Pita Bread

Pita bread is a great bread for beginning bakers or for making with kids. The entire process of making them only takes about two hours too, so it is also a great one for people on a tight schedule.

Flat Breads

Flat breads can be made in dozens of different ways. They can be made from grains other than wheat, such as corn in corn tortillas. They can be made with no leavening, such as matzo or flour tortillas, with chemical leavening (baking soda or baking powder) such as pancakes or crepes, or with yeast, such as naan or pita bread. They can also be made from a starter. And they can be baked (pitas), fried (fry bread), grilled (zebra bread), and, I would imagine even steamed (I'm drawing a blank... anyone?). Flat breads of some sort exist in just about every culture on the globe.

Anyone who grew up in a household where flat breads are an essential part of every meal knows will attest that they are a hundred times better when baked fresh than when bought from the store wrapped in plastic and already two or three days old.

I wasn't brought up in such a house, actually, but a year or two ago I started going to a local Lebanese restaurant solely for the fresh pita bread that they baked. After draining my wallet by eating lunch there every day for a week, I realized pita bread must be pretty simple to make at home. So I tried it and was extremely pleased with the results. I still visit the Lebanese restaurant for their pitas every few weeks, but I've cut back and saved myself a ton of money.

About The Ingredients

There are only 6 ingredients in this recipe for pita bread, and you even have quite a bit of flexibility in choosing which of those to include. I'll go through the ingredients one-by-one:

  • Flour - I like to use one cup of whole wheat flour and 2 cups of all purpose unbleached flour. It gives the pitas a heartier flavor than using all white flour. You can use any combination of the wheat flours you have around the house, from 100% white flour to 100% whole wheat flour. You could probably even use flour made from other grains, though I'd suggest trying it with wheat flour the first time before getting too crazy.
  • Salt - Salt is necessary to retard the yeast (slow it down) and to flavor the bread. Without salt bread is pretty... blah. I used kosher salt for this, but any type of salt you have in the house will work just fine.
  • Water - Plain old tap water, assuming your water is drinkable. If not, bottled or distilled water. Something close to room temperature (warmer than 50 degrees fahrenheit, cooler than 100 degrees) works best.
  • Sugar - A touch of sugar or honey provides a little more food for the yeast and will make the bread brown faster when it caramelizes. It also can add a touch of sweetness to the dough. You can safely omit it from the recipe and it will turn out fine, or add more if you like it sweeter.
  • Yeast- I use instant yeast, which is also know as Rapid Rise or Bread Machine yeast. Instant yeast is a little more potent than active dry yeast and can be mixed directly in with your dry ingredients and will have no problem waking up when the water is added. Active dry yeast works just as well as instant yeast, but requires being activated in a little bit of warm water before being added to the rest of the ingredients. If you are using active dry yeast, read the instructions on the package to figure out how to activate the yeast before adding it to this recipe and reduce the amount of water you add later in the recipe by the amount of water you proof the yeast in (i.e., if you activate the yeast in a half a cup of water only add 3/4 to 1 cup later).
  • Oil - Oil or fats soften the bread and keep it fresher longer. Olive oil is the most traditional oil to use in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cooking, but if you do not have any you can use whatever you have in the house. And, in the worst case, you can even omit it.
  • Pita Bread

    Makes 8 pitas

    3 cups flour
    1 1/2 teaspoons salt
    1 Tablespoon sugar or honey
    1 packet yeast (or, if from bulk, 2 teaspoons yeast)
    1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups water, roughly at room temperature
    2 tablespoons olive oil, vegetable oil, butter, or shortening

    If you are using active dry yeast, follow the instructions on the packet to active it (see the note on yeast above). Otherwise, 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 an extra 1/4 cup).

    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 (or until your hands get tired). If you are using an electric mixer, mix it at low speed for 10 minutes.

    (The purpose of kneading is to thoroughly combine the ingredients and to break down the flour so that the dough will become stretchy and elastic and rise well in the oven. A simple hand kneading technique is to firmly press down on the dough with the palm of your hand, fold the dough in half toward you like you are closing an envelope, rotate the dough 90 degrees and then repeat these steps, but whatever technique you are comfortable using should work.)

    When you are done kneading the dough, place it in a bowl that has been lightly coated with oil. I use canola spray oil, but you can also just pour a teaspoon of oil into the bowl and rub it around with your fingers. 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.

    When it has doubled in size, punch the dough down to release some of the trapped gases and divide it into 8 pieces. 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 400 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. 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.

    If you have a spray bottle in the kitchen, spray a light mist of water onto your baking surface and close the oven for 30 seconds. Supposedly this step reduces the blistering on the outside of your pitas. I've skipped it many times in the past and still been pleased with my breads, so if you don't have a bottle handy it isn't a big deal.

    Open the oven and place as many pitas as you can fit on the hot baking surface. 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 (in the batch pictured here I removed them at 3 minutes).

    That's it. They should keep pretty well, but we almost always eat them as soon as they come out of the oven.


    Yum!

    If you have any tips on baking pitas or have a recipe you'd like to share, please add a comment below.

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Excellent recipe!

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

work in progress

 Hey this has been a fun one to do with the kids,will try some wheat flour next time,about to put them in the oven,can't wait to try'em!

Pita

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

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

Other Grains

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!

whole grain pittas

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

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???!!!

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sourdough pitas

Hi Andrew. Did you ever adapt these to sourdough? If so would you share the adaptation?

nice recipe!

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 didn't puff

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?

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puffless pitas

The two most likely causes would be an oven or surface that isn't hot enough or the dough not being thin enough. Roll your dough real thin and place them on a hot surface and it is hard to go wrong.

what makes pitas puff..

The thing that makes the pitas puff is heat.

Very high temperatures have a shock-like effect on the yeast and this causes it to "puff". It is really that simple. Turn your oven to its highest possible heat and your pitas will definitely puff.

Pitas

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

qahtan

Great Recipe

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

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Doubling the pitas

This recipe can certainly be doubled, but, yes, managing the logistics of it does get harder: more kneading, more shaping, more loading and unloading the oven. But if you have enough mouths to feed, go for it.

You can make the pitas smaller. They'll turn out well, but I wouldn't get my hopes up that they'll last any longer. :)

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Thicker Pitas

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. :-)

 

 

 

Shalom! so if i follow this

Shalom!

so if i follow this recepit with your tips I'll make pita as in Israel?

 

Fabrizio, Rome

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I lived in israel, and know

I lived in israel, and know what you're talking aobut. when I tried to bake them thicker, they didn't get a pouch. whatsoever. but my temp was a bit low, which might have been the problem.

Tried recipe

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. 

tried recipe

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

mmm pita!

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?

Try letting them proof for a

Try letting them proof for a little while after they are rolled out but before going into the oven.  Keep a moist towel or plastic over them to keep them from drying out.  I've found about 10 - 20 minutes of post shaping proofing will lead to a full pocket, rather then several small ones. 

pita on the stove top

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

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edh - I like the idea of

edh - I like the idea of using a skillet.  Do the breads get crispy or are they still soft?

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I was so surprised that

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

puff.

 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! 

 

 

re; puff

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

Non-puffing pita

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!

re: non-puffing

I made mine with 100% whole wheat and they hardly puffed. I guess you have to use at least 60% AP.

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Lisa - did you increase the

Lisa - did you increase the water somewhat to account for the graham flour?  And how was your batch with the AP flour?  I've planned some pitas for tomorrow, so am re-reading the threads here.

Pita, pita, 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 

Easy and delicious!

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:

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Nice

Those look great.

Thanks!

Thank you!  I'm looking forward to making this recipe again.

Mmm

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!

Pita puffing hint

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 

Perfect!

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

pita bread makes with whole wheat, oat bran, and flaxseed?

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

Oh My God!!!

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

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. 

what's not to like about pitas!!

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

 

Tsatziki recipe

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

Thank you!!!

Thanks so much Alison for the recipe.  All the best to you and your family in the new year.  Albert

Great Recipe!

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!

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Pita tips

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?

Yes, I think so. It sounds like you made them more like crackers.

Do they have to brown up before being removed or I can remove them shortly after they puff up?

You can remove them earlier.

Can I omit oil/fat/butter/shortening?

Most pita recipes contain some kind of fat (typically olive oil), but you certainly could try it fat free.

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shawarma

oh, yes, the shawarma! I miss it the most. everytime I go to visit, I eat shawarma almost every other day. they just don't get it out here.

 

there it is.... slow roasted for HOURS, with onions and all the fat on top, which drizzles down on it. then they kind of grate off the meat and put it in a pita usually with veggies, hummus or tahina, and sometimes amba. amba is also one of the things I really miss... it's originally from India, and is a condiment made from mangos and peppers. In Turkey, they have the best shawarma. they roast it with a real flame, not a slow-roasting machine like that. I couldn't find a picture.

 

Pitas always remind me of this....   :(

How Much Oat Bran?

 

 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)

Alison

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

 

Rolling evenly

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.

 

 

A great recipe

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

 

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these were fantastic!

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 breadpita bread 2pita bread 2

pita baking tip

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

 

Super pita bread

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

Pita Bread

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

Really good and easy recipe,

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.

pita variations

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

Oatmeal pitas

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.

Avocado 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.

mmmmm pita

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

 

thanks

nice falafel recipe and very adaptable

This is from NYT's Mark Bittman. It has good instructions on how to deep-fry them:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9401E7D81F30F937A35757C0A9619C8B63

 Abby 

puffed pitas

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. 

Pasta roller for pita?

Has anybody tried rolling pita with a pasta roller?

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

Too thin?

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.

Not so.

Setting 2 or 3 on my Kenwood pasta roller attachment is perfect for pitta.

I've made pitta with a pasta roller for years.

Love

John 

 

 

 

 

Puffing remedy

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-

Steamed Bread

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?

And what's in the bowl?

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-

 

delicious whole wheat pitas

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)

100% Whole Wheat

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! 

great puffing

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...

Observation of the 'puff'

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.

Pita

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.

baking pitas in your barbecue

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

Puff trouble shooting

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. 

No puff

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?

I've also been having trouble

I've also been having trouble getting my bread to puff up.  But i've made some delicious flat naan! - Los Angeles Driving Under the Influence Lawyer

extremly sticky dough?

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,,

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It's probably because you are using volume measurements

Probably your dough is sticky because you are using volume rather than weight measurements. I think it is fine that you added more flour.

--Pamela

dough

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

lovely and delicious

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.

pita made with yogurt?

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.

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With yogurt and yeast

I've heard of making pita with yogurt instead of water and yeast. I think this is called naan.

--Pamela

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re: naan dough to make pita

When we make naan, we don't usually roll them out into rounds like we do pita. But I can't think of any reason why one shouldn't. I bet the naan dough would make terrific pita bread.

We've never fried the bread in olive oil to bake it though....

Here are the recipes I use:

-Elizabeth

this recipe is 100 % perfect

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

Whole wheat flour

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...

Pita bread

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. 

these look great

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

Excellent pita

All of mine have puffed up perfectly!

BTW, Boston brown bread is steamed...

 

 

 

Try baking pita on the stove top

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'm going to try that next

I'm going to try that next time!

I made this recipe and the

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

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.  

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I certainly agree to extending threads!

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.

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