In the United Kingdom, the term is used for pocket versions such as the Greek pita, used for barbecues as a souvlaki wrap. Pita bread is best enjoyed fresh, and because it's so easy to make, it's worth making it right when you want it. The full list of ingredients and instructions can be found in the recipe below.
Key Ingredients
- Punch out your dough, then add it to your floured work space, dividing it into 8 equal pieces.
- When baked, the dough puffs up, creating a hollow interior that can be sliced open and filled with a variety of delicious ingredients.
- The enduring appeal of pita lies in its simplicity, versatility and the way it seamlessly integrates into various cuisines.
- Pita is a type of soft, leavened flatbread that originated in the Middle East.
- Find the full recipe with measurements below.
If your dough starts to stick, add more flour to your rolling pin. Punch out your dough, then add it to your floured work space, dividing it into 8 equal pieces. After your dough has doubled in size, turn on your oven to a blasting 500° F, and place your pizza stone or cast iron skillet inside the oven to preheat it. You can do this on a nicely floured surface, or work directly in the same bowl, adding a little bit of flour at a time as you see fit.
Thick Pita Bread
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 store. For baking pita, squares of parchment paper help move them to and from the oven.
Baking Stones & Baking Steels
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 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 gyro king and wings menu 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.
However, there is no record of the steam-puffed, two-layer "pocket pita" in the ancient texts, or in any of the medieval Arab cookbooks, and according to food historians such as Charles Perry and Gil Marks it was likely a later development. To keep the finished stack warm, cover with a kitchen towel and continue on. Cover with a towel, and let rest 10 minutes so the gluten can relax a bit before we move onto the rolling process.
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.
Ingredients US CustomaryMetric 1x2x3x
It can be made with or without an interior pocket. I cook traditional dishes from around the world that happen to be vegan. Meanwhile, preheat the oven along with a tray to 250°C (230°C fan). You want to create a smooth surface across the dough. Return the dough to the work surface and divide it into 8 pieces (80-85g each). Shape the dough into a large ball, grease a clean bowl with a little oil and place the dough inside.