Pita!
"I am a mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a pita. Why the pita? That counts as another mystery"
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-Demetri Martin
I love a good pita, and who doesn't?! They're soft, savory, warm, and perfect for wrapping up your favorite Mediterranean delicacies, finishing off that hummus and veggie platter, or soaking up the rest of your soup. Store-bought pitas, though, are just always so ho-hum. Even if you take the time to warm them properly, they never have that same kick as when you get them fresh out of the oven at your favorite falafel joint.
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When I first decided to venture into pita-making land, I had already been baking most of my own bread for about four years. I knew that stuff fresh out of my own hearth was always better, healthier, and more satisfying than anything I got from the store, but I still worried that these may have been beyond my skill set. What a silly notion! This recipe is super easy and very forgiving. The best part, too, is that the dough freezes very easily, giving you the option to have fresh pita for many meals to come! All you have to do is pull a pre-formed ball out of the freezer, pop it in a bowl, and let it thaw - either in the fridge for about four hours or on the countertop for around two. If you know you'll want some for dinner that night, just take it out before you leave for work, throw it in the fridge, and you're all set. In the recipe below, I've noted where you can leave off and pick up without losing the integrity of your pita goodness.
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A word of wisdom, which you'll see in almost all of my baking tutorials: bake by weight. Where possible, I always note the approximate volume to weight measurements, but if you have the option, I highly recommend using a kitchen scale to measure your ingredients. You can get them for fairly cheap, and you'll thank yourself for the investment. I got myself one of these years ago (go ahead and click without guilt - I don't get any referral fees or anything for this), and haven't regretted it a bit.
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The Method
Yield: 6-8 pitas, depending on how your size them
Time: About 2 hours
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Ingredients
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2 tsp active dry yeast
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0.5 tsp sugar
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35 grams (0.25 cups) whole wheat flour
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280 grams (2.25 cups) all-purpose flour, plus more for various tasks
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1 tsp salt (kosher works best)
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2 tbsp olive oil
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Instructions
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Make the sponge. Add 1 cup of lukewarm water to a large mixing bowl. Add the yeast and the sugar and stir to dissolve. Add in the whole wheat flour and 30 - 31 grams of the all-purpose flour and mix together with a whisk or wooden spoon. Place the bowl in a warm (not hot) place, uncovered, for 15 - 20 minutes until kind of bubbly or frothy.
You don't need a whole bunch of bubbles - this amount worked perfectly.
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Start the dough: Once the sponge is bubbly, add the salt, olive oil, and remaining all-purpose flour. Mix with a wooden spoon until you get a shaggy mess of dough. Dip your hands in some flour, dust a little on the top of the dough, and knead in the bowl for about 1 minute. You can add more dough to your hands or a little more to the dough if you find it to be too sticky - you'll want it to be fairly moist in the end, though, so don't go too overboard. Make sure that, as you knead, you're incorporating stray bits of dough that stick to the bowl.
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Knead: Flour a hard, clean work surface. Turn the dough out onto it and knead lightly for about two minutes, until the dough begins to look and feel smooth. Cover it with a dry kitchen towel and let it sit for about ten minutes. Uncover, and knead again for an additional two minutes. As you go through this process, again, feel free to add a little more flour, but not too much. Again, you'll want this to be soft and moist in the end.
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At this point, if you plan to use all the dough at once, you can refrigerate it in a large sealable bag for several hours or overnight if you need a bit of extra time to get on with your life. When you're ready to move on, bring the dough back to room temperature, knead it into a ball, and continue on from here. I tend to just power through, as I find it is much more effective to get a little further ahead and freeze the dough, but if time doesn't permit, this won't upset the integrity of your final product.
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Let it rise: Clean the mixing bowl, dust the sides a bit, and place the dough back in. I like to leave the bowl a little bit wet after I clean it so that the flour sticks to the sides better. Cover the bowl and leave it in a warm place. Some similar recipes call for covering the bowl in plastic wrap and then a kitchen towel, but I try to avoid using plastic wrap altogether. I've tried this using reusable wraps instead, as well as just using a kitchen towel, and haven't noticed much of a difference. Either way, leave the dough in place until it has doubled in size - about an hour.
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Prepare the oven: Preheat the oven to 475° F (about 245° C). On the bottom rack of your oven, place a baking sheet or stone. I use a very thin, flimsy baking sheet that has probably been around longer than me and this works fine, but a thicker option will give you a nicer browning. Large cast-iron pans or ceramic baking tiles would also do wonders here.
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Shape the dough: Punch down the dough and divide it into 6 to 8 pieces, depending on what you intend to use them for. I like to make different sized balls sometimes to accommodate things such as falafel or gyro sandwiches, but if you're just planning to use these for dips or appetizers, equal-sized portions will be a better option. Form each piece into a ball.
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If you intend to freeze some of the dough for later use, line an air-tight, freezer-friendly container with parchment paper and place these suckers in. I usually place them fairly far apart and fold the parchment paper over to create layers just to ensure that they don't stick, but if your container doesn't accommodate this, you can also scrunch the paper up in between. Or just deal. I'm impatient, but the sticking really isn't that bad.
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When you're ready to use a frozen ball, pick up here after you've thawed it out.
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Rest the dough: For however many servings you'll want, lay the ball on a lightly floured work surface, dust lightly with more flour on top, and cover with a damp towel. Let sit for about 10 minutes. Tip: I almost always opt for reusable towels whenever I can - help out the planet and what not - but when making these, I actually go for a damp paper towel. Why? Check out my cleanup note for an explanation.
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Make it pita-shaped: After the balls are done sitting, take one, leaving any others covered, and roll it out with a rolling pin. Depending on a variety of factors, you may need to dust it with a bit more flour or flour your rolling pin if you find the dough begins to stick. Try to not be too judicious here, but some extra flour on the bread won't ruin anything in the baking process - just makes the pita a little more messy to eat. The size that you roll to is up to you. If you make the pita a little thinner, you'll get a nicer pocket. If you leave it a little thicker (about a quarter-inch at most, I'd say), you'll have a really fluffy bread that's great for dipping or wrapping. Keep in mind as you're rolling that the dough will shrink a little bit during the baking process.
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Bake it!: Carefully lift the dough circle and place it on the hot baking sheet. Close the oven door and bake for 2 (that's right, two) minutes. Turn it over with tongs or a spatula (spatulas work better if you're going for that billowy pocket - you can also use your fingers if you're safe and quick about it, but be careful not to burn yourself), and bake for 1 (yeah, one) minute more. When you pull it out of the oven, it should be fairly pale, with only a few brown speckles. Repeat with any other dough balls you plan to use at this time.
Boom! Fresh pita! Any time!
Not sure what to do with your fantastic, new, homemade pitas? Why not give this gyro recipe a try?
Tips & ​​Notes
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Paper Towels: Paper towels work really well for this application, largely for cleaning purposes. You can repurpose the already moist paper towel to clean off your work surface. I've gotten this down to an art where I can get rid of all the excess flour during the first two minutes of baking, the use an all-purpose cleaner to polish off the counter during the last minute. Super easy clean up already done by the time you're fixing to eat!
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Thawing: The first couple of times I thawed the dough, I treated it like pizza dough and rubbed a little bit of olive oil onto it to keep it moist during the thawing process. I have since stopped doing this, but if you find yourself worried about the dough drying out, feel free to try this method. Don't add too much, maybe a quarter teaspoon per ball, but if you're careful about the amount you add there shouldn't be any change in the finished product.
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Serving: If you're making multiple pitas at once, maybe for a large gathering or just because that's how you do, you can keep the ones you bake first nice and moist by placing them in a napkin-lined basket or bowl while the others do their thing.
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Evidence of Freezer Proof-ness
A lot of recipes claim to be freezer proof and really don't hold up to that promise. To demonstrate how this one most certainly is, please take a look at the two pitas below - baked from the same batch, about a week apart.
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Pita 1 was rolled out to about a quarter-inch thick and served with the pictured osh sovo. Pita two was rolled out to about half that thickness and used to make the above-recommended vegan gyro, hence the more oblong shape (imperfections don't matter!). It's hard to tell which one was thawed, though, isn't it? I can attest that it was equally hard (nay, impossible!) to taste the difference. Pita two was the original, fresh-baked one, though, while pita one sat in the freezer for around a week. In fact, using it was an afterthought - that osh sovo is leftover, as well. Just a little effort on the front end can give you many days of delicious, fresh results for just a fraction of the cost and none of the preservatives as buying these sorts of staples at the store.
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