When I lived in Michigan a few short years ago, I became more acquainted with Greek food, which is quite popular there. I lived about 45 minutes outside of Detroit, a city with a “Greektown”. Until then, I had never thought about Greek food too much, although I always did enjoy it. On the east coast, I was used to things like Little Italy (in NYC and a sort of by-gone in Philly) and lots of cities have a Chinatown, but I’d never heard of a Greek town (at least here in Philly).
Turns out that Greek and Middle Eastern food is quite abundant in Michigan. There is a popular chain restaurant called Olga’s, and they make such. good. pita bread. I found a recipe for it, and it is very good, but it tastes a bit too much like crepes to me. Don’t get me wrong, I like crepes but I wanted my pita to taste more like pita and less like crepes. After tweaking the recipe a bit, I think I found a winner.
I make these very often. Sure it’s easier to buy pitas at the store, but they are neverrrr as good. In fact, I often find that store bought pita bread is quite dry. And, I’d rather have the flat kind instead of the pita pockets, which seem to be much more popular in the grocery stores.
Pocketless Pita
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1/2 cup lukewarm water
- 2 tablespoons butter , melted
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 teaspoons instant yeast
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3.5 to 4 cups flour
Instructions
-
Combine milk, water, butter, and honey in mixing bowl of a standing mixer with dough hook
-
Add yeast and mix for a few second to combine
-
Add salt followed by enough flour to form a soft dough
-
Knead dough for 3 to 4 minutes
-
Place dough in oiled bowl, cover and let rest for 1 hour
-
After 1 hour, form dough into 8 smaller balls and heat up a non-stick pancake griddle
-
On a floured flat surface, roll out each dough ball into a flat circle about 6 to 7 each in diameter sprinkling with more flour if needed to prevent sticking.
-
Grill each pita for a few minutes until they begin bubbling and are very lightly golden brown, then flip and cook the reverse side
-
Store in plastic bag and freeze unused pitas.
-
Makes 8 small pitas
This was quick and easy. Pita in general doesn’t tend to be super flavorful, but making this version was nice and fresh and preservative-free. I liked being able to halve the recipe and get just four (rather than buying a big pack from the grocery store and having to cram the extras in my freezer). Don’t be surprised if your dough doesn’t rise…mine didn’t, but it still cooked up fine.
Oops, just realized that it calls for INSTANT yeast, so perhaps that’s why mine didn’t rise (I used regular active dry yeast). In any case, the recipe didn’t go horribly wrong with regular yeast, so you can use that in a pinch. Not sure if they would have been fluffier with the instant yeast, but I didn’t notice anything amiss until I re-read the recipe long after eating the first batch.
Very very good bread!! This was my first time making bread from scratch and it turned out great! Easy to follow!! Did have to adjust time but that’s the case when baking anything.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing this amazing recipe, queen of pita bread!! I wanted to make my hubby chicken gyros on homemade pita bread instead of buying some from the store. Yesterday, I made a batch of these (followed recipe to the T) along with chicken gyros, cucumber salsa, and my own greek yogurt to make homemade tsatsiki. That recipe:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/chicken-gyros-with-cucumber-salsa-and-tsatsiki-351874
Results were heavenly, hubby fell head over heels, it was all a big hit!!
Today, he had me make him 2 more batches for his lunch this week. That’s 3 batches over the weekend!
Thanks again, I’ll never buy from the store ever again and on top of it all, I know we’re eating healthier because I know exactly what ingredients are going into the bread that I’ll now be serving my family.
In lieu of skillet, do you think I could put on pizza stone in 500° oven?
I’ve never tried that but it could work. My electric skillet is usually at 475 so it’s not a big difference – you probably should flip them though after you see some very slight bubbling
Thank so much for this recipe. I made it last night and it turned out great!
Made your Pita bread today. Followed your directons an had no problems at all. these where yummy. Going to have the rest tonight with chicken soup. Thank you so much for your recipe!
Sounds like a great meal for a cold evening Nancy!
What type of flour? Will all purpose work?
Sorry for the delay Faith – yes, all purpose works well
I made your pitas and they were excellent! I actually did a lazy way and added everything in a bread machine (following the bread machine’s instructions for the order in which the ingredients are added), did a dough cycle and the dough came out great!
Glad to hear it! I’ve never used a bread machine – good to know it works that way since may people use them.
It is a really good receipt! We do it all the time now! Plus it functions really well as a calzone
=)
calzone…yum! Good thinking!
We lived in Greece for over a year and these by far are the easiest and most authentic we’ve had since returning to the states. Yum!
Greece must have been beautiful! I’d love to go there someday!
Thank you for this recipe. I will try this today. I’ve searched high and low for a good pocketless pita recipe to use for wraps with falafel, etc. Many thanks.
I now make these every Saturday morning and eat them throughout the week for breakfast. Yum!
Glad to hear that! They are sooo yummy
I just made these today, great recipe! We’re hosting a Greek supper club on Saturday, so I wanted to do a test run of these before then. They’re super easy and turned out perfect. The recipe didn’t specify, so I did grease up the griddle for 1/2 the batch, and those seemed to brown up a bit better than the ones that I didn’t grease. I’m going to double the recipe for Saturday, seeing as how we’ve already eaten 3 of these in the past 15 minutes!
Hi Carrie! I use a non-stick pancake griddle when I make them, so I’ve never thought about greasing up – probably adds more flavor. Yum!
Delicious! I made these yesterday…so good! Thanks for the recipe.
Glad you liked them! I make them often.
Hi Marie,
Lovely pictures and recipe! I am going to give this one a whirl!
Thank you,
Andris