Homemade Pita Bread

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I stole this recipe for Homemade Pita Bread from melskitchencafe.com who stole it from underthehighchair.com. Four ingredients, an electric mixer, lots of kneading, some resting and a brief period to let the dough rise and you will have homemade pita bread. The time and effort making these pitas from scratch will be better than store bought pitas, even if they don’t puff up enough for you. These homemade pitas work great with the recipe for Greek Chicken Gyros with Tzatziki sauce. There are only four ingredients in this recipe, but it was the recipe that I was most intimidated by. I was so worried about pita bread not puffing up in the oven. Sadly, these pitas did not puff up for me, but I figured “what the hell” and used them as flatbread instead of pita pockets.

“The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you’ve got to have a what-the-hell attitude.” – Julia Child (see more quotes in the Quotes tab)

In a large bowl combine 1 ¼ cups warm water, 1 tbsp instant yeast, 1 tsp salt and 1 ½ cups flour.

Beat to form a soft batter-like consistency. Add additional flour until dough starts to come together.

Add enough flour to form a soft dough that clears the sides of the bowl (but is still slightly tacky to the touch)

and knead 4-5 minutes with dough hook on electric mixer or 8-9 minutes by hand until dough is smooth and elastic.

Turn dough onto lightly floured counter top and divide into 6 equal pieces. Roll the dough pieces into a ball shape. Lightly cover the balls of dough and let them rest for 10 – 15 minutes.

Roll each dough ball into a thin disc, about ¼ inch thick.

Do your best to keep an even thickness.

Let the pita rounds rest on the counter top, lightly covered for 30 – 40 minutes until they are slightly puffed.

Preheat the oven to 425 F. Flip 2 pitas onto a large, rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Flip so the side resting on the counter is now face up. Spritz with water if needed.

Bake 10 minutes until they are starting to brown very lightly on top and have puffed several inches high. It’s ok if some don’t puff. Use as flatbread if they don’t have pockets inside.

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Homemade Pita Bread

Four ingredients, an electric mixer, lots of kneading, some resting and a brief period to let the dough rise and you will have homemade pita bread. The time and effort making these pitas from scratch will be better than store bought pitas, even if they don't puff up enough for you.

Course Bread
Cuisine Greek
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes
Servings 6 pita
Author Recipe Thief

Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp instant yeast
  • 1 ¼ cups warm water
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 3– 3 ½ cups AP flour

Instructions

  1. In a large bowl combine the water, yeast, salt and 1 ½ cups flour. Beat to form a soft batter-like consistency. Add additional flour until dough starts to come together. Add enough flour to form a soft dough that clears the sides of the bowl (but is still slightly tacky to the touch) and knead 4-5 minutes with dough hook on electric mixer or 8-9 minutes by hand until dough is smooth and elastic.

  2. Turn dough onto lightly floured counter top and divide into 6 equal pieces. Roll the dough pieces into a ball shape. Lightly cover the balls of dough and let them rest for 10 – 15 minutes.

  3. Roll each dough ball into a thin disc, about ¼ inch thick. Do your best to keep an even thickness. Let the pita rounds rest on the counter top, lightly covered for 30 – 40 minutes until they are slightly puffed.

  4. Preheat the oven to 425 F. Flip 2 pitas onto a large, rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Flip so the side resting on the counter is now face up. Spritz with water if needed.
  5. Bake 10 minutes until they are starting to brown very lightly on top and have puffed several inches high. It’s ok if some don’t puff. Use as flatbread if they don’t have pockets inside.
  6. Baked and cooled pitas can be frozen or stored covered at room temperature 1 -2 days.

Recipe Notes

Mine did not puff enough to cut open to use the pockets, so I used them as flatbread. Make sure to really flour the counter top before putting the dough balls down and re-flour the counter top before rolling the dough balls into discs. I had difficulty removing some of the pitas because they stuck to the counter top; I had to use a frosting spreader to scrape off the undersides without tearing the dough discs.