Easy Homemade Whole Wheat Pita Bread

This recipe for homemade whole wheat pita bread is surprisingly easy, pretty quick to make, and tastes SO much better than the cardboard-like ones from the store. It’s definitely worth the time, plus they freeze beautifully.

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Here’s what I want you to know about making pita bread: you can do it!

Honest- it’s easy, fairly quick (with an hour of hands-off rising), and so fun to watch them puff up in the oven.

The worst that can happen is some might not have the pocket in the middle, but then you will have flatbread like they use in Greece – wonderful with hummus or to use as a wrap for gyros.

So there are only wins with this recipe. Although you may wonder:

I’m providing pictures of every step – and a video – for you below so it will be super clear because I didn’t think homemade pita would be easy to make when I first tried it, but it really is! Check out the timeline at the end to see exactly how much time this actually takes – I want you to picture yourself making whole grain pita bread!

These are SO much better than store bought (and need I say pennies on the dollar, especially compared to the little bags of four for $4 or more?).

Ingredients Needed

• Whole wheat flour, spelt flour, or white whole wheat flour
• Unbleached white flour (if using regular whole wheat, adding a cup of white flour adds lightness – if I’m using white whole wheat which is lighter, I don’t use the unbleached white flour – play around with flours to see what you like best)
• salt
• Instant yeast – this is the yeast I use, buying in bulk is WAY cheaper (keep the main package in the freezer and a small jar you pull from in the fridge and it will last a year or more)
• Water
• Olive oil

Steps to Make Pocket Pita Bread

1. Mix up dough

Start by adding the flour in the bowl of a stand mixer along with the salt and instant yeast. Then add the water and oil.

Just dump everything together in the bowl. Don’t worry about mixing until all the ingredients are added and then stir until you’ve got a shaggy dough. How easy is that?

Note on Mixing: you can do it by hand, but it’s WAY easier in a stand mixer. I suppose the first mixing/kneading cycle of a bread machine would work, too, though you should check the flour amounts with your machine.

Note on Yeast: Using instant yeast instead of active dry is one of the reasons why it can be added with the dry ingredients (without dissolving in water first to proof). If you only have active dry yeast you can still make the pita, just proof it first for 5 minutes in a little of the water and be sure to minus that amount from the water when you add it later.

2. Knead dough

Switch to a dough hook and knead with the hook for 5 minutes.

TIP: Whole grains act a little different than all-purpose, and may stick to the very bottom of the bowl, even after being kneaded. That’s OK. If it’s sticking too much, add a little flour, just a small spoonful at a time, being careful not to add too much, because we’re aiming for a soft dough here.

Here’s what I mean by “soft dough:”

I want to illustrate what a soft dough should look like, because I remember when I was learning to make bread these were mysterious instructions to me (and I would usually add too much flour).

Hallmarks of a Soft Dough

• See how the dough is sticking to the bowl in the photo above? It’s has cleared the sides of the bowl but is still sticking to the bottom. This is good, it should need a little help getting out of the bowl (if it just rolls out on it’s own, it’s not a soft dough and you’ve added too much flour).
• If you pat the dough and it doesn’t stick to your fingers, but is just slightly tacky, like I also show above, that’s good. If the dough does stick to your fingers, then it would need a little more flour and a little more kneading.

3. Let rise

After kneading let the dough rise in a warm spot, covered with plastic, until doubled, 1 to 1-1/2 hours, depending on how warm your spot is.

This is what the dough will look like after doubling.

4. Preheat the oven

When the dough has risen, start heating the oven to 500 degrees.

Yes, these puppies cook hot and fast – like I mentioned it’s one of the secrets to the puffing which creates the pocket.

5. Cut & shape the pitas

Remove the dough from the bowl, place on a lightly floured surface and cut it in half. (I use a bench scraper – it makes it so easy to cut and then move the dough.)

Place one of the halves under a slightly dampened cloth, and cut the remaining half into four equal (somewhat…) portions. You can get all fancy and weigh the portions, but I’m totally okay with some bigger and some smaller pitas – choices!

Shape each of these four pieces into a ball (I like to grab all the ends together on one side, cupping the other in my hand. It’s easy and makes a nice round shape).

Place the balls as you make them under the cloth. Repeat with the other half until you have 8 balls of dough.

6. Roll out pitas

Let the dough balls rest 5 minutes to make them easier to roll out (though to be honest, I just start rolling the first set of balls when I’m done with all the shaping, as it seems like it’s been 5 minutes and it’s been fine).

Roll out the balls, one at a time, using as little flour as you can but not so much that the dough goes sliding all over as you’re trying to roll it. (I love my French rolling pin!)

Set this one on another cutting board (or peel, or whatever) and roll out another. Do two or three at a time.

7. Bake the pitas

Place a baking cooling rack right on top of the oven rack. (A baking stone will also work but a simple rack works great). Lay 2-3 prepared pitas on the rack.

Don’t be too concerned with the shapes, or if an edge falls through a crack, they cook fast and the imperfect shapes are testament to homemade goodness!

Set the timer for 4-5 minutes. I used 4 minutes with my oven. There is no need to turn the pitas.

While one set is cooking, roll out the next set.

When you open the oven, voila! Puffy little pita pockets. (On a side note, kids love this, it’s like a miracle!)

8. Cover & continue to bake pitas

Remove the baked pitas from the oven and place them directly on a towel and wrap the towel around them completely so they stay nice and soft (otherwise they’ll crisp up as they cool).

Immediately add next set of pitas you’ve prepared to the oven, repeating until all the dough is cooked and keeping the cooked pitas covered until serving or storing.

Once the pitas are cooled a bit, you can cut them in half to serve and fill or leave them whole.

Serve slightly warm or let cool completely and freeze for up 3-6 months.

Pita Bread Timeline

Using my example, I cooked 2-3 pitas at a time, making 3 rounds of cooking for the eight pitas, which equals 12 minutes (15 if adding the time to roll out the first ones).

Can you believe how little time it actually takes?

• Throw in some ingredients = 5 minutes
• Knead = 5 minutes
• Rise = 1 hour
• Roll and cook = 15 minutes

So it’s only about 25 minutes of hands-on time.

See? It really is easy to have your own homemade pita bread!

Recipes to Serve With Pita Bread

• Homemade Hummus without Tahini
• Authentic Greek Salad Tips & Recipe
• Greek Tuna Salad with Artichokes, Olives & Feta
• Mediterranean Fish Bake

More Easy Breads to Try

This recipe has been updated – it was originally published in July of 2009.

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