Pita bread is ancient, but still best when eaten fresh of course…
Klik hier voor de Nederlandse versie
Simplicity is key for this recipe. I think flatbreads, from all over the world, be it naan, chapati, lavash, pita, or tunnbröd from the Northern regions, are meant to be everyday, unsophisticated and natural. They are old fashion fast food and that is why making flatbreads should not be overly complicated or laborious.
With this recipe, because we are talking sourdough, you have to plan ahead a little bit. It takes longer for the dough to develop than if you were using a yeast based dough. Personally I find it works best to make the dough 24 hours in advance. For example, when you come home from work you make the dough that you are going to use the following day. Next day, you come home, preheat the oven, do some shaping and bake the pita bread, while preparing the things you want to eat with them.
The best thing about this bread is the ‘puffing up’ part. I can never get enough of watching the bread inflate just a few minutes after trowing the dough in the oven. I still jump up and down with joy when that happens. And watching this, you can be sure you will have your bread pocket to fill after it comes out of the oven.
Lets get baking!
| Ingredients for the Pita | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 500 | g | wheat (bread / plain) flour | ||
| 280 | g | water | ||
| 9 | g | (sea) salt | ||
| 20 | g | sourdough culture (100% hydrated, equal parts flour and water: see our recipe here) |
||
| 15 | g | olive oil | ||
Making the Pita
Make the dough by kneading all the ingredients in a free standing mixer for 4-5 minutes (by hand 8 to 10 minutes). Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave to rest for up to 24 hours at a cool room temperature (18 – 20°C / 64 – 68°F). Like I said in the introduction, 24 hours works perfect for me and my sourdough culture to get the right dough consistency and taste development. But every culture is different and can act different so you have to give it a few tries to find your own optimum.
For the next step you divide the dough in 8 equal parts (slightly over 100 g each) and shape into balls. Cover and leave to relax for 10 minutes while you preheat your oven as hot as possible. Some ovens go to 250°C / 480°F, but if yours goes to 300°C / 570°F, that’s even better. Make sure the stone or rack you are going to use is also in the oven while you preheat, because you want your bread baked directly on a hot surface. I preheat our household oven to 300°C / 570°F conventional setting and just before I put the first pita in the oven I switch to the convection setting (which only goes to 250°C / 480°F). It is a sort of trick to get the best from both settings, first get the oven as hot as possible and after that the hot air helps with the puffing up part.
Now take a ball of dough and gently shape it by hand to a disc shape (see first picture in the gallery above). Take a disc and, with a rolling pin, roll out the disc to a circle of around two to three millimeters thickness. I love to practice my skills to get the perfect circle, but you can also make oval shapes. The bread will be equally delicious. You can also do this second shaping part by hand, but I have found that the puffing up bit works best when I try and roll out the dough evenly. Always roll from the middle to the edges and turn the dough a few times, so it will be rolled out evenly and round.
This pita is filled with spicy shoarma chicken and a garlic yoghurt dressing, but it is also classically good with falafel for instance
Now ‘throw’ a rolled out disc on the hot rack or stone. Be swift so your oven does not drop in temperature too much. You can bake several at once of course, but it is best to do a trial version of one pita first and see how that comes out. Now watch how it puffs up (the fun part!) and take it out after 3 to 4 minutes. Repeat the process with the other dough balls.
You can keep the baked pitas warm between two tea towels (they will stay warm for quite a while this way). I think they are best eaten fresh and warm but you can freeze leftover pitas (no longer than a few weeks). Thaw them and give them a minute in your toaster. Still delicious!
Also check out our other favorite flatbread recipes like Indian Naan or Nordic soft Polar Bread.
If you want to make a quick yeast version of this recipe use 290 grams of water and 7 grams of instant yeast for the dough. Leave to proof for 1 hour, divide and make balls and leave to relax for 10 minutes. You can follow the recipe from there.
Joy says
Hi yah,
This is my favourite go to flatbread. Sometimes it tastes nice and tangy. Sometimes I suppose I get something wrong and it us tasteless. What I want to know, do you intend people to use old starter or freshly fed starter for the recipe? Thanks
Joy
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Joy,
We cannot really put our finger on what goes ‘wrong’ when you get a tasteless result. You have to analyze what the difference is between the two. We do not know what you mean exactly by old starter and how long you did not refresh it for. Your starter always needs to be active when you use it, so recently fed would be the way to go.
Good luck with it!
sara says
Do you think this would work with a spelt starter and spelt flour?
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Sara,
Yes, although we have not made this with 100% spelt, we think it is one of the better recipes to try it with, because it will be easier than making a 100% spelt loaf (the proofing and shaping etc is harder with spelt, but less critical here).
Zeina says
Hello
Thank you for the recipe. For some reason some of the pitas puff up really well and some (from the same batch) don’t. What do you think is the issue?
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Zeina,
It could be the oven temp that is getting lower after some bakes, so take some time to get it up to speed again. Also maybe there was a difference in thickness between the pitas and you needed to roll them just a bit thinner.
Happy flatbread baking!
Sean says
I made this last night – it came out amazing but I wanted to ask if there was a typo on the SD starter used. 20g? That is hardly worth measuring for that amount of flour (25:1). I added 120g of starter and they came out great. I actually did the instant yeast version and also cooked them for 5 mins at 500F. I used a pizza stone and put corn meal on right before flipping my 3/8 thin, 7 inch round dough. You have to brush off the cornmeal each round and replace with new or it will burn (I learned the hard way). My stone is big enough to do three at a time but I did one at a time as it was my first time with this recipe.
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Sean,
It is not a typo, the amount is correct and works for us because the dough has a lot of time to develop. Like we say in the recipe “every culture is different and can act different so you have to give it a few tries to find your own optimum” so great to read yours turned out well with your quantities used, but less should work fine too. Thank you for sharing your experiences and tips.
Harriet Fasenfest says
Will 20 gr. starter really be enough? Also, could you please translate to cups and Tabls. I’m having the darnedest time doing that. What I have so far is this recipe calls for 4 cups of flour, about 1 cup of water, a little over 1 t. salt and 1 Tab. sourdough starter. Is any of that right?
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Harriet,
The recipe is correct, but if you think, based on your own experience with your starter, you need more, please feel free to adapt of course.
Your conversions are about correct, but the salt is 1 teaspoon + 1/2 teaspoon and you just have to make the recipe to ‘make it your own’ based on the flour you use and the absorption qualities. Could be you need a bit more water. That is why we always advice to use scales (costing less than a good baking tin!), because using cups and spoons can give big diversions from one bake to the next. As baking is somewhat of an exact science, your baking will be so much more consistent using scales.
FYI Also see our handy conversion page: www.weekendbakery.com/cooki…nversions/
Happy sourdough baking!
Ronda says
Thank you for your comments on whole wheat pita. Here is a link to a recipe I found for 100 percent whole wheat pita made with either yeast or sourdough culture. I am unsure how the rye sourdough culture will compare to the whole wheat culture. Will it take longer to rise? I have made this by placing the dough in the refrigerator. I forgot about it for a couple of days but it still worked. I have seen unleavened pita recipes that Produce a pocket so perhaps the culture is not that important to the rise of the pita but is important if you want a sourdough pita for health.
breadtopia.com/whole…pita-brea/
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Ronda,
You can easily use both cultures no problem. There can always be a difference from one culture to the next (rye or not), because they are just like children and all behave differently. So you just have to give it a try and we are sure it will be fine, just look at the dough and see how much time it needs to develop. With this dough for this flat bread recipe it is less critical than for a loaf for instance. Using the fridge is also a great idea and will give different flavor profiles because of the prolonged process.
Simon Leadbitter says
I have made these quite a few times now & they are always delicious. During last summer I used my BBQ (which has a lid) at full heat and produced lovely pittas with only about two minutes cooking. Yum yum!
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Simon,
We love that you also used the BBQ. So good to hear about your wonderful results. We also use the bbq to make naan and pita and use a ceramic deflector plate as a base, so we bake the bread directly on top of it. And it is great, making these very quick breads next to the very time intensive sourdoughs.
Greetings,
Marieke & Ed
Adam Cook says
Hi everyone!
Could I make these with dried yeast in the poolish? I’m living away from home and couldn’t bring my sourdough starter with me. (I’ve tried making one here but no success yet. I think it’s too warm…) and how much dried yeast….
Thanks
Adam
Weekend Bakers says
Yes you can of course. You can use the schedule from this posting to determine the amount of yeast, based on how far in advance you want to make the poolish: www.weekendbakery.com/posts…a-poolish/
We would advice 200 water / 200 flour for the poolish. Make the final dough with additional amounts of flour and water and add about 5 grams of yeast. See how it turns out and adapt a bit if necessary.
Good luck with it!
Ronda says
Do you have a pita recipe for 100 percent whole wheat flour? I grind my own wheat and would like to be able to use the rye starter with it to make pita. Thank you.
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Ronda,
No, we do not have a recipe or nor have made 100% whole wheat pita ourselves. We think it will be a bit of a challenge to make a 100% whole wheat version and still get the pocket shape (lack of gluten and lots of fibers, so a more dense and compact result we think). But you could give it a try or maybe start with a percentages whole wheat.
Good luck with it!
Lindsay says
The pitas were delicious! I will be making them often. I have a quick start, and I let the dough rise in a warm oven so it was ready in only a few hours. I got excited like a child watching them puff, so fun!
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Lindsay,
Never get tired of these breads and the puffing. Maybe you can give the naan breads a try too:
www.weekendbakery.com/posts…dian-naan/
Happy baking and puffing!
Marieke
Rianne says
Hai Ed and Marieke,
Is it generally possible to change recipes with only bread flour into whole meat versions by replacing part of the flour?
Thank you so much for your helpful and beautiful website and webshop.
Rianne
Weekend Bakers says
Hoi Rianne,
Je mag er niet van uit gaan als je bij een recept ziet staan ‘tarwebloem’ dat je hetzelfde brood krijgt als je 100% volkoren gaat gebruiken, het gaat er heel anders uit zien. Tarwebloem vervangen door volkorenmeel heeft in de regel als belangrijkste verschil dat je wat meer water moet gebruiken omdat de volkorenvezel meer vocht opneemt (als je tot 20% vervangt dan verandert er in principe niets, bij een hoger percentage moet er dus steeds wat meer water bij). Je brood wordt door het gebruik van volkorenmeel ook wat compacter/ minder luchtig natuurlijk en minder hoog. Daarnaast hangt ook veel af van de kwaliteit van je meel, de gebruikte methode en ook de hoeveelheid gluten in je meel, het goed vormen van het deeg en de juiste rijstijd en ook het gebruik van stoom. Veel factoren moeten dus samenkomen.
Maar in principe is het geen enkel probleem om bloem- en meel-soorten te combineren en ermee te experimenteren.
NERO says
Hello Weekend bakery!
I was wandering, many flatbreads are traditionaly cooked on a stovetop or similar surface, can I bake those pitas in a covered pan ? My oven doesnt goes more than around 410 F.
Weekend Bakers says
You are absolutely right, flat bread can be baked on stones, in pots, in tandoori, ovens etc. You can bake them in a pan, best to use a metal pan, do not use teflon as teflon can burn on high heat.
Mamta says
Hello The breads are delicious when they are fresh and warm. But the left over ones turn quite hard pretty quickly. Would appreciate any advice you may have. Thanks for the recipe.
Weekend Bakers says
We freeze them an hour after baking in a plastic bag and defrost them in a bread toaster. Works perfectly, almost like new!
Adina says
Hi,
Thanks for the recipe. It looked great in the post, but when I tried it the dough seemed okay, but then I let it rise for a little over 24 hours in a slightly greased bowl. When I was ready to shape the pittas, they were way too sticky to work with so I used lots of flour. However, they did not puff up, nor did they bake properly. I had to leave them in the oven for 10-15 minutes in order to get something edible. Any suggestions?
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Adina, it is probably a combination of the amount of water your flour can absorb and the speed of your culture. The gluten have weaken too much during the 24 hours. The 24 hours only works with our starter and with our room temperature. If you starter is ‘quicker’ or your room has a higher temperature you have to adjust the amount of time / or starter according. So give it another go with 12 hours instead of 24 hours. Also try to use a little bit less water, 260 g or 270 g.
Irene says
Hello, thank you for lovely post. Does the sourdough culture have to be right out of the fridge or must I first fed it and leave outside for 12 hours to bubble before adding to your recipe?
THank you
Kind regards
Irene
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Irene,
Yes, it is best to get the culture out in advance like you say and then use it in the recipe.
Happy baking,
Marieke
lucielle says
tried the recipie. used whole wheat and bleached flour with sourdough starter.equal amts of each flour. The pocket bread was tastey but didn’t rise well. I tried rolling, pushing with my palm (that one had decent oocket). the rest looked flat. My oven only heats to 425. what could be the problem. please help. I am an old timer come back! Thanks.
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Lucielle,
I am afraid your oven could indeed be the culprit. The temperature is already not high enough and you very probably lose a lot of heath too each time you open your oven and you would have to wait between bakes to get your oven up to the right temp again, it is quite a challenge. At least 475F would be preferable. You could also try using a baking stone and preheat it very well.
Good luck with it,
Marieke
ktteng says
Hi, love all your recipes. I’ a graphic design student, having a web design assignment and the topic i choose is about bakery recipe. Would you mind i use your photos in my school assignment?
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Ktteng,
Thank you for contacting us and asking. The answer is yes, if you will be so kind to mention the source of the pictures we have no problem with it. We wish you all the best and good luck with the assignment and maybe you can share something with us when you are finished!
Greetings,
Ed & Marieke
Zac Astrain says
Hello, Can the wheat flour be replaced with rye flour and the sour dough culture with rye sour dough culture if so what changes need to be made?
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Zac,
It is no problem to use a rye sourdough culture, but making the pita bread with rye flour only is not something we recommend. Because of the lack of gluten in rye, the dough will not be easy to handle and the structure of the bread will not be right for it to be used as pita bread. A combination with wheat or spelt and some rye will be possible.
Happy baking!
Guylaine says
So easy, so good, so nice!!! The perfect recipe. It’s the first time I bake pitas. I ate one all at once! I bought some Zaatar yesterday and I will use it with your so delicious pitas.Thank you for sharing.
Weekend Bakers says
Wonderful to hear the recipe works so well for you too.
Happy pita baking!
Kholy says
Hi Ed & Marieke,
Can I make this recipe using long time fermentation with instant yeast? what would be the yeast percentage then?
Thank you
Kholy
Weekend Bakers says
Yes you can Kholy. Would you like to use a fridge or not for this process?
Kholy says
For big batch I wont use fridge but for small one i will use, how the instant yeast will act in each?
Also do you have a quick & tasty burger buns recipe that you can recommend to me?
Weekend Bakers says
For the fridge method it will be around 5 grams for this recipe, without a fridge it depends also on the temperature of the room (also see: www.weekendbakery.com/posts…mperature/) so you have to try it out but 1 gram to maximum 2 grams would be our suggestion to start with. We are still looking for a good burger bun recipe ourselves so if in time you can recommend one we would love to hear about it….
Happy baking,
Marieke & Ed
Kholy says
Hi Marieke & Ed, thanks so much for your help, you are the best :), I will try it with the instant yeast soon, as for the burger buns, once I found good recipe I will share with you.
Have a nice day 🙂
Kholy
Lars says
Hi,
I really wanted to try these, but you don’t state what bakers percentage your sourdough is. Could you please update the recipe?
Cheers!
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Lars,
It’s 100%, so equal parts.
Happy baking,
Ed
rob corwin says
is the sourdough culture in your sourdough pita recipe the rye culture you use in other recipes?
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Rob,
Yes exactly, we almost always use the rye sourdough culture, but of course it would be no problem to use a wheat based culture.
Happy baking in 2014!
Ed & Marieke
Shinseiki says
Great recipe ! I really love it 🙂
I have made a video of the bread inflating in the oven : www.youtube.com/watch…p068VedMzo 🙂
Weekend Bakers says
Very nice, we like it a lot Shinseiki!
Thanks for sharing,
Ed & Marieke
Lesley Broadbent says
I found that the dough was a bit sticky which meant when I tried to handle it to put it in the oven it changed shape and stretched out. I think that maybe the dough was too thin so I will try and make it a little thicker next time like Beck says above. The pita also didn’t puff up as well as you said until I got to the last one which was thicker. The bread was really lovely though and we ate it straightaway with olives and melted camembert and hummous.
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Lesley,
As you bake it more often you will find out the right way for you to make the pitas and you can make them with your eyes closed, no problem. Could be that your flour, which is different from ours of course, absorbs less water, so next time you could add a little less maybe. Great that you already enjoyed this batch, sounds delicious with the melted Camembert. We sometimes put pitas with cheese in the bread toaster and let it melt (make sure cheese cannot drip in toaster of course). Works best when you slightly under-bake the pitas so you can later ‘finish’ them in the toaster.
Happy Baking,
Marieke
Beck says
Ooh, thanks for this, fab recipe. Really easy and the pitta breads are so soft and fluffy! I didn’t roll mine out quite a thinly as you suggest, so they need a minute or so more cooking time, but they were really nice – I prefer them a little thicker. I think it would make a good pizza dough too – going to try it this weekend, but I’ll prick the dough with a fork before I bake it so it doesn’t puff up too much.
Jane @ Shady Baker says
I have made this twice in the last two weeks in our wood oven and I LOVE it! Thanks so much for the recipe.
Weekend Bakers says
Thank you for liking it so much Jane!
Happy Baking,
Marieke
Chris says
Would a bit of steam help the puffing up?
Rgrds,
Chris
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Chris,
Interesting question, but till now I have never found the pitas needed the steam. Because of the very short baking time I guess, when you get them out and make a hole you can still see a lot of steam (moisture) escape. Only one way to find out….
Marieke
Claartje in UK says
Vanavond gemaakt en gegeten: super! Wat een feest om de broodjes te zien “opblazen” in de oven. Alweer een blijvertje dit recept!
Weekend Bakers says
Leuk dat je ook nog steeds enthousiast bakt Claartje. En dit recept is perfect om mee te variëren. Weinig werk, snel klaar en toch ‘delicious’. En van dat opblazen krijg ik nooit genoeg 🙂
Happy Baking!
Marieke
Claartje in UK says
Jazeker! Ik heb zo veel plezier van de spullen uit jullie winkel! Ik gebruik de mandjes en lamé elke week en snap niet meer hoe ik ooit zonder Deense deegklopper heb kunnen bakken! (Ook de grotere versie staat op mijn verlanglijstje!)
Weekend Bakers says
Hartstikke leuk om te horen Claartje! We krijgen regelmatig te horen dat mensen de deegklopper cadeau hebben gedaan aan iemand die op bezoek was bijvoorbeeld en dan willen ze graag zelf weer een nieuwe.
Wij kunnen ook niet zonder 🙂
Happy baking in de UK!
Marieke
Wil says
Ik zie dat jullie dit in je gewone oven bakken. Waarom niet in de Rofco?
Weekend Bakers says
Een paar redenen. De belangrijkste is dat we meestal een kleine batch broodjes vers maken voor bij het eten (door de weeks) en dan is de Rofco opwarmen niet de snelste en zuinigste keuze. In het weekend zou de Rofco wel een goede optie zijn overigens. Verder werkt de methode met een normale huishoudoven (vooral als hij richting de 300 C kan) ook heel goed en dat wilden we ook graag laten zien. Vandaar!
Petra Woods says
Daar zijn ze dan eindelijk!
De perfecte zuurdesem pita’s
Want dat ze perfect zullen zijn, zeker qua smaak, is wel duidelijk: dat is t brood gemaakt met jullie recepten altijd:-)
Ik ga ze meteen volgend weekend maken en vullen met gemarineerde kip ( kruiden ui knoflook en rode paprika) knoflooksaus, ijsbergsla, komkommer, tomaat en soms nog stukjes avocado erbij.
Smullen!
Gr. V Petra
Weekend Bakers says
Ja, soms duurt het even en zijn er zoveel dingen die je aandacht vragen. Maar we aren het niet vergeten hoor!
Hoop dat het recept voor jou ook goed uitpakt (soms even testen voor de juiste tijden en temperaturen) aan de vulling zal het niet liggen en avocado vind ik werkelijk altijd goed!
Happy Baking!
Marieke
Abel Sierra says
Very good recipe! I’ll try it this week. My family arrives from Mexico and I want they eat this. I’m sure they will love it.
Weekend Bakers says
Hope you will have a wonderful get together with you family Abel! let us know how it turns out and what you are serving with the bread?
Ed & Marieke