Homemade Whole Wheat Pita Bread
This pita bread dough is soft and easy to roll, making it very kid-friendly! The trick is to pat or spray the rounds with a little water on the top just before baking, to help them puff up! The recipe was taught in a City Market kids’ cooking class.
Prep Time
Cook Time
Yield
Ingredients
Instructions
Combine flour, honey/sugar, salt, and yeast in a large bowl. Add the oil/butter and water. Mix by hand until ingredients are incorporated. Knead for about 10 minutes until the dough is smooth, soft, and elastic. Add flour or water as needed; the dough should be slightly tacky but not sticky. Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl and turn it once to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise at room temperature until doubled in volume, 1– 1 1/2 hours.
Set a rack in the lower level of the oven and place a pizza or baking stone on the rack. Preheat the oven to 450°F for 45 minutes. (If you do not have a pizza or baking stone, preheat the oven, place a baking sheet on the rack, and heat the baking sheet for 5 minutes.) Meanwhile, punch down the dough. Divide equally into 16 pieces for small pitas, 8 pieces for large ones, and roll the pieces into balls. Cover and let rest for 20 minutes.
On a very lightly floured surface, roll out each ball of dough into a thin round. Spray the stone or baking sheet with a mist of water, wait 30 seconds then place as many dough rounds as will fit without touching each other directly on the hot surface. (You can alternatively spray the pitas directly; the extra moisture helps them puff up). Bake until the dough rounds puff into balloons, about 3-5 minutes, then bake 30 seconds longer and immediately remove the breads to a rack to cool. Bake the remaining rounds.