Originally, I cooked the pita bread on the stovetop in a hot cast iron pan and was delighted with the results. Our recipe is intended to make a pita bread with pockets. Place the first 2-3 pitas on the hot tray, return it to the oven and bake for 5-6 minutes until puffed up and just turning golden. Place the rolled pitas on a clean tea towel as you go, cover with another clean towel and leave to rise for 30 minutes.
Cooking is easier on the app.
If I’m looking for a pocket for stuffing falafel, grilled meats, and veggies, I bake them. Finally, serve your perfect pita with this authentic Greek salad, easy chickpea salad, or on the side of your favorite salads. Or for an easy lunch I stuff my pita with this smashed chickpea salad.
Easy Flatbread (No Yeast)
In Greek, pita (πίτα) is understood by default to refer to the thicker, pocketless Greek pita, whereas the thinner khubz-style pita is referred to as aravikí pita (αραβική πίτα, lit. 'Arabic pastry'). The word has been borrowed by the Turkish language as pide, and appears in the Balkan languages as Bosnian-Serbian-Croatian pita, Romanian pită, Albanian pite, and Bulgarian pitka or pita; however, in the Serbo-Croatian languages of the countries comprising the former Yugoslavia, the word pita is used in a general sense meaning pie.citation needed Other hypotheses trace the Greek word back to the Classical Hebrew word פת (patt, lit. 'a morsel of bread'). The English word is borrowed from Modern Greek πίτα (píta, 'bread, cake, pie'), in turn from Byzantine Greek (attested in 1108), possibly from Ancient Greek πίττα (pítta) or πίσσα (píssa), both meaning 'pitch/resin', or from πικτή (piktḗ, 'fermented pastry'), which may have passed to Latin as picta cf.
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After 5 minutes, it will look frothy with lots of bubbles. To start, you’ll activate the yeast with warm water and sugar. Find the full recipe with measurements below. No fancy equipment or kneading is required for this recipe. In Bosnia, Croatia, Bulgaria and Serbia, the local style of pitta is known as lepinja, somun, purlenka or pitica, and is the most common bread served with barbecued food like ćevapi, pljeskavica, kebapche or grilled sausages.
If using another bread flour, reduce the amount of water in the dough by 2 tablespoons (1 ounce). We prefer King Arthur bread flour for this recipe for its high protein content. This pita bread beats anything you can buy at the gyros west colonial store. For baking pita, squares of parchment paper help move them to and from the oven.
To transfer a pita, flip it onto your hand by lifting the towel. Once the pitas are ready, carefully remove the tray. Cover it with a reusable plastic bag or a damp kitchen towel and leave to double in size for around minutes (depending on ambient temperature). Add the flour and salt and use your hands to mix everything into a rough dough. Over time, it spread throughout the Mediterranean and beyond, becoming a beloved bread in many cultures.
Whole-Wheat Pita Bread
- The first mention of the word in English cited in the Oxford English Dictionary was in 1936.
- Bake them for perfect pita pockets.
- Or, cook them in a skillet for soft and fluffy flatbread.
- Recognizable by its puffy, pocket-like appearance, homemade pita bread is made from simple ingredients like flour, water, yeast, oil and salt.
- To transfer a pita, flip it onto your hand by lifting the towel.
- Some say that English borrowed the word directly from Modern Hebrew, which had revived the Aramaic term in the preceding decades.
Then knead it for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Add the sugar, olive oil and 210ml of lukewarm water and whisk to dissolve the yeast. Crumble the yeast into a large bowl.
Dust the surface with a little flour and roll the dough balls out into oval pitas, roughly 15cm x 13cm. Originating in the Middle East, pita was a staple in ancient civilizations like Mesopotamia and Egypt, where it was baked on hot stones or in clay ovens. We start with high-protein bread flour, which encourages pocket formation and increases the pita's chew. Since learning this pita bread recipe from Chef Richard, we’ve made it almost every weekend. This style of pita flatbread, in the English language meaning of the word, is almost exclusively used as a wrap for souvlaki or gyros usually garnished with some combination of tzatziki sauce, tomatoes, onions, and french fries.
In Greece the word pita means "pastry" and is usually used for various cakes and pastries like spanakopita (spinach pie) and karydopita (walnut cake) unrelated to the English language "pita" flatbread. However, pita is sometimes baked without pockets and is called "pocket-less pita". In Arabic, the phrase خبز البيتا (khabaz albayta, lit. 'pita bread') is sometimes used; other names are simply خبز (khubz, 'bread'), الخبز العربي (al-khubz al-ʿarabiyy, 'Arab bread') or خبز الكماج (khabaz al-kimaj, 'al-kimaj bread'). The Western name pita may sometimes be used to refer to various other types of flatbreads that have different names in their local languages, such as numerous styles of Arab khubz ('bread'). This will result in softer, lush pita with less pockets that might have more uneven spots.
For a quicker recipe without yeast, see our easy flatbread recipe, which calls for baking powder instead of yeast. This homemade pita bread recipe guarantees soft, fluffy pita way better than anything you can buy at the store! The ovens used in commercial baking are much hotter than traditional clay ovens—430–480 °C (800–900 °F)—so each pita is baked only for one minute. If it’s too wet, add a little bit of flour at a time, but do this sparingly—you don’t want your dough to be too dry.
Once you let it rest, the gluten will continue to ret, so your job will be even easier the next time you come back. You’ll need the dough until it’s nice and smooth and a bit tacky. Mix until it is well incorporated and smooth, then let it sit for around 15 minutes.
