Make your own soft & delicious pita bread. These puffy little pillows are ready from start to finish in a little over 1 hour & taste so much better than store bought varieties!
Between 350 mls (1½ cups) and 405mls (3¼)cupslukewarm water, not hot and not cold
Instructions
Add all the dry ingredients to a large bowl. Add the olive oil and enough of the water to make a firm dough. I used 405 mls of water. You might not need all of it or you might need a few drops more. It depends on the flour you are using, humidity etc.
Stir well with a spatula until the flour is absorbed and you have a shaggy dough. If the mixture looks a little dry add a few more drops of water very gradually.
Scrape your mixture onto a clean and dry surface. If you think you will find kneading like this difficult then grease your surface and your hands with some olive oil. This will make it easier to handle. Try not to use more flour to knead on or add more flour during the process. If you do you risk your pita bread becoming dense and tough.
Knead for 7 - 10 minutes. Your dough will start out a little bit sticky but the more you knead the smoother and less sticky it will become. Keep going until it feels smooth and when it is in a ball shape and you squeeze it together on each side, it bounces slowly back to shape when you let go. You can use a mixer on a low speed for 7 minutes instead of doing it by hand if you like.
Let the dough rest for 30 minutes then, then divide into 8 even pieces. Roll each piece out into a circle or oval shape about 3mm thick.
Place on a couple of lightly floured baking sheets and cover gently with clean, damp dish towels. Leave to rest again for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 500 °F (260 °C) whilst you are waiting.
After 30 minutes uncover your pitas and gently flip each one over. You will need to peel them off the tray but this should be pretty easy to do because of the flour underneath.
Place into the hot oven and watch through the door (it's entertaining ;o)
Bake for 5 - 6 minutes. They should puff up nicely but don't allow them to colour.
When you remove from the oven they may feel a little hard but place them on a wire rack and cover with a dish towel. They will soften up as they cool.
Notes
These Quick & Easy Pita Breads keep well for a couple of days but can also be frozen. Place in a freezer bag and seal tightly. They do not stick together and it is easy to just pull one or two out as they are needed.You can either let them defrost if you want to eat them cold or pop them straight in the oven from frozen on 350 for about 5 minutes or until they are warm through.The oil in this recipe is optional. If you omit it then add an extra tablespoon of water to compensate. If you are not worried about the fat content or calories then please add the oil as you will get a softer result. If you do not add the oil the recipe will work just fine but the pita bread won’t be quite as soft and will stale slightly quicker than it would if it had oil in it. Because of this if you don’t add the oil and you won’t eat them all on the day or day after they are baked then keep them in the freezer as per my note above.