Name: Easy Homemade Pita Bread Recipe
Prep time: 45 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 1 h 45 min
Yield: 14
Cuisine: International
Ingredients: 660 g all-purpose flour {4 cups}, organic unbleached preferred; 25 g avocado oil; 15 g cane sugar, organic unrefined preferred; 1/2 tsp salt, Himalayan Pink Salt or Sea Salt; 2 tsp active dry yeast; 360 g water {1.5 cups}, room temperature, see notes; 4 tbsp all-purpose flour; 2 tbsp avocado oil; 1/8 tsp salt, Himalayan Pink Salt or Sea Salt

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Easy homemade pita bread inspired by the traditional Chinese way of making pocket bread is so naturally yummy. The ancient Chinese secret for making pocket bread makes sure that flatbread has a perfect pocket every time. I am going to show you how.

Easy Homemade Pita Bread {Inspired by Chinese traditional way}

How to make pita bread video tutorial

How to make the perfect dough for easy homemade pita bread?

A semi-leavened dough would be excellent for pita bread. They are not as extra fluffy as Chinese pork buns or red bean buns, but just the right amount of softness. This means I use half of the active dry yeast as I would make fluffy buns. As a matter of fact, Suzhou-style Shengjian Mantou, or Pan Fried Pork Buns also uses semi-leavened dough for a balance of firm bite and softness.

This organic all-purpose flour is my go-to flour for buns, dumplings, and bread. I also steam them for 10 minutes to make my own homemade cake flour, an old-fashioned trick.

Regarding yeast, active dry yeast is all you need. I usually buy a big package (about 1 pound) and store it in an air-tight glass jar in the freezer. They stay powdery in the freezer too, which makes it easy for me to use a teaspoon to measure out the volume.

One tip for using active dry yeast is to remember to fully dissolve the active dry yeast in room temperature water before mixing it with the flour.

How to make a perfect pocket each time?

I use an old trick, which is to wrap the dough with a bit of flour and oil mixture, wrap, seal and flatten it. Then gently but firmly roll it out. The flour and oil mixture in the middle effectively helps separate the bread and create a nice pocket.

Make sure you seal the bread well, and then fondly watch the pocket bread to puff up and rise on the griddle.

Stovetop or Bake the Pita Bread?

I am a huge fan of stovetop grilled pita bread on a cast iron griddle and highly recommend it if you have the time. The pita bread tastes better and it also gives you these beautiful enticing grill marks. It does take more time, since we grill one pita bread at a time, and each pita takes about 2 minutes, more or less.

However, you can bake the pita bread as you do with pizza. You will need either a stone or a heavy-duty baking sheet such as cast iron.

Easy Homemade Pita Bread Recipe

Yield: 14 pita bread

Prep Time: 45 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Additional Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes

Easy homemade pita bread inspired by the traditional Chinese way of making pocket bread is so naturally yummy. The ancient trick makes sure that the pita bread has a perfect pocket every time.

Ingredients

For the Pita Bread Dough:

660 g all-purpose flour {4 cups}, organic unbleached preferred
25 g avocado oil
15 g cane sugar, organic unrefined preferred
1/2 tsp salt, Himalayan Pink Salt or Sea Salt
2 tsp active dry yeast
360 g water {1.5 cups}, room temperature, see notes

For the Dough Filling:

4 tbsp all-purpose flour
2 tbsp avocado oil
1/8 tsp salt, Himalayan Pink Salt or Sea Salt

Instructions

Prepare the Dough:

Measure out 360 g of water in a 2-cup glass measuring cup.
Add 2 tsp active dry yeast to a small bowl, pour some water from the measuring cup, and whisk well until active dry yeast is fully dissolved and blended.
Place the Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer mixing bowl on the kitchen scale and measure out and add flour, oil, and salt, as well as the yeast paste. Use a silicone spatula to fold the liquid into the flour, until everything is loosely blended.
Then attach the mixer and turn at low, till it forms a smooth dough.
If you want to make the dough by hand. Start to knead the bread while gradually adding the remaining water from the measuring cup to the mixing bowl. Use both hands to pull the dough apart and press it together while slowly adding water, until forms a smooth dough.
Cover the dough with a damp kitchen towel and let it rest & rise for 30 minutes.

Prepare the Filling:

While waiting, prepare the filling.
Add everything under "For the Dough Filling" in a small bowl and use a small silicone spatula to mix and blend everything well together.

Wrap Pocket Bread:

Divide the dough into 14 equal portions, each portion weighs about 73 g. Each portion turns into regular-sized pita bread. Cover them with a food film to prevent them from getting dried.
For each portion, knead and then use both hands to flatten it. Then use a rolling pin to roll it out as a wrapper while leaving the center alone. The center needs to be much thicker than the edges. See notes.
Add about 1 tsp filling in the middle of the wrapper, then fold opposite sides of the wrappers toward the middle with overlapping. Also, fold the four corners toward the center with overlapping.
Use both hands to seal all openings well, and then press, flatten, and organize into a round. Cover it under the food film.
Repeat this until you have completed all the dough.

Roll Out Pita Bread and Grill:

Use your smallest stovetop. Turn the heat to medium and start to heat a cast iron griddle for about 3 minutes.
Use two hands to gently roll the wrapper out into pita bread. Roll one direction once, then flip 90 degrees and roll the other direction, then flip 45 degrees, and then again flip 45 degrees. The goal is to roll out a round.
Place the pita bread on the griddle and set a timer for 1 minute.
As you wait, continue to roll out the next pita bread. When the timer goes off, flip the pita and cook the other side for about 1 minute or till the pocket bread expands and rises.
Repeat till you have cooked all the pita bread.

Notes

Do not let the dough rest longer than 30 minutes. This is because as you prepare pocket bread wrappers, roll out the pita and cook the pita, which takes time, the dough continues to proof during the process.