Homemade Pita Bread

In a large bowl, combine 360ml of warm water with 1 teaspoon of sugar and 7g of dry yeast. Stir and leave to sit for 10 minutes until the yeast starts to foam.

Mix in 1 teaspoon of salt and 500g of flour, use a spatula or a spoon.

At the end, add 2 tablespoons of oil and start kneading the dough with your hands.

This recipe can be worked in a bowl or even on the table. It will be a bit more sticky and soft (especially in the beginning), but under no circumstances should more flour be added. Use a knife or a dough scraper if it sticks to the table.

Stop kneading when the dough is uniform, elastic and no longer sticks to your hands.

Grease the bowl with a little oil and place the ball of dough back in it. Cover with a kitchen towel and leave to rise for 1 hour at room temperature.

After 1 hour, heat the oven first. Set it to 240 C, upper and lower heat program. Place the baking tray upside-down on the middle shelf of the oven.

This is how we improvise a hot hearth, on which we will bake our Arabic breads.

While the oven is heating up, remove the leavened dough from the bowl and divide it into 8 equal parts.

Shape into 8 uniform balls, dust the table with a little flour, if needed.

Let the balls rest for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, take one ball and flatten into a disc, pressing it with your fingers. Pass it through flour.

With the rolling pin, roll out into an even circle, about 6mm thick. Dust with flour, if needed, so that the pita won't stick to the table.

My recommendation is not rolling them too thin, otherwise you risk not forming the swollen pocket or cracking when baking.

Move the circle on a small cutting board, mine is round and with a handle, but a classic one also works.

Sprinkle with flour before placing the pita on it.

With firm movements, shake/move the cutting board to transfer the pita to the hot tray in the oven, our improvised hot hearth.

Close the oven. It would be good to set the timer every 3-4 minutes, so you won't keep it in the oven for too long.

If you look through the oven window, in about a minute, the pita will start to puff up and this is how the wonderful pocket forms.

The pita is ready when it has puffed up and begins to brown on the edges.

Carefully remove with a spatula and place another one, after repeating the procedure as described in the steps above.

As soon as you remove the pita from the oven, insert a toothpick in the middle to make a small hole. Carefully press to let the hot air come out, but not all of it.

As the pitas are baking, arrange them on top of each other and cover with a towel, to keep them soft and warm.

Finally, cut them in half and serve with any filling you like.

We filled them with falafel, vegetables, yogurt and tahini sauce. You can improvise with any meat you like, meatballs or vegan balls, ketchup, cabbage salad, grilled vegetables etc.

Enjoy!