Pita Bread
Shortly after moving into our home together, The Good Parsi Hubby and I experimented making fresh flat bread for kebabs. He found a Pita bread recipe online which was okay, but after a few years of tweaks, I’ve revamped this recipe to perfection. I love making the dough at night and letting it rise slowly in the fridge overnight, but you can also let it double in size at room temperature and cook on the same day. This bread is great for kebabs, as a wrap, and as a great alternative to naan bread when accompanying Indian food.
Makes 8
Preparation Time: 5 minutes / Cooking Time: 25 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 cup warm water
- 1 tsp dried yeast
- ½ tsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbl yoghurt
- 3 cups bakers/strong/’00’ flour (450g)
- Olive 0il, for oiling bowl
- Butter/ghee for frying
Method
- Place the water, yeast, sugar, salt, yoghurt and flour in a food processor with a dough hook, or Thermomix. Knead for 5 minutes with hook, or 2 minutes on TM Interval setting. NOTE – I’m pretty confident working with yeast, so I don’t do the whole ‘let the yeast activate’ part most bread recipes include. If you are unsure if your yeast is okay, mix the warm water, yeast and sugar in the mixer first and leave for 15 minutes. If the yeast becomes frothy, you’re good to go!
- Place onto a clean surface and tuck dough into a tight ball.
- Splash some oil in a large bowl and roll the dough to coat surface. Cover with towel or cling wrap and leave to double in size (at least 1 hour). NOTE – You can do this rise overnight in the fridge. Put the dough in a plastic freezer bag, coat with oil, squeeze out the air and tie up. The dough will expand slowly, then simply remove bag and leave at room temperature for an hour before you’re ready to go onto the next step.
- Lightly flour a pastry mat/bench. Remove dough from bowl (or plastic bag), punch down and knead lightly by hand for a minute.
- Roll dough into a log and slice into 8 even pieces.
- Roll each piece into a tight ball, sprinkle with flour and leave to prove for 20 minutes on the floured surface, covered with a towel.
- Heat up a non-stick pan on medium heat. Reduce heat slightly when ready to fry.
- Roll out one ball until 20-25cm in diameter, and 4 to 5 mm thick.
- Melt approximately 1 tsp of butter/ghee in the pan. Add the flattened dough and cook for 1 to 2 minutes until brown spots start to form on the underside.
- Flip and cook for a further minute. Remove from the pan and leave on a plate. Cover with a tea towel.
- Repeat steps 8 to 10 for remaining 7 balls, stacking the pita breads on top of each other to keep warm.
This bread is best served freshly cooked, but can be reheated by lightly frying in a pan. Store in the fridge for 1 day, or in the freezer for up to a month.
Enjoy! GPW