Recipes

Pita Bread (Pizza Oven)

Pizza · Pizza Oven · Breads · Middle Eastern · Vegetarian

Pita Bread (Pizza Oven)
Prep 2 hr, plus 8–24 hr
Cook 2 min each
Serves 4 thick or 8 thin pitas
Level Medium

Pita that puffs into a pocket in under two minutes on a hot pizza-oven stone — baked well away from the flame so it inflates before it browns.

Untested: I have not cooked this one yet — the pizza oven has not been bought. It is here for the Pizza Ovens dive, and it is adapted from the source named in the Notes.

Ingredients

  • 113 g (1 cup) whole wheat flour, sifted, bran discarded
  • 315 g (2¼ cups) bread flour, 13–14% protein
  • 120 g (1 cup) bread flour, for dusting
  • 3 g (1 teaspoon) active dry yeast (or 2 g / ¾ teaspoon instant, or 7 g fresh)
  • 9 g (1½ teaspoons) fine sea salt
  • 300 g (1¼ cups) water at 75 °F (24 °C)
  • 18 g (1½ tablespoons) extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for coating
  • 21 g (1 tablespoon) honey

Directions

  1. Batter. Whisk the water, oil and honey. Whisk in half the flour (with the yeast and salt) to a batter, then stir in the rest until no dry flour remains. Rest 30 minutes.
  2. Knead 10–20 seconds in the bowl. Ferment at about 75 °F for 60–120 minutes, until about 1½ times its size.
  3. Ball and chill. Divide into 4 (thick) or 8 (thin) balls, shape them tightly, seal the seams, coat in oil, and refrigerate 8–24 hours.
  4. Heat the oven until the stone reads 600–700 °F — cooler than for pizza.
  5. Roll. Coat a ball in flour, pat it to 4 inches, then roll to 8 inches. Put it seam side down on an unfloured peel.
  6. Bake as far from the flame as possible, door closed if there is one, for 30 seconds to 2 minutes, until fully puffed. Turn once for colour.
  7. Keep soft. Stack the hot pitas under a towel on a rack.

Notes

Source Adapted from Stacy Shifrin, “Fresh Homemade Pita Bread,” on Ooni’s recipe pages.

Not captured The captured method does not say at which point the yeast and salt go in; here they are mixed with the flour.

Why far from the flame Pita puffs from steam inside the dough. Too much top heat browns and sets the surface before the pocket forms.

Temperatures are for the oven floor (stone), read with an infrared thermometer. A pizza oven’s built-in gauge reads the air, which runs much hotter.

The Pizza Ovens dive on the Food site covers the oven, the fire and the dough in depth.