Many think that making homemade pita bread is difficult because they need to have the characteristic pocket in the middle to hold delicious fillings. However, it's much easier than you think, and you never get tired of seeing your pitas 'pop' in the oven.
If you bake your pitas on a baking steel, you'll get the best result as the steel's explosive heat helps the bread rise. Fill them with your favorite fillings, and if you have any leftovers, they can easily go into the freezer for a quick meal another day.
Ingredients
For 10 pitas
600 g Manitoba wheat flour
20 g yeast
430 g lukewarm water
18 g fine salt
15 g olive oil
Durum flour
Instructions
Dissolve the yeast in the water.
Add olive oil and flour, and mix on low speed for a minute using a stand mixer.
Add salt and mix on low speed for a couple of minutes. Gradually increase the mixer speed to maximum. Mix until the dough is smooth, elastic, and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
Let the dough rise covered until doubled in size at room temperature, about 2 hours.
If you don't have a stand mixer, knead by hand until the dough is smooth and elastic.
Place a baking steel on a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 250 degrees Celsius (480 degrees Fahrenheit) when the dough is done rising.
Pour the dough onto a surface dusted with durum flour. Divide the dough into 10 equal pieces, about 100-110 grams each. Roll them into balls and let them rise covered on the counter for 30 minutes.
Roll the balls out into flat pitas, about 1 cm thick. Make sure they have enough flour on them so they don't stick, and bake them on the baking steel until they have popped up and started to brown.
Store in an airtight container.
