I’ve got a whole container full of hummus, and I’m out of pita bread and pita chips. So its time to try and make pita bread again. In the past, I’ve basically used a dough recipe that was just for “pita bread”, they of course turned out nothing like pita bread, but more like a pita puck.

So after a couple of conversations with JRR, he let me know that he is just using a modified pizza dough recipe for his pita bread. Well I happen to have a very good pizza dough recipe that I’ve developed over the years. So why not give that recipe a whirl for pita bread. Well, well, well….it turned out better then I had hoped. It tasted just like, but better then the white flour pitas that I buy at the store. Now I can finally stop buying pita bread in the store, and just roll my own. So here is what I’ve learned in making pita bread.

Tips, Tricks & Recipe:

1) Like I said, for the dough I just used my regular pizza dough recipe. But I let the dough rise a bit longer. 1 hr 30 mins for the first rise, punching the dough down, then 2 hrs for the second rise. The only reason that the second rise was 2 hrs, was that I was at Target & Lowe’s looking at there end of summer clearance items, since I need a new chimney starter.
2) I once again let the dough rise on the stove top, turning the burner on high for 15 seconds before the first and second rise.
3) You should be able to get eight pita’s out of the dough, with each unbaked pita weighting about 85-90 grams each. I made a couple that were 60-65 grams, and they were just too small for my taste.
4) The oven was set to 450F and allowed to pre-heat for 30 mins, with a baking stone placed on the bottom rack. I baked the pita’s two at a time for 5 mins total. After pulling the puffed pita’s from the oven I wrapped them in a kitchen towel to cool.
5) Don’t over roll the dough! I learned this on the first couple of pitas that only puffed up about 50%. I basically rolled all the air bubbles out of the dough. So look at what your dough is doing, and don’t roll the dough out to thin.
6) Remove your center rack from the oven, because more then likely you will burn the top of your hand trying to get pita’s in and out of the oven. Save yourself the grief of a 2nd/3rd degree burn, and just remove the rack before you turn the oven on.
7) After rolling out two pitas, I let it rest for about 5 mins before popping it in the oven. So after you roll out the first two pitas and pop them in the oven, roll out the next two right away. This will give your dough a little bit of time to relax before it goes in the oven.

Now make yourself some pita bread!