{Recipe} Homemade Pita Bread (and Pita Chips too!)

Once you've tried homemade Pitas, you won't ever want to go back to the dry, brittle supermarket kind.  These pitas are moist, flavourful,and at least as versatile as a slice of bread.

My instructions are going to assume you have a decent stand mixer with a dough hook, but if you don't you could still totally do this by hand!

You will need:

1 cup of warm tap water
1 1/2 tsp quick-rise yeast
1 Tbsp Honey
1 tsp salt
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
Olive oil

1. Put the yeast and warm water in the bowl of a stand mixer with a pinch of sugar. Let stand five minutes to let the yeast do it's yeasty thing.  It will begin to look something like this:

2. Add the Honey and salt and flour.

3. Mix with your dough hook until it all comes together as a smooth dough.  As with any bread recipe, the flour is approximate.  There are a number of variables that affect how much flour a bread needs and it will never be the same twice.

You will need a fairly solid dough, not too soft or sticky.  If you don't think you could make it into a ball and throw it across the room with any precision, it needs more flour.

4. Place your ball of dough on an oiled counter to rise for 30 minutes.

5. Preheat your oven to 500 degrees.  Divide your dough into 6 pieces and roll each piece out to be about the size of a dessert plate.

6. Place on a greased cookie sheet and let sit for 15 minutes.

Yes, I know my cookie sheets are looking a little worse for wear.  But they still work, and I have far more important things to spend my money on.  Like throw pillows and salted caramel mochas....

7.  Bake for 5-6 minutes.  Yes, you read that right, these puppies bake up in just five minutes!

While in the oven something magical will happen and your pitas will puff up, forming pockets in the middle. (I know it is just steam.  But knowing that kinda steals the magically-ness of it, doesn't it?)

8. You're not done yet! To keep your pitas from turning into crackers you have to wrap them in a moist dish towel and let them rest for another 15 minutes. 

Ta-da!  Delicious easy thrifty pitas!

Wait?  Some of your pitas didn't magically pocket?  Or they only sorta kinda pocketed on one side?  That happens to me too.  One way to avoid that is to switch all the whole wheat flour out for white.  But I like the taste of the whole wheat, and any pitas that don't pocket I can just use to make mini pizzas, or pita chips!

To make pita chips: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut or tear pitas into bits.  Place on a cookie sheet and brush on some olive oil.

Sprinkle on some kosher salt and then bake for 5-6 minutes or until crispy!

I like serving these with hummus, a white bean dip, or my Cucumber Mango Salsa Recipe!

Confession: The first time I made pitas I was so scared about using my oven at 500 degrees that I got the fire extinguish out and kept it on the counter while they baked.


Confession #2: Above, in the first confession, when I said "the first time" I meant "the first hundred times".


This recipe was adapted from this cookbook:

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