Homemade Pita Bread | Made From Scratch

Name: Homemade Pita Pocket Recipe
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 180 min
Ingredients: 2¼ tsp yeast ((or 1 packet)); 1½ cups warm water ((100-110°)); 1 tsp honey; 4 cups flour; 1½ tsp sea salt; 1½ Tbsp olive oil ((divided))

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Did you know that pita is probably the easiest bread recipe to master? Well, maybe next to lavash bread. Yes, even the most novice of cooks shouldn't be intimidated by this homemade pita pocket recipe!

Truthfully, the only challenge is making sure the homemade pita bread puffs up to form a pita pocket. Luckily, even if it doesn’t puff up, it will taste just as amazing. Just fold it in half like you would with flatbread!

However, lucky for you, I’m a perfectionist. Using my failures to your advantage, I’m here to make sure you achieve the perfect puff every time! Follow these few simple, yet necessary steps, and you will be baking pitas like a Middle Eastern grandma in no time!

Serve freshly baked pita bread with hummus, roasted eggplant dip, arook, or with your falafel bowl. Or use them to make baked pita chips!

Jump to:

🧐 Why This Recipe Works
🛒 What You Need For This Recipe
🔖 Recipe Ingredients And Substitutions
🥙 How to Make Pita Pockets
🫓 How to Store & Reheat Pita Bread
🤷🏻‍♀️ Recipe FAQs
👩🏼‍🍳 Pro Tips
🥐 Related Posts
📖 Recipe
💬 Comments

🧐 Why This Recipe Works

This is not only a super easy recipe but making pita pockets is actually fun!
Pita pockets can be stored in the fridge for up to a week and refreshed in a skillet or over a flame.
The pita bread pocket can be stuffed with cheese, beef, lamb, chicken shawarma, falafel, or use it to make a gyro pita!

🛒 What You Need For This Recipe

🔖 Recipe Ingredients And Substitutions

Flour: This pita bread recipe requires all-purpose flour but you can experiment with bread flour or substitute half of the white flour for whole wheat flour.
Oil: Instead of olive oil, feel free to use avocado oil or vegetable oil.
Honey: If you don't have honey, substitute with 1 teaspoon of sugar.

🥙 How to Make Pita Pockets

Step 1: Dissolve yeast in warm water. Stir in honey and set aside for five minutes, or until the water is frothy.

Step 2: Combine flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the center and add the yeast and water mixture, along with one tablespoon of olive oil.

Step 3: Mix with a wooden spoon, knead by hand, or use a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment. Mix until the dough is elastic and smooth.

Step 4: Add dough to a bowl, coated with the remaining oil. Roll the dough to coat evenly with the oil. Cover with a towel or plastic wrap and allow to rest in a warm spot for two hours.

smooth dough in a bowl covered with Saran Wrap

Step 5: Divide the dough into eight equal portions. Cover and allow to rest for 15 minutes.

Step 6: Remove the top racks from the oven, leaving only the lowest rack. Place a pizza stone or a cast-iron skillet on the bottom rack of the oven. Preheat the oven to 500°F.

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Step 7: Lightly flour work surface. Using a floured rolling pin, roll out one portion of dough at a time into an 8” circle, and leave the remaining portions covered.

dough ball with a colorful rolling pin behind it

flattened round dough with a colorful rolling pin behind it

Step 8: Using a spatula, transfer the rolled-out dough onto the pizza stone or cast-iron skillet. Set timer to three minutes.

Step 9: After three minutes have elapsed, turn the pita bread over with a spatula and cook for an additional minute.

Step 10: Place the cooked pita bread into a paper bag and close the bag. Do the same with the remaining dough. The pita bread will stay soft if you cool it off in the paper bag.

Pro Tip: Another option is to wrap the warm pita bread in a clean dishtowel. Repeat with the remaining dough.

You may also be interested in this Arabic flatbread recipe from Priya at icampinmykitchen.com. It's crips on the outside and soft and chewy in the middle.

🫓 How to Store & Reheat Pita Bread

Store cooled pita bread in a ziplock bag. To reheat pita bread, heat in a toaster, over an open flame, or in a hot pan before serving.

🤷🏻‍♀️ Recipe FAQs

Can you use wheat flour to make pita bread?

Although I prefer using all-purpose flour in my pita bread recipe, sometimes I add whole wheat flour too. For example, try substituting ½ cup of wheat flour for ½ cup of white flour.

Although I have never tried making 100% whole wheat pita bread, I have substituted as much as half of the white flour with wheat. The end result was still good, but not as good as white flour, in my opinion. Pita bread made with white flour is softer and more pliable.

Should pita bread be cooked on the stove-top or in an oven?

Recently, I have noticed a trend of cooking homemade pita bread in a cast-iron skillet on the stove, versus baking them in the oven.

I have given this method a few tries and have found that the pita does not puff up most of the time. Sure, you might have an occasional puff, but I don’t like those odds. Leave the pan method for making flatbread and tortillas. Instead, cook the pita in the oven, for a perfect puff every time!

How long should you cook pita bread?

When baking pita bread, set your oven to 500°F. Cooking with a lower temperature for a longer period does not achieve the same great results.

Using either a pizza stone or a cast-iron skillet is a must for this recipe. Whichever you decide to use, be sure to heat it in the 500° F oven for 15 minutes first. How long should you cook the pita? Let’s just say I have experimented enough for both of us. I have found that cooking the bread for three minutes, then quickly flipping over for an additional minute helps to achieve the perfect pita pocket.

👩🏼‍🍳 Pro Tips

Enjoy pita bread by itself, with butter and jam, or with a cup of tea, olives, and some buried cheese.
Dip pita bread into your favorite stew or soup, or stuff it with kofta, feta, tomatoes, and onions. Another option is to make arayes (meat-stuffed pita pockets).
Pita bread makes amazing sandwiches, including Israeli Sabich Sandwiches.

Sabich Sandwich being held over a blue plate with fixings around it

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📖 Recipe

Homemade Pita Pocket Recipe

Homemade pita bread that puffs up every time!

5 from 57 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Side Dish, Snacks

Cuisine: Assyrian, Greek, Middle Eastern

Prep Time: 10

Cook Time: 35

Resting Time: 2 15

Total Time: 3

Servings: pita pockets

Calories: 255kcal

Author: Hilda Sterner

Ingredients

Instructions

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Stir in honey and set aside for five minutes, or until the water is frothy.
Combine flour and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the center and add the yeast and water mixture, along with one tablespoon of olive oil.
Mix with a wooden spoon, knead by hand, or use a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment. Mix until the dough is elastic and smooth.
Add dough to a bowl, coated with the remaining oil. Roll the dough to coat evenly with the oil. Cover with a towel and allow to rest in a warm spot for two hours.
Divide the dough into eight equal portions. Cover and allow to rest for 15 minutes.
Remove the top racks from the oven, leaving only the lowest rack. Place a pizza stone or a cast-iron skillet on the bottom rack of the oven. Preheat the oven to 500°F.
Lightly flour your work surface. Roll out one portion of dough at a time into an 8” circle, leave the remaining portions covered.
Using a spatula, transfer the rolled out dough onto the pizza stone or cast-iron skillet. Set timer to three minutes.
After three minutes have elapsed, turn the pita bread over with a spatula and cook for an additional minute.
Place the cooked pita bread into a paper bag and close the bag. Do the same with the remaining dough. The pita bread will stay soft if you cool it off in the paper bag.
Another option is to wrap the warm pita bread in a clean dishtowel. Repeat with the remaining dough.
Place cooled pita bread in a ziplock bag. Heat in a toaster or a pan before serving.

Notes

Enjoy pita bread by itself, with butter and jam, or with a cup of tea, olives, and some buried cheese.
Dip pita bread into your favorite stew or soup, or stuff it with kofta, feta, tomatoes, and onions. Another option is to make arayes (meat-stuffed pita pockets).
Pita bread makes amazing sandwiches, including Israeli Sabich Sandwiches.

Nutrition

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Emily says

October 01, 2021 at 4:15 pm

Several years ago I made pita bread for the first time. It turned out perfectly. It was easy. I ate it all. I was so happy! It was Spring and since I wasn’t going to crank up the oven, I put my collection of printed recipes away. A few years later I decided to make pita bread again so I got out my weird stack of recipes. I looked through them but couldn’t find the recipe I originally used. I tried another. And then another. And then another. I tried to find that original recipe so many times (in the house, in my office, Google) but I could only recall a few things; a well (for the yeast), 500 degree oven, lowest rack, inverted baking sheet if I didn’t have a stone. I didn’t remember a lot of kneading or different flours. I tried about 15 recipes (and variations of those recipes). Most of them went into the trash. They were pretty and poofed, but they were not what I wanted. I’m all about flavor. I wanted that yeasty sweetness balanced perfectly with salt, perfect amount of chewiness.

This year, my quest continued (year #3). I started with the most basic, highly rated recipe I could find (a variation of Rose Leavy? Bread bible author). It was close but still not right. I made 3 variations. Still not right. Then I decided to look for a no knead recipe… and I found this one. There’s a well, 500 degree oven, lowest rack — was this it?? Was this the recipe I’d used years ago?

I made my first batch yesterday, did a pretty fast rise because I was tight on time.

After roughly 3 years, I produced the first batch of pita bread that will be fully consumed. I have a half recipe rising (I’m trying it with instant yeast - I hope it turns out okay).

I can attest this is the best recipe online. I’ve tried so many. It’s easy. It tastes great. It poofs. The dough is manageable. It’s a PERFECT recipe and I’m so glad I found it (again). Thank you!!

Comments

5 from 57 votes (55 ratings without comment)