Step by Step Homemade Pita Bread
I found this Homemade Pita Bread step-by-step recipe over at The Kitchn. Do you love this site as much as I do??
I feel like I’m getting free cooking lessons every time I log in.
Back to the Pita Bread. It’s delicious.
However, after my first attempt (and there will be many more) my bread was more like Naan than Pita. We had no pockets, just some cute air bubbles (see tips from The Kitchn on how to correct this).
Here’s my little Step by Step Homemade Pita Bread summary.
A quick & easy 5-ingredient dough comes together with minimal elbow grease (about 5-7 minutes of kneading).
The dough then rises for 1-2 hours. Good things come to those who wait.
The dough is then cut into 8 pcs. that get rolled out into thin disks.
Get your cast iron skillet good and hot and coat it lightly with a little oil.
The directions said to cook for 1-2 minutes per side. That seemed like a long time.
The end result yielded 6 out of 8…pretty darn good looking Homemade Pita Breads. No we didn’t have “pockets” for stuffing, but these flat breads would be fantastic with Gyros or for dipping.
Homemade Pita Bread
Ingredients
- 1 cup warm water
- 2 teaspoons active dry or instant yeast
- 2 1/2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 to 2 teaspoons olive oil
Instructions
- Mix the water and yeast together and allow to rest for 5 minutes until the yeast dissolves. Begin by adding 2 1/2 cups of flour, salt and olive oil to the water/yeast. Stir until a shaggy dough is formed. Sprinkle flour onto a clean surface and turn dough out and knead for 5-7 minutes. Add more flour as needed to achieve a smooth and elastic dough.
- Lightly oil a bowl and add dough, turning once to coat it. Allow to rest for 1-2 hours until the dough has doubled in size. Gently punch down the dough and turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide into 8 pieces and flatten each piece into a disk. Sprinkle pieces with a little flour and cover with plastic wrap until ready to bake.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll each disc into an 8"-9" circle, using a floured rolling pin. Lift and turn dough, dusting surface with additional flour as need to keep from sticking.
For oven method
- Preheat oven to 450° F. Place a baking stone or baking sheet into the oven. One by one, place the rolled out dough directly onto the baking stone and bake for 3 minutes each. They will balloon.
For stovetop method
- Heat a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Drizzle a small amount of oil in the pan to coat, wipe out any excess. Place a rolled out pitz dough into pan and cook for 30 seconds until you see bubbles forming. Flip and cook for 1-2 minutes, until toasted spots appear on underneath side. Flip again and toast other side for another 1-2 minutes.
One Comment
Rita Enriq
What is that delicious little dish served with the pita bread? A soup of some sort perhaps? I would like to make that dish so can you send me the recipe please.