Home-made Pita Bread

I have a long list of bread to try, this has been the most successful pita bread recipe to make at home. I originally came across the recipe on hostthetoast.com and adapted it here with a few changes to the process.

To make the most successful pita at home in your home oven, I highly recommend purchasing an oven baking stone.

link for a great one: https://shop.kingarthurflour.com/items/square-baking-stone

I used a baking pan, but it didn't work as great as a baking stone.

Plus you'll need to set your oven on the highest heat setting. Mine oven could reach 500 Fahrenheit and it gives perfect results quickly.

I have tried a few recipes before and they were tasteless. The secret I have figured for a tasty pita bread is adding at least 25% of the flour amount, Whole Wheat Flour. Another ingredient to make it tasty is adding olive oil to the dough. Recipes that don't have olive oil turned out to be like crackers.

Remember while making this bread recipe, that bread flour and whole wheat flour have a higher Gluten IQ then all-purpose flour. So the feel of the dough will be drier than pizza dough for example.

Here is the recipe: (you can check my step by step in my instagram highlights)

1 cup Warm Water plus 1/2 cup of warm reserved for later

2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast ( a yeast packet has 2 1/4 tsp)

2 tsp granulated sugar

3 cups bread flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp olive oil

1/4 cup semolina flour for dusting

Directions:

1. Heat warm for about 2 min. or until it reaches 100 Fahrenheit. You don't want boiling water (it'll kill the yeast activation) it should be warm so when you touch it, it doesn't hurt to keep your finger in the water.

2. Place water in a bowl, sprinkle sugar, than sprinkle yeast on top and wait for 5-10 min. You are looking for it to becoming foamy on the top.

3. Place both flours in a stand mixer with a knead hook (or a bowl) with salt.

4. Once the yeast mixer has foamed, add it on top of flour and knead until incorporated.

5. Slowly add the olive oil while kneading the dough. It will not form a dough yet and will have more of sandy texture. Add the reserved 1/2 cup slowly until you see that the dough has come together and formed a ball. (I had to add 3/4 cup, it depends on the flour type, but 1/2 -3/4 cup should be added in total)

6. Let the dough rise for 2 hours or overnight in the fridge. In my experience dough that has risen overnight will rise better when baking and taste better.

7. If you left it to rise in the fridge overnight, then remove from fridge once you want to bake it and let it rest for 2 hours to come to room temp.

8. Knead the dough into a ball then cut it into 8 equal pieces.

9. Form each piece into a smaller ball, then place on a tray and over with a wet paper towel.

10. Place on the side and let it rise for 1-2 hours it will continue to rise and will eventually become softer to the touch.

11. Place baking stone in the oven and heat oven to the highest temp. your oven can go (mine was 500 Fahrenheit) It's important to let your baking stone heat with the oven.

12. Sprinkle a clean surface with semolina flour (if it's too hard to find, the wheat flour will work). And using a rolling pin and your hands stretch the dough into a round circle that is 1/4 inch in thickness.

13. Using a spatula place the pita on the baking stone in the oven and let it rise, based on the temperature you set it should take 5-8 minutes to rise into a balloon. Then using a spatula remove bread from oven and place on a dish towel.

Note: The pita bread doesn't come out having heat marks as seen in most pictures. It just puffs up, If you leave it in the oven longer it will turn into crackers. So remove once you see the pita has puffed up completely.

Important: let your baking stone cool in the oven, do not remove when hot, it will crack.

Enjoy (with literally everything!!) I tried toasting it with cheese (yum), BBQ (extra yum), Breakfast beans aka Foul (fainted haha)