Description
Making fresh pita at home couldn’t be easier, which was a shocking discovery. This easy recipe for homemade pita bread uses instant yeast and requires no kneading or complicated shaping. The pita rounds balloon into perfect pockets in 2 minutes in the oven. Hooray!
Notes:
To create a warm place to rise: Preheat your oven for 1 minute; then shut it off.
Parchment paper sheets: If you buy the parchment paper that comes in sheets, such as the If You Care brand, you can fold the sheet lengthwise, then into thirds widthwise and cut along the creases to create 6 equal pieces.
If you don’t have instant yeast, you can use active-dry yeast. Simply sprinkle it over the lukewarm water, and let it stand for 15 minutes; then proceed with the recipe.
See other notes in the post for using your refrigerator during the rising process and for alternate methods of cooking if you don’t have a Baking Steel or pizza stone.
Ingredients
2 cups (256 g) all-purpose flour, plus more for sprinkling
1 teaspoon (5 g) kosher salt
1 teaspoon (4 g) instant yeast, see notes above
165 g (scant 3/4 cup) lukewarm water
1 tablespoon (14 g) olive oil, plus more for drizzling
Instructions
- Mix the dough: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and instant yeast. Add the water and oil. Stir with a spatula until a shaggy dough forms — the mixture will appear dry and unevenly mixed. Use your hands to knead the dough briefly in the bowl just until the flour is absorbed and you have a sticky ball, about 30 seconds. Drizzle a little olive oil over top, turn the dough to coat, cover bowl with a tea towel, and transfer to a warm place (see notes above) to rise for 1.5 hours.
- Heat oven with a Baking Steel or stone inside at 550ºF. Cut a sheet of parchment paper into 6 small pieces about 6-inches square, see notes above.
- Portion the dough: Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead briefly to form a ball. Use a bench scraper to divide the dough into 6 equal portions — each ball should roughly weigh 73 g. Using flour as needed to prevent sticking, ball up each portion, using the pinky edges of your fingers to create tension (see video for guidance). Let rest 30 minutes.
- Roll out each ball: Flatten one ball, and, using flour as needed, gently roll out with a rolling pin until you have a 6-inch round — the key is to not roll too aggressively in order to prevent the air pockets from being forced out. If a round is resisting, set it aside, begin rolling out another one, and return to the stubborn one at the end. Transfer each 6-inch round to a sheet of parchment paper. Let rest 15 minutes.
- Bake the pita: When oven has preheated, use a pizza peel to shimmy one round at a time, parchment paper and all, onto the preheated Baking Steel. I like to cook 3 at a time. Set timer for 2 minutes. If the pita is lightly golden, it’s done. Remove pita, transfer to a tea towel-lined bowl, and close the towel. Repeat with the remaining 3 rounds of pita.
- Store pita at room temperature in an airtight bag or container for 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months. Reheat before serving.
- Prep Time: 3 hours
- Cook Time: 4 minutes
- Category: Bread
- Method: Yeast
- Cuisine: Mediterranean
