Oatmeal pitas.

I use a smashed avocado for the fat. There is hardly any green color ;) but the pitas seem to stay "soft and fluffy" longer.

I can't wait to try this, does anyone have a good falaffel recipie they would like to share?

thanks

HI all,

I'm a bread novice and I have tried out this recipe several times and I've gotten no puff, and  by trying over and over again I have made the following discoveries:

1.using 000 flour doesn't really give you a bready flavour or taste nor does 100% wholewheat flour. I used 650 flour and was so impressed, it tasted just like the larger pitas ( known Khubz).

2. to get a great puff place your stone as close to your heat source as possible. I have a gas oven and no stone, so I use the underside of my oven tray and place it on the lowest rack in my oven. 

3. Using fresh yeast yields a nice and soft dough, very much like a thick pizza dough and they taste just as great and fresh even the next day. 

Hope these help you next time.

Ashanti. 

Has anybody tried rolling pita with a pasta roller?

The pita would be small (or rectangular), but the dough would be thin and even.

I never expect my pitas to exactly the same or even perfectly round, but I wouldn't use a pasta machine; they'd be too thin.

Here is what has been working for me with a rate of 80 to 100% complete puffing. It is fun to watch them puff like a balloon. I have experimented for almost a month and kept records before I came up with the following conclusions:

1. Knead the dough until elastic, smooth, moist and not sticky.

2. Let dough rise covered for about 1.5 to 2 hours (should double in size.)

3. Divide the dough and roll into balls and let rest covered for 10 minutes.

4. Roll the balls flat with a rolling pin or some other flattening implement. Flattened dough must not be much thicker than 1/8" and I find that 1/4" is way too thick. The distance between marks on the inches side of a ruler can give an idea of how thick is 1/8". On most rulers, the inch is divided into 16 equal subdivisions so the distance between 2 subdivision marks is the desired thickness. I use two O-rings at the ends of a marble rolling pin where the O-rings are about 1/8" thick. I purchased the O-rings at an Ace hardware store. The I.D of the O-ring is slightly smaller than the O.D of the rolling pin so that it will fit snug. After I made mine I found a place on the Internet where they sell a rolling pin with a set of flat rings for rolling dough to different thicknesses.

5. Set each flattened loaf on a lightly floured surface for easy removal later. Repeat the same for the rest of the balls and let rest covered for 15 minutes. Do not stack on top of each other. I use 4 identical lightly floured 12"x17"x1" pans that I stack staggered and I set 2 flats in each pan and cover the top pan with a towel.

6. Now you need to get a good baking surface which has high heat capacity and set it so that the top of it is about 4.5" below the BRIOLER. Turn the oven to BROIL and let preheat for 15 minutes. For a baking surface, I use a couple of seasoned 10" cast iron pans that I turn upside down. I assume that one could use a baking stone, but I have never tried it (if you do, make sure that the stone will not crack).

7. Place the dough flats on the baking surface in the oven two at a time and watch them puff up in less than a minute. I broil them for a total of 1 minute and they are done.

Note: the dough will not puff very well if it sticks to the baking surface. If this is the case, then the bottom of the flattened dough which will come in contact with the baking surface must be lightly floured after rolling.

I have used these procedures for baking pita bread made with: 100% Bread flour, 50% Bread flour and 50% whole wheat flour, 1/3 bread flour and 2/3 whole wheat, and 100% whole wheat flour. Each time I had 80% to 100% complete puffing. I also noticed that the bread opens up into two almost equal thickness and uniform layers.

My wife, kids and I have been enjoying fresh baked pita ever since. I hope you will enjoy it too and I hope your pita puffs every time.

-Elie-

I know it's been a while since this was posted, but I noticed while reading this that you didn't know what kind(s) of bread were steamed, and would like that information.  So without further delay:

Right off the top of my head I can think of one bread/bun that is steamed: Bao.  Not really a loaf of bread per se, but it fulfills all the "prerequisites" of bread.  It has flour, water, yeast, and salt in it (sugar too), it's kneaded and bulk fermented, and it's shaped at the end before being allowed a final rise and then cooked (steamed).

I eat these little lovlies on a fairly frequent basis... at leats once every two weeks, more often if I can gather the ambition to make them.  There is also a less traditional baked varient of Bao, but many purists don't recognize this as being a legitimate bao bun.  Rather, they see this as an Americanized meat filled bun.  I've had both, and they are quite different (although both are very good.)

There are many other forms of chinese bread/buns/rolls that are similarly cooked with steaming, but other than "buns" I don't know their names, and am too lazy to look them up right now ^^.

Cheers,
Taco

Confusion is a state of mind... or is it?

Thank you for the great recipe. I'll be making these as soon as I stop typing this message. Please excuse my ignorance though, but what is that delicious looking filling in the blue and white bowl in your last picture?

Thanks

-Chris-

I made these pitas with whole wheat flour and they were delicious, though only one or two of them puffed up in the middle. They all still had a pocket inside, so how important is that part of the baking?

I'm still very happy with the recipe. I even posted my pictures of the project (yes, it was a bit of a project) on my blog and linked back to this site.

Lael (onehungrysoul.blogspot.com)

The first time I made these they were great; I used 1/2 whole wheat white flour.  Tonight I wanted 100% whole wheat, so I used:

 3 cups whole wheat pastry flour, 1 tsp sea salt, 1 tbsp gluten (just in case), 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 1/4 cups water, 1 tbsp yeast, 1 tsp sugar. 

 Then I baked them for 2 min at 500 degrees (3 was a little crispy).  Turned out even better than the first batch, HUGE pockets, very healthy, light nutty flavor.

Funny, this is basically my pizza crust recipe, but the step by step instructions were great.  I never would have guessed pita could be so easy! 

For a first time is great! eventhough I made them at 1/4" and they didn't puff well. next ones i made thicker and it was a success!

Gonna eat with lentils and broccoli- Little curly baby boy Caspar loves also! bearing in mind he stills hate lumps and chewable stuff!

Thanks for the great recipe...

I have made these prob;y for times in the last two months the are awesome the first time i made theme i noticed i had a no puff policy that i didn't agree to.  I did get one or two to puff but only about 50%.

  So the next time i made them i tried something that nobody here mentioned, instead of rolling the dough into balls and letting them rest 20 minutes i shaped them like you would a larger free-form loaf, by making the OK (that's index finger touching tip of thumb and other three fingers up out of the way) sign with one hand (OK so i can't use one hand to make a larger loaf but you get the idea) to pull the skin of each ball tight and pinch it at the bottom.  this gave me very pretty uniform balls i let them rest until nearly doubled then rolled them out probably a 1/4 inch.  the end result was beautiful fully puffed balloon like pita's.

  9 of 10 were 100% puffed like an angry toad and the 10th was 80%, but i had done it stove top in an iron skillet just to see what would happen.

  I'd also like to take this moment to say hello to everybody and thank all that have posted recipes and helpful tips, that I've used almost daily (my family isn't as happy, apparently they can't eat loaves faster than i can bake them unfortunately) I've been exploring this site for several months and now joined in to try to give back to those who have helped me in my search for enleavenment.  

I'd also like to apologize for babbling incoherently if i have at all i just got back from the hospital for a kidney stone and am still rather drugged from the lovely ER IV and the prescription they sent me home with.

Thanks so much for the pita recipe.  I can't believe how easy it is and will have a very hard time buying store bought pita ever again.  My pitas do not puff up like pictured, but I have yet to experiment more to get it just right.  Puff or no puff they are delicious.

When it's hot out, I like to bake pitas outside.  To see some photos, click on this link  http://flavorsoftheumpqua.blogspot.com/2008/05/whole-wheat-pita-bread.html

Reading through, I've noticed a lot of puffing problems.  I have never made this exact pita recipe, but I make one very similar to it on a regular basis.  (All the same ingredients in about the same proportions).  I, however, cook mine on a hot stone in a convection oven that is at 500 degrees.  Also, I find I have better 'pockets' if I let the bread proof after shaping for about 10 to 20 mintutes, covered.  I always end up with a little browning, but not the bitter kind. 

One other tip.  When cooling the pitas I take them out of the oven and immediately place them on a cooling rack lined with moist towels, then I cover them completely with more moist towels.  I leave them to cool like this and they manage to stay very soft and fresh for the rest of the morning, which is as long as they ever seem to last. 

My pitas still are not puffing. This is my third attempt. I've successfully yet accidentally made naan, but I'd really like some pita bread. Can anyone give me more tips?

ive been making it all morning and it said to mix witha wooden sppon so i did that and it was so sticky i had to add a cup if not more of flur just to knead it and it was stuck to my hands did i do something wrong? i am very excited to see the final results though,,

Can you make the dough and store it overnight for baking in the morning?

I made these for the first time this morning.  They are easy and delicious.  I do recommend adding the water little by little because yesterday I tried and my dough was far too sticky so I tossed it.  Most of mine puffed up nicely but I did let them rest for about 15 minutes after I rolled them out.

Does anyone know how to make pita bread with yogurt instead of yeast? My grandmother was from Samos Island Greece and made them this way and would fry them in olive oil. They were awesome, but no one actually learned her recipe, unfortunately.

this recipe is 100 % perfect .. i just tried it now and it turned great .

ive been trying to make pita since the last 6 months , finally it worked.. i just used 2 cups of flour and 1 cup of wheat .

thank you so much

I tried this recipe using 2 cups ww flour, doing a presoak to see if I couldn't get more gluten (last time I tried it with ww flour they didn;t puff) and I baked them at 450. My two toddlers have been talking about the "bubble bread" for a week now! So, I am going to try 100 % ww flour and a presoak and see if I can't get it to puff right...

Love the recipe! Funny that it is (like someone mentioned above) almost exactly like my pizza dough recipe :) Shows that good, different things can come from the same ingredients. Kinda like my two boys...

The recipe above was great.

I also use a combination of white(375g), whole wheat(35g) and semolina(15g) yogurt (10g) If you use regular yogurt no additional oil is needed Water (260g), salt (3-6g) and yeast (3g).

Very nice texture. We like it for pizza as well as pita cooked in brick oven or on stone in regular oven. 

and since I have found an awesome red pepper hummus recipe, I'm totally hooked!

If anyone is interested in the hummus, you can find it here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Spiced-Sweet-Roasted-Red-Pepper-Hummus/Detail.aspx

I switched out the cayenne pepper for pepper flakes- just under a 1/2 tsp

All of mine have puffed up perfectly!

BTW, Boston brown bread is steamed...

You can bake your pita in a cast iron frying pan on top of the stove!  Heat the pan and when it is real hot place your pita in the pan.  As soon as you see small "bubbles" on the surface flip your pita.  Wait until you see some "blisters" on the surface and flip it again.  When the bread has puffed about 50% flip again.  It will now develope a complete pocket.  This happens fast and you don't have to heat up your stove.  Makes the kitchen smell great and is fun to watch.  Any questions, please write.

I made this recipe and the bread didn't turn out light and poofy like yours. It doesn't taste bad, but doesn't have the texture or lightness I'd prefer. I used locally milled organic flour that was more moist than my usual store-bought flour, and a bit more granular, perhaps.  Should I have used the window pane test?  Should I have rolled them out more thinly?

Well, I appear to be the only one extending this thread, but that's ok.  I think I've figured out the trick to making the pocket in my skillet-"baked" pita. If I have the skillet at medium/medium high rather than high, flip the pitas constantly, and keep them over the heat for a long enough time, the pocket forms. Previously, I was using too high a heat, so I never left it on long enough for the pocket to form. I'd only get individual bubbles.  

It's not only "OK," it makes things easier to find and keep stuff together.   Thanks for not starting a new thread.  I sometimes think the search engine is too far upper left.  it should be smack in the middle of the front page!  Rest assured, you won't be the last to extend it.  (hehehe)

In references to heat...   Everyone's "high" setting can also be different, nothing like experimenting and reporting the results, that's the wonder of this site... everyone learns something and shares.

Mini

For those of you who do not want to heat your kitchen in the summer, try baking your pita in a barbecue grill.  With the door closed, my grill reaches about 500 degrees.  I preheated the grill with a very heavy flat baking sheet.  The pita puffed up perfectly in 3 minutes.

Also, after shaping 12 round balls of dough, I used my tortilla press to quickly and easily press out perfectly round pitas ;-)  I was so impressed, that I decided to buy an 8" tortilla press for larger pitas.

Diane

Thank you for the great recipe. My pitas turned out very yummy, though they were a little bland. Could this be due to the fact that I used 1 cup of whole wheat flour and two cups of white?

I am a COMPLETE NOVICE and these turned out beautifully on the first try!  I followed the suggestions listed by BLM (100% Whole Wheat) and edh (pita on the stove top).  The gluten, which you can buy in any grocery store, worked to make them puff right up.  I actually added about another 1/2 cup of water becuase my dough was really dry, but it still worked.  I suggest if you do this on the stove top to set the heat at med./high and flip the pita as soon as you see the first bubble.  It will completely puff on the second side after about 1 minute or less.  Even my little girls can do this.  We had so much FUN...now we get to eat them!  Our little country store doesn't even sell pita so I'm really glad to know how to do this, especially without the AP flour!

Friends to thanks for next very tasty recipe, at me all family in delight

I tried this and it was awesome - I used all whole wheat flour, a handful of roasted, unsalted sunflower seeds and a handful of old fashioned rolled oats.

Out of the oven with some honey and butter. I need to make twice as many- yum!

Thanks!

I have always let the pita proof about 10 minutes after rolling them out and then carefully turn them top side down onto the stone when putting them in the oven.  Sometimes difficult but helps with the puffing for me. 

i tried not to put oil in my procedure,

is that the reason why my pita bread is not that elastic after 1 day. 

i put them in sealed plastic bags. in a colder than room temp.

and what could be the cause if the dough is not well rested and or over rested?

thanks in advance, 

what a wonderfull forum here.

I tried these for the first time last night, and I got fabulous puffs!!  My kids (ages 5 & 3) were watching, and we were all giggling at how marvellously it worked out!

My question is this:  I rolled my pockets to just over 1/8" thick, and stuck them in the oven.  They started pillowing around 2 1/2 minutes, finishing about a minute or so later.

But, the top of the pocket is SO thin compared to the bottom of the pita.  Is there any way to get the top and the bottom a little more uniform?  Or is it normal to have it thinner on the top than the bottom?

Regardless - everyone loved them and they didn't last long in my house at all!  Thank you!

How does the amount of time bagels are in the water affect the crust. Longer time equals more crispy crust ? I know it could be anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes but what does the boiling water actually do to the crust