Homemade Pita Bread Recipe

Try homemade pita bread and you’ll never go back to store-bought. Learn how to make pita bread at home and serve it with your favorite food.

If you love Mediterranean recipes as much as we do, you’d probably be interested in learning the basics such as our falafel recipe, moussaka recipe, and, of course, tabbouleh salad. This pita bread recipe is one of the basics that’s super easy to learn.

The best pita bread recipe

We all have had those pita pockets at middle eastern and Mediterranean places and loved them. I’m talking about those airy and light pita breads that are hollow in the middle and stuffed with all the good stuff. You’ve probably also tried the store bought pita pockets, which I personally haven’t had the best luck with; they’re not as airy or light, and sometimes they’re not even hollow.

That’s why I started making pita bread at home and I promise you it’s much easier that what you think. And it’s so much fun to make your own bread at home and have freshly baked bread with your meals. Once you make homemade pita bread, you’ll want to make it all the time because it’s so simple and good!

Pita bread ingredients

Like many other breads, you need some basic ingredients to make homemade pita bread:

• All purpose flour
• Instant yeast
• Sugar
• Salt
• Olive oil
• Warm water

By following a few simple steps, you can have freshly baked pita bread on the table in no time and say goodbye to the store bought versions.

How to make homemade pita bread

Place flour, instant yeast, sugar and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk to mix. Pour olive oil and warm water into the bowl and start mixing on medium speed using the dough hook. Once the dough has come together, shape it into a ball and place it a bowl. Cover with a towel and let it rise for one hour until doubled in size.

Place a pizza stone or a baking sheet in the oven and preheat the oven to 500F. Take the dough out of the bowl and divide it into eight pieces. Cover with the kitchen towel and let it rise for another 15 minutes. Take one pita dough while having the others under the towel and shape it into a ball and them press gently with your fingers into a round disk without tearing it or letting the air out. Using a rolling pin, gently roll out the dough until it’s no thicker than 1/4 inch.

Place the rolled pita dough on the hot surface in the oven and bake for two minutes. The bread will start to puff. Flip and bake for another two minutes. Place the freshly baked pita bread on a plate and cover with a towel so it won’t dry. Continue with the remaining dough.

What do you eat pita bread with?

You can serve this easy pita bread with every meal. It’s great for dipping in tzatziki sauce, spicy hummus, baba ganoush and muhammara. Pita pockets are perfect to serve with chicken dishes such as shish tawook. You can also make homemade pita bread for gyros. I love making Greek avocado egg sandwich with it as well. And, last but not least, they make perfect pita chips for snacking.

How long does pita bread last?

Homemade pita bread is best to serve and eat fresh. However, you can store it easily. Wrap pita breads tightly in a plastic bag or store in an airtight ziploc bag and keep at room temperature.

How to make crispy pita bread

Crispy pita bread is like middle eastern croutons! You can serve them in different salads, the most popular being fattoush salad and it’s so easy to make them:

• Heat olive oil in a pan.
• tear the pita bread into bite size pieces.
• Fry in the olive oil with some salt and sumac.
• Place on paper towels to get rid of excess oil.

Can I freeze pita bread?

You absolutely can! Place a large aluminum foil on the counter and place one pita bread on the aluminum foil. Cut a piece of parchment or wax paper and put it on the pita bread. Top with another pita bread and repeat the steps until you have a stack of pita bread with wax paper between each layer. Wrap tightly with the aluminum foil and freeze for up to two months.

How do you unfreeze pita bread?

Allow frozen pita to thaw properly in the fridge or at room temperature. Preheat the oven to 350F. Wrap a few pita breads in an aluminum foil and place it in the oven for about 10-12 minutes until they’re fully warm. Serve immediately.

How to soften hard pita bread

Sometimes pita bread can get pretty hard. Don’t throw them away! Just wrap the hardened pita bread in a damp towel and heat in the oven at 350F for 7-10 minutes. It will come out super fresh and soft!

Notes and tips for making this easy pita bread

• Homemade pita bread must be baked on a hot surface. I always bake mine on a pizza stone, but a baking sheet would work very well too.
• Once the dough has doubled in size after one hour, don’t punch it down. Pita dough needs the air to puff and be hollow in the middle. While rolling it out with a rolling pin, make sure you’re not pressing the rolling pin on the dough but simply rolling it on the dough without much pressure. However, even if the pita isn’t hollow in the middle, it will still be absolutely delicious!
• You can use active dry yeast instead of instant yeast in this recipe. Read about active dry yeast vs instant yeast on The Kitchn.
• I used a stand mixer with a dough hook to make pita bread dough. However, I’ve tried making the dough in a large bowl and mixing by hand, and had great results as well. So you can use both methods and have great pita bread.
• This recipe yields 8 pita breads. I baked them one by one as I was rolling out one while waiting for the other one to bake. You can do two at a time if you like, but these don’t take much time to bake anyway.