pita bread
But this works! These babies puffed up like a mouth-watering poori bread in the oven, coming out closer to balloons than pizzas — at last. The technique, which should be 100 percent attributed to Rose Levy Beranbaum’s brilliance, and not my own, puts indiviuals pitas on a searing hot baking stone (or if you’re me, and have busted another one I don’t want to talk about it a cast iron skillet) and bakes them for just three minutes. I found that spritzing the tops with water guaranteed a perfect puff, but really, that’s all there is. It’s that easy.
This may also be the perfect starter bread, for those of you intimidating by the bread-making process. A long rise in the fridge lends itself to a developed flavor we associate with high-end artisanal breads; it also does the hardest work for you. The ingredients are as simple as any bread can be and with a baking time of three minutes per pita, it’s hard to argue that it will keep you tied to the kitchen for long. Best part — even if yours don’t puff, you’ll still have a most delicious flatbread, and with a little extra effort,the most delicious hummus to dip it into.
One year ago: Almond Biscotti
Deb went on vacation and all I got were these lousy pita breads! Wondering why your comments aren’t being responded to at the speed that you’ve come to expect? It’s true, we’ve flown the coop and we’ll be back at the end of the week. But come on, we left you homemade pita bread — you shouldn’t have to miss us at all.
Pita Bread
Adapted from The Bread Bible
3 cups plus a scant 1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (16 oz./454 grams)
2 teaspoons salt (1/2 oz./13.2 grams)
2 teaspoons instant yeast (6.4 grams)
2 tablespoons olive oil (1 oz./27 grams)
1 1/4 cups water, at room temperature (10.4 oz./295 grams)
1. About 1 1/2 hours before shaping, or for best flavor development, 8 hours to 3 days ahead, mix the dough.
Mixer method: In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine all the ingredients. With the paddle attachment, mix on low speed (#2 if using a KitchenAid) just until all the flour is moistened, about 20 seconds. Change to the dough hook, raise the speed to medium (#4 KitchenAid), and knead for 10 minutes. The dough should clean the bowl and be very soft and smooth and just a little sticky to the touch. Add a little flour or water if necessary. (the dough will weigh about 27.75 oz./793 grams.)
Hand method: In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients except for a scant 1/4 cup of the flour. With a wooden spoon or your hand, mix until all the flour is moistened. Knead the dough in the bowl until it comes together.
Sprinkle a little of the reserved flour onto the counter and scrape the dough onto it. Knead the dough for 5 minutes, adding as little of the reserved flour as possible. Use a bench scraper to scrape the dough and gather it together as you knead it. At this point it will be very sticky. Cover it with the inverted bowl and allow it to rest for 5 to 20 minutes. (This rest will make the dough less sticky and easier to work with.)
Knead the dough for another 5 to 10 minutes or until it is soft and smooth and just a little sticky to the touch. Add a little flour or water if necessary. (The dough will weigh about 27.75 oz./793 grams.)
2. Let the dough rise: Using an oiled spatula or dough scraper, scrape the dough into a 2-quart or larger dough-rising container or bowl, lightly greased with cooking spray or oil. Press the dough down and lightly spray or oil the top of it. Cover the container with a lid or plastic wrap. With a piece of tape, mark the side of the container at approximately where double the height of the dough would be. Refrigerate the dough overnight (or up to 3 days), checking every hour for the first 4 hours and pressing it down if it starts to rise.
3. Preheat the oven: Preheat the oven to 475°F one hour before baking. Have an oven shelf at the lowest level and place a baking stone, cast-iron skillet, or baking sheet on it before preheating.
4. Shape the dough: Cut the dough into 8 or 12 pieces. Work with one piece at a time, keeping the rest covered with a damp cloth. On a lightly floured counter, with lightly floured hands, shape each piece into a ball and then flatten it into a disk. Cover the dough with oiled plastic and allow it to rest for 20 minutes at room temperature.
Roll each disk into a circle a little under 1/4 inch thick. Allow them to rest, uncovered, for 10 minutes before baking.
5. Bake the pita: Quickly place 1 piece of dough directly on the stone or in the skillet or on the baking sheet, and bake for 3 minutes. The pita should be completely puffed but not beginning to brown. The dough will not puff well if it is not moist enough. See how the pita puffs, then, if necessary, spray and knead each remaining piece with water until the dough is soft and moist; allow to rest again and reroll as before.* (However, those that do not puff well are still delicious to eat.)
* After my first pita didn’t puff well, and I realized I was too lazy to spritz and reroll and rise each remaining pita, I instead spritzed each rolled-out pita with water two or three minutes before baking it. It worked magically — all of the remaining pitas puffed perfectly. Try this method first if yours don’t puff, if it doesn’t work to you, revert to Beranbaum’s suggestion of kneading the extra moisture in.
Proceed with the remaining dough, baking 3 or 4 pieces at a time if using a stone or baking sheet. using a pancake turner, transfer the pita breads to a clean towel, to stay soft and warm. Allow the oven to reheat for 5 minutes between batches. The pitas can be reheated for about 30 seconds in a hot oven before serving.
To cook the pitas on the stove top: Preheat a griddle or cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Lightly grease the surface and cook the pitas one at a time. Cook for about 20 seconds, then turn the dough and continue cooking for 1 minute or until big bubbles appear. Turn the dough again and cook until the dough balloons. If the dough begins to brown, lower the heat. The entire cooking process for each pita should be about 3 minutes.
Whole wheat variation: For a whole wheat version, use half whole wheat and half white flour. If using regular whole wheat flour, for best results, grind it very fine or process it in a food processor for 5 minutes to break the bran into smaller particles. Finely ground 100% whole wheat flour (atta), available in Middle Eastern food markets, is the finest grind available. Or, for a milder but wheatier flavor and golden color, try 100% white whole wheat flour. You will need to add 1/4 cup more water, for a total of 1 1/2 cups (12.4 oz./354 grams).
yum! I will be trying these very soon!
Making these for dinner tonight!
Deb, I feel your pain about the stone. We just bought 2 more round ones since our rectangle seems to always be in use, and one of them shattered on the second use, while it was in the oven! Guess it goes to show you shouldn’t trust half off sales.
This is so cool! I’m definitly going to try these out.
Thank you!
C
Alton Brown has a money saving pizza stone suggestion: unglazed quarry tile from a building supply store. Not as easy to come by as the local Williams Sonoma or Crate & Barrel… but you’ll save a ton of cash for your efforts. I dunno about the fancy pizza stones, but I store my tile on the bottom of my oven all the time. I think the oven holds its temperature better with it in there, too.
This reminds me of something we call “bake” in the Guyanese food culture. I’ve had pita a thousand times but never drew the similarities until I saw that top picture. And for a split second I was … “OMG! She made bake!”
I never thought of making pita myself. What a great idea, and a terrific project to do with my daughter. These look wonderful, thank you!
I look forward to trying this recipe. My family is lebanese and we often have homemade bread lying around. I have used the newer Joy of Cooking recipe a few times and like it. My grandmother also has a recipe but of course it is for using a 5 lb. bag of flour and I don’t want to make that much at one time. I am trying to get her to pass me on a scaled down version. I wish she had a smaller version of recipe so I could have a more authentic passed down recipe. I do know that she uses margarine in her bread instead of olive oil. I am interested in trying this soon and seeing how it compares!
Those look sooo much better than the ones you get at the store! Love it – can’t wait to try.
You can use the bottom dish of an unglazed terra cotta pot from your local plant nursery or hardware store as well. They’re easier to find than the tiles and come in various sizes. A 16 inch one averages about $15.
i’ll take the pita we you can do a follow up on pita chips! Haha. Perhaps I will try out pita chips. Or perhaps some obscene version of “greek pita nachos”
… Pita, melted feta, fresh cucmbers, pickled red onions. mmmm….
Looks awesome! Thanks for including whole wheat variations.
I think a perfectly fresh pita sounds so lovely! I may have to make some. I love hummus… and falafel… but I’m thinking honey and butter on a hot from the oven pita would be to die for. Oh, yum!
Forgive me if this posts twice, but I seem to be having compy troubles – I tried making pita with the whole wheat dough from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day last week and I had puffing problems. I think your water spritz bottle might be the solution. Brilliant. Thanks for the tip!
I can’t wait to try these. For whatever reason, I’ve had bad luck getting fresh pita bread at the store. We’re trying to make all our own bread these days, so this will definitely increase the repertoire. Thanks so much!
What would you say the advantage is to making your own pita at home? It looks delicious and sounds like a fun recipe, but there are so many places in the city where you can buy really fresh pita. But I’d be up for it if it tastes better, etc.
my family is lebanese and has always made pits, but i’ve never actually done it myself. just made some hummus, though, which is sitting in the fridge.
that’s pitas, not pits.
Yesssss! I’m very excited to try these! Deb, what did I do before I (apparently) only made recipes from your website? Thank you! And thank you for including hand mixing instructions as well. It is very much appreciated! By me!
The only time I tried to make pita, only a few of mine puffed properly. These look PERFECT! I’ll try this recipe next.
Oh wow! Earlier this week, I was buying pitas and thinking, “Surely I could be making these…?”
Mind reading once again, Deb. Thanks! I’ll try these out soon!
these look good. i just made some naan a few days ago to go with some indian curry and they turned out FANTASTIC. i just put the stone in the oven at a HIGH temp. then put a few rolled out and baked them for 3 min and it created the best naan i’ve ever had, store bought or otherwise. i’ll have to try the pita next.
Classic!!
These look great! Very much like oven baked puris, like you said! I may have to try these out.
I’ve been so scared to make pita- but you are making this sound very easy…
I don’t want to MAKE the pitas!
I want to FILL the pitas!
It’s lunch time!
I made pita once, I used the recipe from Baking with Julia. They didn’t puff, so I haven’t tried again since. I am definitely going to try this version.
Could your timing be any better? I’m thinking not. I’ve recently had an awkward obsession with all things pita-related. Now you’re telling me you have a trusted recipe that I can use to make my own? In my own house? To eat when and where (and however many) I want?! There’s a reason we like you, Deb. You’re some sort of food psychic. Move over, Cleo…
Lovely! I make pita regularly but don’t have a stone or cast iron skillet. I just heat up my baking sheets prior to putting the dough on them to bake. They puff 98% of the time. :)
Too bizarre, too utterly bizarre. You totally read my mind. Making a Mediterranean lunch party on Saturday and was in serious need of a pita recipe. My other recipe is from Israel and has measurements in grams — alas, I lack a kitchen scale. Deb to the rescue. Phew. Thanks!
I’d like to sleep on a bed of those pitas!
Thank you so much for the tutorial on pita making! Ive yet to try but must! :)
Oh my… those pitas look great!! goodbye to those store-bought pitas, never liked them either! I’ve realized you have all the measurements converted into grams, thank you! that’s great!
Love your site!
Lorena
I have been hoping that this post was coming soon! These look fantastic and I can only buy one awful brand of packaged pita around here. We will give this a try right away!
What perfect timing – just yesterday I found a falafel recipe I want to try and was pondering making my own pita bread. Thanks for making my search easy!
One of my favorite cookbooks is called “Pita the Great” which is a silly title but has excellent Mediterranean recipes including a no-fail pita recipe. That hot pre-heated oven really seems to be the key; I think she calls for 500 degrees.
bless you! I have been wanting to try a whole wheat pita bread recipe since I’ve been frequenting our local Mediterranean place for pita, hummus and tabouli. I’ve been making the hummus at home which started by me accidentally buying and opening 2 cans of garbanzo beans instead of navy. I’ve been checking out tabouli recipes as well so now I’m all set !
Delicious! I’ve always wanted to make these. And credit crunch friendly too! LLGxx
Once I didn’t have any bread for French toast for breakfast so I took pitas, soaked them in eggs and milk and fried them in butter. Lo and behold, they puffed up to make French pita balloons — a great hit with kids and a perfect hands-on physics lesson for the didactically inclined.
Look at that puffy goodness. I’m going to have to try this.
these look amazing! how well do you think this would work with gluten-free baking flour? i just found out that i can’t eat wheat and i am looking for good bread alternatives.
oh my goodness – I’ve always wanted to be able to make something warm and soft to go with my hummus but haven’t been able to do it. This looks like the perfect thing – thank you!
amazing. I am so daunted by this and so impressed with you, really.
The thing I’ve found when making pita bread (the recipe I’ve been using for the last 5 or so years is almost identical to yours) is when rolling the dough into balls before flattening it, it is vital that the surface of the dough ball is smooth, any wrinkles or seams where two pieces of dough are not completely joined will create holes during cooking, letting out the steam and stopping the pita puffing.
I’ve found the easiest way to accomplish this is to hold your hand as if you were gripping something the size of a billiards ball, with your pinky and thumb almost flat on the bench. On a clean bench (flour is bad here, you need some friction between the dough and bench), rotate your hand in a circle – with no flour you should find the dough rolls around in your caged hand while staying a little bit stuck to the bench. In 5-10 seconds, you should have a completely smooth ball with all the “edges” of the dough rolled to the bottom. After flattening with the rolling pin (feel free to use as much flour as you like at this point) you should wind up with a flat, featureless disk, which should puff perfectly.
I think I might have just got inspired to cook something and photograph it this weekend.
Ah man, seeing as I live in Israel – where a five-minute drive to the 24/7 Arab supermaket can get me wonderful fresh pitas for about, oh, a dime or so each – this recipe just makes me smile and shake my head. But you know what, if my hopes of being accepted to a PhD stateside will be realised, I will proabbly be very happy to have it. So thanks in advance. :)
I made bread but not pita yet. I should try your recipe. They looks perfect.
This looks like something I can do. Thanks for the recipe!
I have something, that as an excellent chef, I am so very sad to admit. I have no idea what a “scant 1/4 cup” means and how it’s different than a regular 1/4 cup….
:(
Very nice stuff , thanks for sharing dude . It really show me a new sense :-)
I tried this recipe a while back, and I am sorry to say that I was not a huge fan. These pitas were great to look at, puffed up beautifully, etc, but I felt they were kinda lacking in taste. Maybe its because I prefer the more robust taste of whole wheat pitas. I’ve been meaning to give those a shot. Beautiful pics.
I never even thought about making pita bread. Thanks for telling us how easy it is. I need to make these and stuff them with Greek food.
I was literally just thinking today that I need to learn to make pita bread.
By the way, it’s not up and running yet, but I wanted to let you know that you (and my almost-finished journalism degree) have inspired me to start my own food blog.
I will let you know when I’ve launched it!
These look terrific, I can’t wait to try this recipe!
Mom and I used to make pita bread when I was in elementary school. She was in charge of rolling and flattening the dough, and my job was to put them in the oven, watch them puff, and take them out. We made a great team!
Then we moved to a larger city, and you could buy pita there. Eventually we stopped making them, which was too bad because our homemade ones tasted better, and are much more fun.
So Beautiful!!!! I lust!!!
I fear making any type bread…. I told myself I MUST do it sometime here in ‘09
Here’s a really really terrific recipe for those who are lazy like me and would like to let the bread machine do most of the work:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Peppys-Pita-Bread/Detail.aspx
I do use half white whole wheat flour. After the pitas are rolled, I put my hand under running water and then run my fingers over each pita so thesurface is wet. I never seem to be able to find my water spritzer. Then I cover then with a damp towel for the rise. This recipe takes me 2 1/2 hours, from start to beautifully puffed pitas! We are addicted and I rarely make any other type of bread anymore. The exception is hamburger/hotdog buns and they’re easy to make, too.
Great recipe! If you are in the market for a new stone and would like to be able to easily exchange stones in the future I suggest going through Pampered Chef. One of my stones shattered in the oven and all they needed to do an exchange for me was a small piece of it. Hope this helps your future stone cooking!
*adding homemade pita to list of breads to bake*
What an awesome project!
Bookmark worthy.
They’re gorgeous and look so much better than store bought! I wonder if a whole-wheat version would work as well.
I’ve actually made the whole wheat version from The Bread Bible using my Lodge cast iron griddle across 2 burners on my gas cooktop. I can attest it is a super simple recipe. And, totally delicious! I
And, if there are any leftovers, use Ellie Krieger’s (from Food Network’s Healthy Appetite) recipe for spiced pita chips . Yum!
I’ll have to try your recipe – I’ve tried two different ones so far and haven’t been able to get the pocket. They puff alright, but they’re solid bread all the way through. Still great for dipping into hummus (and one batch was great toasted like English muffins) but not what I wanted. I suspected that I needed something to add a little extra moisture; spritzing sounds like a perfect solution! Hopefully this time it’ll work – I’ve yet to have anything I got from you to fail so far! Thanks :)
Those are beautiful!
I finally made my own falafel the other day from an epicurious recipe – http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/My-Favorite-Falafel-231755 – which were so easy and turned out perfectly. Can’t wait to try them in some freshly baked pita. Thanks.
oh these look so easy! deb…have you ever made sopapillas? i’d love a recipe for them…
I’ve been looking for a recipe for pitas for a few weeks now, I’ll have to go ahead and give this one a try. I love the step by step photos, it really helps understand the process!
Thanks Deb – This looks as perfect and easy as your rosemary flatbread!
*cough* you wouldn’t have a similar recipe for olive bread – pretty please?
Sara 50- A scant measurement means just a little bit less. So a scant 1/4 Cup is less than a full quarter cup.
Cheers!
Very impressive! Pita was always one of those baked goods I usually leave to the pros, such as baguettes and filo dough, but these look doable and like they’d be meltingly delicious with homemade falafal and babaganoush.
Deb,
Any idea why you have to press the dough down during the first four hours of the cold rise? I make pita at home using a different recipe, but have never heard the pressing-the-dough-down advice before. I’d be interested to know what the idea behind it might be.
Thanks -
Ruthie
This recpie is similar to a naan recipe I recently posted on my blog. Those pita bread look wonderful.
Oh wow, those look spectacular!
That’s so funny! I just made some pita bread and it was a failure. :( I should try using your recipe to see if it comes out better!!!
@16 (Megan) — the advantage would be that I can have pita whenever I have the time to make it … and some of us don’t live in a city where you can get fresh pita at a store.
These look fabulous. I like how thin they are. To me that makes it Syrian bread rather than pita which is often too thick, my mother’s family is Lebanese. You could also take the dough and instead of making the loaves, make small circles you stuff with spinach and pine nuts or ground beef or lamb with pine nuts and bake them to make meat or spinach pies.
Love pita bread – you can use it for so many things – sandwiches, chips, wraps, with dips. Yours looks perfect!
Pitas are easy to freeze, and bring out to eat one, or two at a time. I usually pop in the micro for 10 seconds, and then the toaster for a SHORT bit.
What do you call pita bread that failed to puff? Flatbread, Naan, Gordita… TASTY anyway!
These pitas look fluffy delicious! I’m wondering about using multigrain or whole wheat flour with this recipe? These do look fabulous!!
My 17-year old loves making flatbreads.
I will pass this one onto her as well…
MMMmmm. These would be perfect with dinner. I’ve been craving hummus all day!
Yum! These look soo good! I absolutely love fresh pita bread, but never thought to try to make it. I’m glad to know that it’s not that hard to do – definitely going to have to give it a try!
This is one of the few breads where the “Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a Day” method makes sense because you can just pull a couple gobs of dough out of the refrigerator, roll them out and pop them into the oven without waiting for your big gob of dough to warm up and rise.
Those are perfect! Omg omg omg. I am making these asap.
I used to have recipe for whole wheat pita bread that worked the first time I tried it; I never knew there was a problem with getting them to be pitas and not flatbread. Hmmm…I wonder where that recipe went.
I’m game! Will be making these.
Jessica — I have never made bread with gluten-free flour and am certainly not an authority on gluten-free cooking (you should check out Gluten-Free Girl or others of the hundreds of gluten-free food blogs for advice) … however, I would be wary. Gluten is an essential part of the bread-making process — a recipe specifically geared towards gluten-free bread making would be a better place to start.
I’ve nominated you for an award on my blog. Love your site!
Hail from Fl. Isn’t warm weather great? Question..lately i’ve been into alternative flours like spelt and amaranth, can I use the or cut them like witht he whole wheat? Whatchoo think? its an insulin resistance/gluten hates me/nutrition thing.Anyway beautiful post.
These look excellent, and very straight-forwards; leave it to Beranbaum, I guess!
For baking — especially for the artisanal long-rise approach — I really love Peter Reinhart’s Crust and Crumb. If you don’t know it, definitely worth a look. I started baking with Bernard Clayton, but Reinhart has changed the way I look at the topic.
(I know, I know — opinions from random yahoos on the internet are always suspect. All the same: Reinhart is incredible.)
A lovely blog, by the by. Excellent photography — something I could learn from.
Best,
Ross
Man, these looks too good!
NAOmni
Nice. And I just this week broke my stone, but only in two pieces so it’s still in use. Love your blog.
yay! i love pita bread — looks deelicious
Ooh Pitta breads! I haven’t had any in ages, they are so nice stuffed with vegetables and houmous hmmm. Bookmarking this!
BLESS YOU!!! I have tried several times to make pitas… ending up with flat bread. I skipped the recipe that called for breaking the lock on the self cleaning of my oven. This recipe looks easy enough to do on a regular basis. And thank you for adding the whole wheat variations.
Have a BLESSED DAY
The thought of trying to make these successfully terrifies me, I will admit!
But gosh did yours turn out lovely!
What a great review! I always turn to the Bread Bible as my resource for trying any new breads, but it’s a big commitment since her recipes are typically very labor intensive. Thanks to your trial and error, this will hopefully be painless – I’ll be sure to have my spray bottle of water handy!
I must say I’m a bit confused about puffiness mentioned here as something to strive for. I’m pretty sure a pita bread is supposed to be flat. I’ve never seen a puffy pita bread in my life, although I must admit I haven’t seen many freshly made ones. There are plenty of similar breads like naan, and those breads they serve in Turkey that look like a balloon, that are puffy, but pita? Anyone else agree with me on this?
A pita is a pocketed bread. The “puffiness” is that from that pocket forming as it is baked. Once cool, it deflates.
I last made pitas (whole wheat ones) following the instructions in The Laurel’s Kitchen Bread Book. She has you cook them on the bottom of the oven if you have a gas oven. You remove the racks first, of course. She doesn’t mention spritzing. Now I’ll have to try spritzing them!
I make chapatis and I cook them on a skillet. They puff up some, but not quite as much as a pita. They always deflate quite a bit immediately.
I’ll have to try yours with all-purpose flour as well!
These look so delicious! There are many kinds of pita bread out there in the world, but ones that are puffy when hot are the best.That pocket of steamy hot air inside makes for the best texture. Can’t wait to try!
We often buy the smaller pitas that are the size of a.. Canadian Twoonie if your familiar with that. Do you think this recipe would work on a smaller size pita rather then making a full size pita?
The recipe says that you can divide the dough into either 8 or 12 pieces. What you see is the larger (8) size, mostly because it was getting late and I was trying to get them done faster! 12 pieces should make the traditional mini-pita size. I am sure you can make them even smaller, but you might need to dial back the baking time ever so slightly.
I made these today (well, today and yesterday, as I let the dough ferment overnight) and they puffed perfectly :-) Thank you, I definitely enjoyed making this simple and delicious recipe! Will be making again in the future!
don’t you just love the way they puff up. Now, add a salad and some chicken inside and sit back and enjoy!!
OK now that YOU posted about pitas I HAVE to make them. Nerd has been begging for me to attempt them! I trust your culinary genius, therefore I shall follow.
mmm these look delicious!
Bread is the most intimidating thing to me. These look beautiful, maybe one day I will get up the courage!
Thank you!! I too have been looking for a good pita recipe and cannot wait to try this one out!!
how much regular yeast woul you use? I don’t keep instant around the house
I love your recipes, I drool over the pix. I am an avid bread maker, and will definitely try the pitas, I hate the ones at the local stores, they seem to be stale all the time!.
Wow. for some reason, I never considered that pitas could be made by hand! These look amazing – I can’t wait to make my husband make these! ;)
I just made poori in class. And I am ready to try Pita. What a great puff you got. I have some hummus and tabouleh that is just dying for pita.
This has been on my list of things to make – and now your post. I think it is a culinary sign to get in the kitchen! :)
Sharon — You might consider it, as it is far more stable than active dry yeast. Instant yeast is equivalent to 3/4 the volume of active dry yeast.
Woohoo! I just made these and they puffed perfectly the first time. I made them with 50% whole wheat bread flour and let them sit in the fridge for 3 days before baking. Sooo much better than any other pita I’ve tried.
I agree on the “buy an unglazed tile” advice. Mine is currently destroyed as well– cracked in half and unappetizing looking– but since I paid very little for it, I don’t care very much.
That pita looks amazing! Thank you so much for the recipe, I’ll be making this time and time again, I’m sure!
I just made these – yum!! I let the dough sit in the fridge for almost 48 hours. After I rolled it out, the rounds felt a bit dry. I don’t have a spray bottle, so I just set them down on my clean, damp kitchen table, then flipped them over individually onto the baking sheet. They puffed beautifully! We ate them with the cranberry-walnut chicken salad, to which I added leeks, cherry tomatoes and mint leaves. Happiness!
Hey, Deb, thank you for your recipe, it’s really nice. I just tried it but what happened was that the first bread puffed perfectly just as it should but the rest couldn’t puff… I sprinkled them with water but it didn’t work. Do you have any idea what might have caused this and how to avoid this next time? I thought it might have turned this way because the oven lost heat as I opened it to put in and out the first bread. I spared some of the dough for later and would really like to know what to do to have it puff :-). Thank you in advance.
I made these last night, I was only successful in getting them to puff when the dough was very wet and thin, most puffed a little but not like the pillow that I got one or two to become. But they are still deliscious even not fully puffed. I enjoyed them with some hummus and a big fat glass of red wine :)
I made a half recipe and made little pitas (I had eight pieces still) I am definitely going to try making them again, next time on the stove top. which may be easier since all I have is a cast iron pan. They remind me of the Poori my ex’s mother made and will be great with chana masala or that black-eyed pea goan curry that you made, that has become a staple in my kitchen.
Lavande — The recipe says that if spritzing (not sprinkling) them with water doesn’t work to make them puff, that you should spray and knead each remaining piece, let them rest again and then reroll them — did you do this step and it still didn’t work? It also says to allow your oven five minutes reheat between batches — it is not clear whether you did this either.
Thank you, I will try to reroll them and will wait more for the oven to reheat next time:-).
Very cool – we must be on the same wavelength! I just made these myself. http://www.noveleats.com/how-make-pita-bread
I was so excited to try. My family and I love hummus and I never even thougth making my own pitas was an option. The pitas turned out perfectly!! I will never buy pitas again. btw my 5 year old loved how they puffed up in the oven (my little chef in training!!)
I just wanted to say how perfectly these worked out. Both of my roommates think I’m some kind of genius now, and all I can do is deflect some of their praise to you! Thanks again for this recipe and all the others!
I adapted your technique to make naan bread. I used a cast iron pan and the broiler to mimic a tandoor or clay oven. Move the rack to the top and turn the broiler on high. Get a cast iron skillet hot on top of the stove and drop your rolled out naan into it. Then slide the skillet into the oven. This mimics the bread being stuck to the wall of the tandoor. Watch it thru the cracked oven door. When the top starts to blister pull it out. Then spread butter on top. We usually eat the first two out of the oven by themselves. Hot naan at home.
Here is the definition of pita:
round, brown, wheat flatbread made with yeast.
IT IS MEANT TO BE FLAT.
For the Greek souvlaki pita: Using wheat flour, water, some yeast and a tint of salt one prepares the dough. After some time, so that the yeast acts, the dough rises. Then this is shaped in a thin layer, in the dimensions and thickness required. This thin dough is then cooked in a stone floor oven, for the traditional Greek recipe, or over a thin, preferably convex, metal sheet over a fire, for the traditional Arab recipe.
Your puffy bread looks awesome but I wouldn’t call it pita.
Eric — There are many types of pita in the world, I am surprised I have to point this out — Turkish, Bulgarian and Greek are most common plus various Middle Eastern and North African versions. Some have pockets, some do not.
The puffiness in the bread is the pocket. It does not stay puffy once cool.
They look absolutely delicious. Just need some homemade falafel and hummous now! Going to give them a try for lunch tomorrow.
umm pitta bread is an unleavened flat bread suitable for religions that do not allow leavened breads either at all or on certain days. the bread is flat when made but if when you reheat it you wet under a tap it will puff up allowing you to fill the pocket with houmous and red pesto or harissa – yum yum
These look so soft and fresh. I haven’t thought of making pita before. Silly since I make bread, tortillas and pizza dough.
I made this today and it turned out wonderful! Thanks so much for all the helpful tips and detailed instructions. I published a post with some photos and linked to your recipe.
YES!!!
I love Pita!!!
I’m going to have to try out this recipe!
I’ll tell you how it tastes!
I just made your pita for a group of friends. I was so excited that they actually ballooned! My friends finished off the entire batch in twenty minutes, so I’m definitely going to need to make them again soon! Thanks for the recipe!
This might be a stupid question, but I saw that someone mentioned this was an “unleavened” bread. But this recipe has yeast, so doesn’t that make it leavened?
I’ve got a batch of dough in the fridge that I made last night (so far it has come out beautifully). I’m going to finish it tonight and serve it with your lamb kefta and grilled zucchini. Can’t wait! Thanks for the great recipe(s).
I honestly have no idea where that person came up with the idea that pita is unleavened — perhaps some versions are, but every recipe I have ever seen contains yeast.
This looks great! And yes, pita is leavened. I think the unleavened bread Suzie is thinking of is Matzah (or Matzo)- eaten by Jews on Passover. It’s totally different than pita, more like a cracker.
That’s what I thought. I saw them refer to pita as unleavened on Family Guy, so maybe it’s just a common misconception. Has anyone tried Peter Reinhart’s pita recipe? I just got Bread Baker’s Apprentice today.
Probably healthier than anything you’d buy in a store considering they all pump their foods full of chemicals ‘to preserve freshness’ and ‘to preserve color.’
I stumbled here, will be giving it a thumbs up so other stumblers will see it too. :)
Take care.
So mine didn’t puff… and after I tasted one and realized how DELICIOUS they were going to be, I didn’t care. I think if I had taken the care to make sure they were moist enough, it would have worked beautifully, but I was too lazy to mess with them. Especially after I scorched my finger on the top rack that I was too lazy to remove from the oven (see the trend here?). But, I just wanted to say that puffed or not these were AWESOME. Almost as awesome as the lamb kefta I ate them with. Almost. It was totally worth blistering my finger.
This looks great, but I wanted to plug Mark Bittman’s great pita recipe. It’s a little easier than this one and puffs beautifully.
I made Mark Bittman’s a couple years ago and they never puffed for me.
I have had zero luck with pita recipes (yup, delicious flatbread, but sometimes you want to stuff them with cheese and avocado and sprouts and other goodness and flatbread doesn’t work), but I’m really glad I tried this one. I actually did a victory shout when I opened the oven and saw a beautiful puffy pita waiting for me. Thanks!
my english is not very good but i love your blog and i try to read your recipes because your photos are amazing!!!
I’ve had quit a bit of luck baking this recipe on a gas barbecue – easy, and fun to do outside alongside veggies to go inside the pitas.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/editor-n-chef/1083221042/
My only other suggestion – resting the dough between shaping and baking seems to be the most important rest for successful pocket formation. If you’re in a hurry, you can skimp on the other rise time, but giving the pitas a good 20-30 minutes after you shape them is key to pocketing.
double thumbs up by my 3 and 6 year old. thumbs up for me, especially given the creative liberties I took with this recipe…
1. used all white whole wheat flour & eliminated the scant 1/4 cup. I am good at bread baking through sheer dumb luck; I SO am not good at exact measurements. and oh yeah, I SO did not hand knead the dough for the full time, but I must admit I did let it rest & was amazed at how easy it made things.
2. my refrigerator rise did not go well. at all. it was nonexistent. I gave up after 24+ hours & threw the whole thing in the warming drawer for 3 hours or so.
4. rolled out the disks, left them on the counter, covered them well with plastic wrap & headed out the door (karate class for the kiddies, ya know how that goes) for 1 1/2 hours.
5. I used MINIMAL flour & rolled half the disks & let them sit on the counter for a good 20+ minutes while the oven finished heating.
6. tossed a trial one in the oven and hoped for the best…it was MAGIC! didn’t even need to spritz.
soooo… my not so scientific consensus is a) these babies can’t proof or rest for too long if they are well covered, and my Mario Batali pizza stone pan is the bomb. the kiddies are in for a breakfast treat tomorrow- homemade pitas stuffed with cheesy scrambled eggs. yum!
I made these this weekend and they are a hit! Chicken salad was made for stuffing, but it turns out we put alomst anything in them- including scrambled eggs. I did need to spritz the tops with water and then they pufffed up just right.
This is the best pita recipe I have made! Delicious and perfectly puffed. Thanks!
i’m late to this post but just wanted to say that atta is indian, not middle eastern! “atta” means “whole wheat flour” in hindi. just fyi :)
I’m not sure if someone else has posted this, and I’m sure you know by now. “Pizza stones” can be replaced for mere pennies with an unfinished porcelain or clay large piece of tile from any home improvement store. We’re talking max. 5 bucks! Best deal for replacement stones!
baked up these pitas today…they turned out great! i only ate 3, while cooking the rest haha!
These are awesome!!!! I made these yesterday. It was sooo much fun to watch them blow into balloons in the oven. I used a cast iron skillet and found that I had enough time to let one bake as I prepared the next disk. I did not let them cold rise…instead chose to rise them till double at room temperature (about 1hr). Makes great pitas…and makes good flatbread if you have one or two that doesn’t come out right. We ate these with steak, corn, lettuce, salsa :)
Hi Deb
Great blog there.. The above recipe didnt work great as i have only access to active dry yeast in india..However this julia child episode helped me a lot
http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/video/how-to-make-pita-bread-2439/
They were like pooris on the tava
regds
anm
Hi Deb! I just made this recipe last night and it was such fun to watch these blobs rise so beautifully! I was a bit worried because I used active dry yeast, but apparently that made no difference!
I do have to say though that this line sounds like craziness to me “Preheat the oven to 475°F one hour before baking.” Once it reaches its pre-set level of hotness, its not going to get any hotter. Maybe its because you’re using a pizza stone or cast iron skillet, and they take longer to heat up? The 1/16″ thick baking sheet certainly heats up as fast as the rest of the oven, and I doubt that a cast iron skillet would take all that long. Seems like a huge waste of resources to me…
But other than that, thanks for a great pita recipe!!! I had one for lunch and iit was delicious as well as much admired by my co-workers ;)
Stef.
Using a baking stone is the only way to go. Your rustic breads come out great. The only problem is that it takes a long time for it to heat up. So yes depending on your oven it may take up to 1 hour to pre-heat the stone. Mine takes about 45 minutes to heat all the way. Hope this helps you understand the one hour pre-heat. And yes cast iron will take longer to heat also. about 30 minutes for my skillet. and 1 1/4 hour for the dutch oven to reach 450 F.
Deb, I love your site. I made these (with bread flour!) and they cooked up beautifully. One question, though – and this applies to bread making in general. I let the dough sit in the fridge overnight, per your recommendation. When I shaped the pitas tonight, the dough smelled fermented, a bit like the artisanal cheese section at Whole Foods. Is that a bad thing? Thanks!
Made these last week and they were fun. The dough was incredibly sticky and tough to deal with, but I love a dough that likes to rise in the fridge. I didn’t get a lot of puffing, but I also couldn’t find my spray bottle and didn’t take the time to massage in more water, as my guests were waiting for their pita, which I served with a Cooks Illustrated falafel recipe (highly recommend it). Everything was a big hit but I ate the pita the next day and they were even better, so next time I would make the pita ahead of time.
Amazing! I did this on Saturday, the result was the perfect pita bread. Thanks!!!
Now you just need to post a recipe for tzatziki sauce and you are set :-). In the meantime here is a good recipe I found on allrecipes.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/tzatziki-sauce/Detail.aspx
Yes Yes Yes!! They puffed up like party balloons, each and every one, just in time for a greek food dinner party. I may have added extra water in my desire to have a sufficiently wet dough the first time. Let rise in fridge overnight. Dough was too sticky to roll, but only added flour to the rolling pin and surface so the inside would stay extra moist. Covered with damp towel for 20 minutes then handled as little as possible on way into oven. Didn’t have luck with the stovetop method (last time I tried this, although there were also problems with the dough being cold and tough), but on the pizza stone in the oven, which was so hot I was getting a little burned without touching it (45 minute preheat), they quickly puffed.
For the people wondering if these are way better than store-bought, uhhh, maybe not other than being fresh out of your oven, but this recipe is spot-on and not too time consuming–although it does take space, so if you get any satisfaction out of successfully making things yourself you might go for it.
So, it didn’t work. from the beginning! My dough didn’t even rise. Why would this happen to me? Boo. I say: Boo. I was not in any mood to have pita that didn’t work. I wanted pita to work. I didn’t think it’d make a difference (and had a bad experience before…) but I put the plastic wrap touching the top of the dough in the fridge. Is this my problem? Once before I didn’t have the plastic wrap touching the dough and it got all crusty and hard, before I baked it, if that had happened after I baked then props to me, but it didn’t. So I say again: boo to my bread baking methods. Not to your recipe contributions. Those I adore.
I just made these with 50% whole wheat flour. It worked out great. The only thing is that I used the 1 1/2 cup of water as suggested and it was way too wet. So I had to keep kneading in flour until the dough got to a good consistency. I divided the dough into 12 pieces. I found the smaller pieces were easier to handle when transferring to the cast iron skillet in the oven. Also, when I rolled out the portions of dough into disks, the dough would resist and curl back. So I left the disks out to rest for 5 min and rolled them out again so they would get thinner. I had to do this a couple of times until I got them to under 1/4 inch.
Thanks for this recipe. I’ve been searching for a good pita bread recipe and my search is now over. I used the wheat variation, refrigerated the dough to add more flavor, and baked them and they turned out perfect. They’ve been requested again less than a week later, so I’m off to make some more.
I (and it sounds like I’m not the only one) have been searching for a real pita recipe for months. This worked beautifully. They came out perfectly puffy and delicious. Thanks so much.
Was one of the unlucky many to loose all power this weekend. So with the last power on my iphone I searched for stove top pita bread recipes. Was excited when my favorite blog came up, Smitten Kitchen. Under candlelight and with my cast iron griddle on my gas stove, I made the whole wheat(used about 80% white whole wheat flour) pita bread. Even got it to puff up when I spritzed it just before placing on griddle pan. Yummy. Monday, when power was restored and the dry ice kept my refrigerator and freezer ‘alive’ I baked the rest of the pita dough in the oven. It even puffed up without the spritzing. Yummy again.
Judy