Homemade Pita Bread

by Vanessa on September 9th, 2010

I only made one batch (8 pitas) and when I began to bake them I started to wonder if it was worth the effort for only 8 pitas. I figured this would end up being a recipe I would use on special days and not a staple in my repertoire. Don’t get me wrong I am a huge advocate of all things homemade who can beat the quality taste and nutritional benefits. However I also work full time and between the garden, dog, kid, bf, blogging, cleaning and cooking… I’m lazy!! I am often willing to sacrifice a little extra cash, quality and some times taste for having the convenience of store bought products. So I approached this recipe very skeptically… I am now eating my own words!! They were light and fluffy not dense tough or chewy like the store bought brands. Now mind you my father is Lebanese so I am not foreign to real fresh pita bread. These were so tasty I couldn’t keep my hands off of them my only regret is that I didn’t make more! What I suggest you do is make a double triple batch of these right away!

Recipe: Pita Bread

Ingredients

3 cups flour (I used 2 cups bread flour and 1 cup wheat)
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tbls. sugar
1 packet active dry yeast (2 tsp. yeast)
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups water, at room temperature
2 tbls. olive oil

Instructions

Follow the instructions on the packet to active it.
Mix the flour, salt, and sugar in a large bowl or stand mixer.
Add the olive oil, yeast and 1 1/4 cup water to the flour mixture and stir together with a wooden spoon or paddle attachment. All of the ingredients should form a ball. If some of the flour will not stick to the ball, add more water.
Once all of the ingredients form a ball, place the ball on a work surface, such as a cutting board or attach dough hook and knead the dough on low for approximately 10 minutes.
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.
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.
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.