Pitas Recipe

Pitas are the simplest form of bread. Pitas are the Eastern Mediterranean
equivalent of French bread. They are good with everything. Pitas are good by
themselves, served with a spread like hummus or baba ghannouj. With a little
extra oil, they are perfect for sandwiches. They are very easy to make, but
there is a learning curve. Especially when learning when the dough is properly
proofed. When pitas are properly proofed, the dough is malleable and easy to
work with and will retain the shape you stretch it out to. When improperly
proofed, they will be difficult to work with. The other important part of making
pitas is to make sure that you kneed the dough properly to develop nice long
gluten proteins. Otherwise, they will not poof correctly and will be difficult
to stretch. Tasting Guidelines: Taste is sweet and savory with yeasty
undertones. Weight is medium. Texture is soft. Good for people with low to
moderate treatment side effects. Best categorized as Eastern Mediterranean.

Servings: 4 people

Author: Chef Ryan Callahan

Prep Time
3 hours

Cook Time
30 minutes

Course:

Snack

Cuisine:

Middle Eastern Mediterranean

Keywords:

recipes mediterranean Pita middle eastern pitas

🧂 Ingredients

3 c. flour

plus some extra for rolling out
2 tbsp. olive oil or cooking oil is fine
1-2 c. warm but not hot
1 packet yeast
2 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. kosher salt

Instructions

1 Activate your yeast as directed on yeast packet. Next, in a large mixing bowl,
combine all ingredients except the water. Mix. Add water as necessary until you
make a proper bread dough ball. After dough ball is formed, knead about 10
minutes or until bread develops some nice gluten. The dough will start soft,
then get firm, then get extremely soft again. At this point, you know that you
have kneaded enough. This is when a kitchen mixer is fantastic with a dough
hook. Dough should look and feel like bread dough. Not too sticky, not too dry.
2 If it’s too sticky, mix in more flour. If too dry, add more water. Allow to rise
in a warm, humid area covered with a moist towel or paper towel to keep it wet
or keep it from drying out for at least 3 hours. The longer it rises, the better
of a flavor it will develop. But 24 hours is probably way too long. Remove dough
from bowl. Cut into balls 2–3 inches in diameter. Should make about Allow to
rest about an hour.
3 At this time, take a pizza stone and put it in your oven. Heat as hot as it will
go without burning down the house. Heat to at least, 425°If you do not have a
pizza stone, you should go out and get one. They are about fifteen dollars, and
you can even order them off the Internet. Take a baking sheet or an upside down
pan and use that instead. The idea here is to have a flat, hot surface to shock
the dough into cooking.
4 Roll out one ball of dough. You want it thin, but not paper thin. Paper thin
will burn, and if it’s too thick it will cook more like a naan bread. The idea
here is to get it somewhere between 1–2 millimeters in thickness. If the dough
will not stay rolled out in length and begins to contract, roll the dough back
into a ball and allow to process longer. Assuming your dough is happy and
healthy, what we want to do is throw each pita onto the stone or pan and allow
it to cook until it makes a poof, or a pita pocket.
5 If you did everything correct, this will happen, and you will have a nice light
brown pita with a perfect pocket. If you are like me and didn’t do everything
correctly down to the last detail, you will get some nice bubbles throughout the
entirety of the dough and a very pliable pita perfect for making sandwiches.
6 Depending on the temperature of your oven, this process should take about 2–4
minutes. Remember to allow your stone or pan to come back up to temperature in
between making pitas. I like to roll them out one by one so I can be certain to
hit the correct temperature in between.