Homemade Pitas

These were so fun and let me say EASY to make! Dave and I tag-teamed these. I need to give equal credit to the team effort in creating this deliciousness. Don't be alarmed by the length of the directions. Although it looks like it takes some time it really is simple and straight forward. Well worth it and perfect for both snacking and filling. Dave asked me how I got them to "separate"and make the pocket! I told him it was magic!! (To be honest, I'm not really sure how it does this!)

Pita Bread
Yield: 8 pitas

3 C all purpose flour, plus 1/2-3/4 cup more as needed
1 ½ t salt
1 T sugar
1 packet instant yeast
1 ¼ to 1 ½ C warm water
2 t evoo

Whisk the yeast in with the flour, salt, and sugar. Add the olive oil and 1 ¼ cup water and stir together with a wooden spoon. The ingredients should form a ball. If some of the flour will not stick to the ball, add more water or if it is too sticky add more flour. (We had to add more flour, since it was too sticky.)

Once all of the ingredients form a ball, place on a floured work surface. Knead the dough with floured hands for about 10 minutes. (We didn't use the KitchenAid mixer but if you do, mix it at low speed for 10 minutes adding flour as needed.)

When you are done kneading the dough, place it in a bowl that has been lightly coated with oil. Roll the dough around so it is coated in the oil. Cover the bowl with a damp 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 and divide it into 8 equal 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 will be easier to shape.

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 ¼ – 1/8” thick – 6 inches in diameter. If the dough does not stretch sufficiently, you can cover it with the damp towel and let it rest 5-10 minutes before trying again.

Place discs on a lightly greased baking sheet or parchment paper and let rise, uncovered, until barely doubled in thickness, about 30-45 minutes.

While the dough is resting, preheat the oven to 450°. We used our pizza stone but you can use a cookie sheet as well. Once the oven has preheated place as many pitas as you can fit on the stone. They should be baked through and puffy after 3-5 minutes. If you want your pitas to be crispy and brown you can bake them for an additional time,but it isn’t necessary. We put a couple on the grill after baking to crisp up just a bit.

We even talked about cooking them on the grill and will probably try this another time and make mini pizzas out of them. The dough is so thin that these cook up in no time. I think on a hot grill this would be delicious with a little brushing of garlic infused evoo.


Source: I want to thank both Annie's Eats and Brown Eyed Baker for turning me on to this one!