Super delicious recipe for homemade pita bread. It is actually quite easy to make homemade pita breads once you have understood the tips and tricks. Please make sure to read the blog post on Nordic Food & Living
Prep Time25 minutesmins
Cook Time1 hourhr20 minutesmins
Total Time1 hourhr45 minutesmins
Course: Bread
Cuisine: Arabic
Servings: 8pita breads
Ingredients
25gfresh yeast(about 1 tbsp instant yeast)
3dllukewarm water( 1 1/4 cups)
1tbspolive oil
1tspsugar
425gall-purpose flour(15 oz)
1tspsalt
Instructions
In a large bowl, dissolve the fresh yeast in the lukewarm water.
Add the sugar and oil. Stir to mix.
Add the flour and the salt. Knead everything into a nice and smooth dough. This kneading time takes about 5-10 minutes. You can with advantage use a stand mixer.
Cover the bowl with a clean dishtowel and set it aside for about 40 minutes.
Divide the dough into 8 pieces and roll them into smooth balls.
Let the balls rise for about 10 minutes while the oven is preheating up to 250 C (480 F). If you have a pizza stone also place this in the oven. Otherwise, a normal oven plate is sufficient.
It is a good idea to bake the pita breads two-by-two. This way it is easier to keep the high temperature in oven. The high temperature is important.
Use the back of a dish to flatten two balls evenly. The thickness should be about 1/2 cm (1/5 inch). It is important that the bread is evenly flat and does not have any obviously large air pocket trapped inside (from the rising of the bread). It is a good idea to finish off by gently rolling the bread using a rolling pin - to let the air out.
Gently, transfer two pita breads onto the hot stone inside the oven. Make sure that the side of the bread, which faced your kitchen table while fattening it, is now facing upwards away from the hot stone. This way the moistest part of the bread is facing way the hot stone. This is a little trick to make sure the bread is puffing up nicely.
If you do not have a baking stone, use a parchment paper covered oven plate. Just make sure it is very hot.
Bake the bread for about 5-6 minutes. The pita bread should rise up, become puffy and create an air pocket inside.
Let the bread cool off a little before serving it.