My grandmother’s recipe, a staple in our house growing up, this pita bread is crisp, fluffy perfection!
This didn’t start with me. It started in Jordan sometime in the 1940s, or maybe it was actually Palestine- and several years before that. My paternal grandmother who we called “Tata Em Saleem,” baked bread for her eleven children. Soft, puffy, and crispy rounds of pita bread that fed her family of thirteen.
When a family can’t always afford things like meat or even milk, three ingredients were easier to come by: flour, water and yeast, (a teeny bit of salt & sugar too I suppose…) My Dad’s fond memories of eating his Mom’s bread with every meal translated to our kitchen table, where no meal was complete without a few toasty rounds of bread.
In our home, pita bread (called “khubez” in Arabic,) was more of a utensil than a side dish as most things we ate were dipped. As a result, my sisters & I grew up to be proficient “dippers,” knowing how to use a piece of bread to accurately scoop up a bit of whatever delicious thing my parents had prepared.
Throughout the years I was able to taste this amazing homemade bread several times when either my Tata was visiting or one of my Aunties prepared it, but I always knew learning to bake it myself was a must. Luckily my Mom took notes on Tata’s recipe from when she visited when I was a kid, and we worked from those notes to recreate this fluffy, wonderful bread.
As far as bread recipes go, this one is pretty straightforward. Each step requires some proofing, but a couple hours of work results in the most perfect stack of puffy pitas. These are wonderful for making sandwiches, dipping, or anything else you heart desires. This recipe has officially become an heirloom for me and just maybe will for you too!
Note: After I first posted this recipe I have made it a few times, but my Mom is the one who has gone to make it every single week and really work out any kinks in the recipe. I made some edits as of 5/2018 that she insists make this a better recipe!
- 5 cups all purpose flour* (plus a little more for your work surface)
- 1 teaspoon yeast
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2-3 cups warm water
- 2 tablespoons olive oil plus more for bowl
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook**, Stir together the flour, yeast, sugar, salt and olive oil.
- Turn the mixer on low and add the water, starting with 1½ cups, and then adding about ½ cup at a time. You want the dough to be tacky, but not too sticky. You will know it is the right consistency when it sticks to the bottom of the bowl but pulls away from the sides. If you add too much water, add a little more flour until dough reaches the right consistency.
- Let the machine do it's magic for a few minutes until this consistency is achieved and the dough springs back when lightly pressed.
- Remove the dough, rub some oil onto the inside of the bowl and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Allow dough to proof in a warm place for 60-90 minutes or until doubled.
- When the dough is done proofing, punch it down and turn it onto a lightly floured surface. Use your hands to shape the dough into 8 equal-sized balls. (You can squeeze the dough through a small hole made with your fingers to shape it.)
- Place the balls of dough on a lightly floured surface and cover with a clean, damp, kitchen towel.
- On a floured surface, roll each dough ball into a thin round about 6 inches diameter. (1/4-1/2 inch thick) Cover rounds with the damp cloth while you finish rolling the rest.
- Let the rolled out dough rest for 20-30 minutes or until slightly puffy. (Depending on the temperature of your home your dough may not get puffy at this stage. If so don't worry, it will still bake up fine.)
- Preheat oven to 500F or as high as it will go. (The higher the better for this recipe.) Place an upside-down cookie sheet or pizza stone in the oven to get hot as well.
- Carefully place 2-3 dough rounds onto the pre-heated cookie sheet or pizza stone.*** (You can transfer them into the oven directly or bring the cookie sheet out.)
- Bake for about 6 minutes, or until dough is puffed up, golden, and slightly crisp. Repeat with remaining dough.
** My Tata obviously did this by hand, but since we had a stand mixer at our disposal that is how we tested the recipe. You could obviously knead the dough by hand as well.
*** My Mom likes to place her shaped dough rounds on a plastic place mat which makes it super easy to peel off and transfer to the cookie sheet. You could also use parchment paper.
Elisa @ Insalata di Sillabe says
There’s just one thing I like more than a delicious piece of warm and moist cake, and that’s bread. Moreover, pita bread is one of my absolute favorite kinds, thanks to its simple flavor. I have to confess I’ve never tried to make it at home, since the bakery near my house makes such yummy ones, but we all know that homemade things always taste better, right?! So I think it’s time to give it a go! Thanks for sharing this family recipe!
xo, Elisa
Rebecca {foodie with family} says
What an amazing legacy your Tata has made for your family with this lovely bread! It really has to be the most perfect pita bread I’ve ever seen. I will have to make this for my boys!
Kayla sanders says
Do you just use all purpose flour, or is there a certain type of flour to use?
Audra says
AP Flour!
Annie @ Annie's City Kitchen says
Omg that little baby hand, I just can’t. Too adorable.
Recipes from grandmas are always the absolute best.
Katrina @ Warm Vanilla Sugar says
I’ve always wanted to make my own!! These look awesome!
Coco in the Kitchen says
Homemade pita and your grandmother’s recipe?!
How special, Audra.
Thanks so much for sharing. We love pita and it’s plentiful here in Los Angeles,
but finding soft, fresh bunches is difficult.
I will have to try your Tata’s recipe!
Thanks so much for sharing it w us. xo
PS-Love Hugo’s little hands. They make the pita look even more yummy!
Courtney says
Oh I just love this post, Audra. It’s beautiful.
Stephanie @ Girl Versus Dough says
I love how simple it is to make this fluffy bread! And that chubby little hand — I can’t even.
Francesca Catanuso says
These kinds of heirloom recipes are the absolute best. Thanks for sharing it and a little part of your world, Audra!
Rachel says
My husband’s grandmother is Lebanese, and we learned to make this a few years back. We live in Dubai now, and I’ve been visiting your site for Fall recipes. It’s our first Fall away from the Midwest, and I am JONESING for pumpkins and apples and spice. Your pumpkin bread and pumpkin pancakes helped a lot — thank you! Nice to see that we also share some Arabic ties. Grandma just taught us to say “habibi tabibi” to our little one.
Rachel @ Bakerita says
Homemade pita bread! I need this, and I need to make homemade hummus and tzatziki to go with it, and then I’ll be the happiest girl around.
Sue says
bread flour or all- purpose?
Audra says
AP Flour! :)
Lissa says
What a beautiful story! How awesome that this has now been handed down, and you can hand it down as well. I love recipes like this! These pitas look absolutely amazing. Will be trying for sure!
Sabine says
My kitchen aid mixer just died. I make rolls, pizza dough, flour tortillas, etc in my food processor. I have asked for a new kitchen aid for Christmas, but in the meantime do you think I could make the dough in the food processor?
Meriem @ Culinary Couture says
Teslam eidek Audra! These look amazing and I love Hugo’s little hand reaching for one, he’s well on his way to becoming a proficient dipper just like mama!
Stephanie @ Eat. Drink. Love. says
I have always wanted to make homemade pita bread! This recipe looks perfect!
Thea C. says
Audra, thank you for sharing such beautiful family memories and a treasured recipe from your grandma. I just took a bread making class, so I am excited to try this recipe! Thank you again! Love Hugo’s hand on the pitas!
Joanne says
I’ve tried my hand at homemade pitas before but I’m sure they wouldn’t hold a candle to these!
Julie says
I made this recipe today! It was a lot of fun, and I was surprised at how well the pitas turned out on my first try! I measured too much flour in the beginning, but with a little extra water, the dough turned out really well. I used my grandmother’s stand mixer, a nearly 30-year-old machine, and it made the job quick and easy. I think my Polish Buscia and your Tata Em Saleem would have gotten along well. :)
BakerMomma says
Daddy and I have relished our delicious pita bread all week. Wish you were here to bake more! I think we won’t want to go back to store-bought ever again.
Orla says
Audra, this is fantastic! Such a great way to embrace your heritage! I’m from Ireland where pitta literally comes in packages that we re-heat in the toaster! This one is on my list! Thank you so much for sharing! :)
Rita Kimmel says
This recipe is lovely and I will try it without delay. We moved from LA to South Carolina a year ago and haven’t had a fresh bakery pita bread in that year. Would you have a never fail recipe for lavash? Or could I adapt the pita dough to make lavash? Lavash was our standard dinner bread and I have not found it anywhere since our move. I like to top it with olive oil and fresh herbs before putting it in a hot oven on a pizza stone for a few minutes to make a cracker. Thank you for your support and passion for tasty wonderful flavors.
Audra says
I’m not too familiar with lavash. What is it like?
rita says
Thank you for your reply Audra. Lavash is another Middle East bread that is very thin and can be used for wraps or, as I use it, bake it for a few minutes until it becomes a cracker. I will look on the web for recipes, but just wondered if you had baked it. There is a Persian variety that I use to watch the bakers make that started as a small, very wet, ball and ended up being 3 feet long and 1 1/2 wide and less than 1/2 inch thick. They would be wrapped in parchment paper. People would drape them over their grocery carts. Again, thank you for your question.
tara says
Perhaps you mean Laffa? Sounds like Laffa. :)
Audra says
Nope- this is pita bread :)
tara says
(in response to Rita’s “Lavash”)
Lana says
can I double the recipe to make more than 8 loaves?
Hermsoven says
Audra, I just baked your pita recipe and deleted all the others in my collection. With some minor tweaks, these pitas were terrific!
Set oven to 550°F with a good quality pizza stone on the middle rack. All the pitas puffed quickly and were nicely done in under 3 minutes, the bottoms golden brown and the tops steaming like Old Faithful.
Used my processor on high to mix all the ingredients at once. Perhaps you could include metric weights to make duplicating results easier.
I was careful about using too much bench flour, which makes creating the dough balls difficult. It also creates a problem in getting the dough balls to have equal weights since the bench flour prevents good adherence of more dough from overweight balls.
Thank you for this excellent recipe.
Herman
Hermsoven says
One more important thing: I used Caputo 00 chef’s flour. This Italian flour is great for pizza crust and all other breads.
Chris J says
The bread tasted good, nice crumb, but didn’t really puff up. I admit to going half whole wheat with the AP flour which probably made it too heavy. Also half yogurt, half water but still…too heavy. Probably not the fault of the poster. Still looking for a reliable recipe. May try yours with strictly AP in the future. In the meantime, Chef John’s still seems at the top of my list. Thanks, though.
Audra says
I’d definitely follow the recipe next time you try. You don’t want to be using yogurt in this recipe for sure. A small amount of WW flour mixed in can work, but usually I start with all AP and then gradually add WW in to see how I like it.
Chris J says
Oh? Yogurt is often included in many flatbread recipes, it seems to me. Why might Yogurt not be proper in this recipe?
Lana says
I use this recipe weekly and end up with wonderful puffed up pitas. I have used the recipe with only WW flour and they still puffed up, not as much as AP, but they still had the pockets. My suggestion to you is to make sure your oven is set to its highest temperature and to use a pizza stone.
Audra Fullerton says
This recipe isn’t for flat bread- but pita with a pocket. Traditional recipes from the Middle East just contain flour, yeast, and water. :)
Francesca says
I tried your recipe yesterday! The taste is great, but my pitas did not rise after I rolled them flat :-/ Not sure why… Perhaps the type of yeast? Thanks for sharing!
Audra says
If your yeast was fresh it should have been fine. I would check and make sure it’s fresh!
Francesca says
Thanks Audra for your reply! I used dry yeast so that may be the reason. Can’t find any fresh yeast where I live :-/
Flony says
Hello,
I haven’t finished the recipe, but I can already tell it is going to be a waste of 4 1/2 cups of organic AP flour…
From my experience so far, there is way too much flour for the water. I had to add at least 1/2 cup of water to be able to form a dough, and 1/2 more so that the dough didn’t have the tecture of dried-up playdoh. I just found another reciepe calling for the same ingredients, but 3 cups of flour for 1 1/4 cup of water, which sounds like a much more reliable ratio.
I hereby solemnly promise that I will never ever again try recipes that don’t have reviews.
Audra says
Confused by what you mean by your last sentence because there are several review of the recipe in the comments.
What you are looking for is a specific texture/consistency. Everyone’s climate and elevation is different which plays into how much water is needed. Add more if needed to the point where the dough no longer sticks to the bottom but is soft and supple.
Audra says
But I’m going to make it more clear in the recipe that more water may be needed.
Flony says
Thank you for already adding the comment about the water! I think I ended up almost doubling the quantity that is in the recipe.
I have to say that your indications about the texture made it really clear that what was is my bowl initially was NOT what I was looking for and helped me rectify.
In the end, they turned out ok, a bit stiff and less puffed up than should be, but not inedible. Still, I will try with just 3 or 3 1/2 cups of flour next time to get a more supple dough.
Lana says
You’ve changed the recipe. I don’t know if I should use this new one or the one before as the previous one was perfect.
Audra says
You’re right I did! I meant to write a note about why and I will include that.
Basically after I posted this recipe my Mom has gone on to make this bread 1/2x a week and insisted I edit the recipe to reflect what has worked so perfectly for her. She promised the edits are tried and true and more clear. I’m sorry for the confusion. Try this version and let me know what you think!
Gibran says
Hi Audra, what kind of yeast do you use? Is it instant dry yeast? Active Dry?
Thanks so much!
Shanese says
Thank you for sharing this lovely memory and recipe. Making these as I type and they’re turning out so well!
Gary says
In the UK where pretty much everything Middle Eastern is known as Lebanese, none of the Lebanese restaurants even know this bread. They all use a much thinner bread that has a more elastic consistency.The Syrians too. Fine for wraps but not as nice for dipping. The Egyptians have something similar called Khobez baladi but that too is not as fluffy and tastes a bit different. Iraqis have something called Samoon bread. Only places that do it are the Israeli Falafel shops and the odd Palestinian restaurants (very few). Makes me conclude that is should probably be called Palestinian Pita bread.