Pita Power

My son loves taking little pitas to school for his lunch. I had trouble finding a package of them one day so I decided I needed to just make my own. I didn't think it could be too difficult, and I was right!

This recipe is not my own, but I doubt very much it was developed by anyone at the site I found it. It's such a basic bread recipe I'm sure the same one exists 1000's of times in print and online. 

Here it is:

2 tsp active dry yeast

1 C warm water (105 F or so)

½ tsp Sugar

35 g whole-wheat flour (1/4 cup)

310 g all-purposed flour (2 1/2 cups)

1 tsp kosher salt

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

In a mixing bowl, combine flours and salt. Stir to combine 

In a separate bowl or measuring cup, stir together the water, yeast, sugar and olive oil, then add around 2 Tbsp of the flour mix. Let this sit for about 10 minutes to give the yeast a chance to bloom.

Add the wet ingredients to the flour and stir to combine. 

Turn this out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for 2 minutes.

Either put the dough back in the bowl, or just cover it on the bench with a tea towel and let it sit for 10 minutes to let the flour fully hydrate.

Knead the dough for another 2 or 3 minutes until smooth and elastic. Place it back in the bowl and cover. Stick in a warm, draft free place and let rise for an hour or until the dough has doubled in size. In my house the oven (off, of course) is the best place.

If baking with a pizza stone, place it in the oven and preheat to between 475 F and 500 F.

Turn your risen dough onto your work surface and give it a quick knead, just to bring it together until it's smooth.

For large 8" pitas divide the dough into 8 pieces. I make smaller pitas, so I just cut it into pieces roughly the size of a golf ball. You get how many you get (I ended up with 21 small pitas today).

Roll the pieces I to tight balls and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment or  a towel. Cover and let sit for another 10 minutes or so.

Once the oven is ready you can start rolling out your dough balls into flat discs a bit less than 1/4" thick. I have a small dumpling rolling pin I found at an Asian supermarket for $2.00 that works perfectly for this. Use a little bench flour if needed. 

Once you have a few rolled out, you can toss them onto the pizza stone, or fill a baking sheet with them and pop them into the oven.

Make sure you have the oven light on so you can watch them puff up. 

Keep your eye on them and pull them out of the oven when they get just slightly browned. If you go too long, you'll have crunchy pita chips, not pita pockets!

It should only take between 3 and 5 minutes to bake, depending on the size you're making.

When done, remove from oven and place under a tea towel to cool.