Soft & delicious homemade pita bread. These puffy little pillows are ready from start to finish in less than 1 hour & taste so much better than store bought varieties!
(This recipe was originally published on Aug 25th 2015 but has since been updated with new photographs and ingredient weights for accuracy).
I have been making my own bread for as long as I can remember but my usual pita bread recipe involves lots of kneading, resting and proving and although the end result is amazing I realize that most people don’t have the time or the patience for this. I decided that I wanted to simplify the process and come up with a Quick & Easy Homemade Pita Bread recipe that could be made from start to finish in under one hour.
The resulting pita breads are so easy to make and pretty quick as far as bread-making goes. Don’t let the fact you need to use yeast put you off. It’s not as scary as it sounds and the results are so worth the effort.
These quick and easy homemade pita breads taste so much better than store bought varieties and make a perfect accompaniment to falafel, hummus, and other dips. They also split easily so can be stuffed.
When you make these Quick & Easy Homemade Pita Breads, be sure to watch them for the five minutes that they are in the oven. They puff up dramatically within a few minutes and it is great to see this happen. If you have children helping you to make this recipe then they will love to watch them through the oven door.
When they are done and you remove them from the oven you will have little puffy pillow like pita breads. They deflate as they cool and end up resembling pita breads as you see in the store, only they taste so much better! Cover them with a clean dish towel while they cool to keep them nice and soft.
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Quick & Easy Pita Bread
Ingredients
- 325g | 2 cups wholewheat flour , strong wholemeal in the UK
- 165g | 1 cup all purpose flour , strong white flour in the UK
- 2.5 teaspoons instant yeast , or quick yeast
- 1 teaspoon salt (optional - see recipe notes)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil (optional - see recipe notes)
- 405mls | 1½ cups + 2 tablespoons lukewarm water , not hot and not cold
Instructions
- Add all the dry ingredients to a large bowl, making sure to keep the salt on the opposite side to the yeast.
- Add the olive oil and enough of the water to make a firm dough. I used 405 mls of water. You might not need all of it or you might need a few drops more. It depends on the flour you are using, humidity etc.
- Stir well with a spatula until the flour is absorbed and you have a shaggy dough.
- If the mixture looks a little dry add a few more drops of water very gradually.
- Scrape your mixture onto a clean and dry surface. If you think you will find kneading like this difficult then grease your surface and your hands with some olive oil. This will make it easier to handle. Try not to use more flour to knead on or add more flour during the process. If you do you risk your pita bread becoming dense and tough.
- Start kneading. If you are not experienced in kneading dough I recommend you watch a video of how to knead to help perfect your technique. You will need to knead for 7 - 10 minutes. Your dough will start out a little bit sticky but the more you knead the smoother and less sticky it will become. The dough is firm so quite hard to knead. That is normal. Keep going until it feels smooth and when it is in a ball shape and you squeeze it together on each side, it bounces slowly back to shape when you let go.
- Divide your dough into 8 pieces.
- Roll each piece out into a circle or oval shape about 3mm thick.
- Place on a lightly floured baking sheet (you will probably need 2 baking sheets ) and cover gently with clean, damp dish towels.
- Leave to rest for 30 minutes.
- Preheat your oven to 500 degrees F whilst you are waiting.
- After 30 minutes uncover your pitas and gently flip each one over. You will need to peel them off the tray but this should be pretty easy to do because of the flour underneath.
- Place into the hot oven and watch through the door (it's entertaining ;o)
- Bake for 5 - 6 minutes. They will have puffed up nicely but not be coloured at all.
- When you remove from the oven they may feel a little hard but cover with a dish towel and leave to cool and they will soften up.
Notes
Estimated nutrition per serving:
Long time vegan, creator of A Virtual Vegan & author of the book 
Richard says
Made these today and must say what a great recipe, they worked a treat, so good in fact there’s none left to freeze!
Thank you very much for a brilliant recipe and what looks like a great site, can’t wait to explore further.
Melanie McDonald says
I’m really pleased you enjoyed them Richard. I often have the same problem with them disappearing too fast to make it to the freezer!
Anna says
Can you make the dough, and then leave it/chill it overnight before you cook it, or would this not work?
A Virtual Vegan says
I haven’t tried it with this recipe, but for other regular breads that work fine so I would imagine it would be ok. I would go up to the kneading part, then rub a little oil all over the dough so it doesn’t dry out, put it in a tightly covered bowl or sealed container and refrigerate, then let it warm up at room temperature for 45 mins or so the next day before continuing with the recipe. Hope that helps!
Emily says
So simple but such incredible results! This is my new go to recipe when I have nothing in for lunch!
Sandy says
Can you make this with only whole wheat flour?
A Virtual Vegan says
You could but you wouldn’t get the optimum, light texture and they might not puff as much.
Kathryn Roosa says
Would it work to let your bread maker do the kneading, then back in the oven?
A Virtual Vegan says
I haven’t’ used a bread machine for years and years so can’t really remember how they work, but I think it would be ok to use the dough cycle, then remove, cut into pieces, shape etc. Assuming the capacity works with the dough quantity that is.
Aimee Smith says
These were awesome! Fast, easy and delicious, exactly what I needed! I was out of whole wheat flour so used all ap flour and didn’t need as much water as the recipe calls for. They turned out great!
A Virtual Vegan says
So glad you enjoyed them!