Pharm-to-Table

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Pita Bread

Jennifer Mathews

So soft and wonderful homemade. This recipe comes together quickly and is forgiving. Even if the bread doesn’t puff up, creating a pocket, you can still use the soft bread folded over for your gyro or other sandwich.

Tips:

  • Make sure your oven is at the correct temperature. If your pita doesn’t puff it is likely the oven isn’t hot enough. That happened to me. The flat breads were still delicious. Just raise the heat with the next batch.

  • 2 teaspoons King Arthur Easy-Roll Dough Improver is used in the original recipe. I don’t have it, but it’s said to relax the dough to aid with rolling it. Mine worked well without it.

Pita Bread

Recipe from King Arthur Flour

Makes 8 pitas

PREP 25 minutes

COOK 7 minutes

INGREDIENTS

3 cups (361g) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

2 teaspoons instant yeast

2 teaspoons sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 cup (227g) water

2 tablespoons (25g) vegetable oil

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Combine all of the ingredients, mixing to form a shaggy/rough dough.

  2. Knead the dough, by hand (10 minutes) or by mixer (5 minutes) or by bread machine (set on the dough cycle) until it's smooth.

  3. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, and allow it to rest for 1 hour; it'll become quite puffy, though it may not double in bulk. If you've used a bread machine, simply let the machine complete its cycle.

  4. Turn the dough onto a lightly oiled work surface and divide it into 8 pieces.

  5. Roll two to four of the pieces into 6" circles (the number of pieces depends on how many rolled-out pieces at a time can fit on your baking sheet).

  6. Place the circles on a lightly greased baking sheet and allow them to rest, uncovered, for 15 minutes, while you preheat your oven to 500°F. (Keep the unrolled pieces of dough covered. Roll out the next batch while the first batch bakes.)

  7. Place the baking sheet on the lowest rack in your oven, and bake the pitas for 5 minutes; they should puff up. (If they haven't puffed up, wait a minute or so longer. If they still haven't puffed, your oven isn't hot enough; raise the heat for the next batch.)

  8. Transfer the baking sheet to your oven's middle-to-top rack and bake for an additional 2 minutes, or until the pitas have browned.

  9. Remove the pitas from the oven, wrap them in a clean dishtowel (this keeps them soft), and repeat with the remaining dough.

  10. Store cooled pitas in an airtight container or plastic bag.