How to cook pita at home using a step-by-step recipe with photos

20 servings

1 hour 20 minutes

120 kcal

5/5 (1)

Pita is a fluffy and very tasty white flatbread or bread that is used in recipes for preparing various snacks. The main distinguishing feature of Mediterranean pita is the natural “pocket” inside, formed by steam accumulated in a small bubble in the core of the bread. A variety of fillings are placed in such a pocket - vegetable, meat or fruit.

The result is a very tasty and nutritious dish, somewhat similar to the usual shawarma, but much safer for the human body. Today I will present to you recipes with photos of pita bread and its fillings, which can be easily implemented at home.

Basic pita recipe

Kitchen utensils: several large bowls; cutlery (spoons, knives); spacious baking tray; the frying pan is spacious; oven mitts; wooden spatula; a piece of parchment paper; Kitchen Scales; sieve.

Ingredients

How to choose the necessary ingredients

• Try to choose only the best ingredients for your pita bread. This is especially true for flour: it must be of the highest grade and fairly finely ground. Also, do not forget that various debris should not be visible in the bag of flour: blackened grains, polyethylene residues or grain husks. Remember that only fresh and high-quality flour will allow you to make truly delicious pita.
• If you don’t like yeast baked goods, make pita without yeast - this recipe allows the use of a teaspoon of baking soda, quenched with table vinegar.
• Olive oil , recommended for use in the recipe, is an integral element of Greek cuisine; without it, pita will not turn out the way you expect it to be. Sunflower oil, which is often used in the absence of olive oil, makes the flatbread less fluffy and tender, and the dough itself can taste bitter.

Step-by-step cooking process

1. Pour 70-75 g of dry yeast into a small bowl, add about 250 ml of water to it. Stir the mixture thoroughly with a spatula until the yeast is completely dissolved. Leave the mixture for a few minutes in a warm place. Mix the remaining water with 20-25 g of table salt and 7-10 g of granulated sugar, trying to dissolve all the grains.

2. Sift 750 g of wheat flour through a sieve and make a small depression in it.

3. Pour the infused yeast into the niche, as well as water with salt and granulated sugar. Then add 80-100 ml of olive oil and mix the mass thoroughly.

4. Once the dough has become too stiff, transfer it to a floured kitchen counter and knead by hand for about ten minutes.

5. Then leave the dough in a warm place for an hour, during which time it should swell well. Punch down the risen dough and divide it into twenty equal pieces.

6. We form a ball from each piece, then leave the products to infuse for about half an hour. To prevent the workpieces from becoming covered with a dry crust, cover them with a towel.

7. Roll each ball into a flat cake with a diameter of approximately 12 centimeters.

8. Again, leave the pieces in a warm place for proofing, this time it will take about ten minutes. Line a baking tray with baking paper and transfer the prepared cakes onto it. In total we need to bake 10 cakes in the oven.

9. Bake the products for about 10 minutes at 200 degrees in the oven. We bake the remaining ten pieces on both sides in a dry frying pan preheated over medium heat. In this case, under no circumstances cover the frying pan with a lid.

Basic pita recipe video

The video we offer for viewing shows the complete process of preparing and baking delicious pita in the oven and in a frying pan.

Features of the composition

The main component is flour. The taste and properties of the finished product depend on what kind of flour is used
. For pita it can be:

• wallpaper - and then the baked bread is considered dietary, since the flour is rich in fiber, which removes waste and toxins. Such baked goods are especially recommended for a healthy, balanced diet;
• premium - the most common recipe, in which the flatbread turns out tasty, satisfying and attractive in appearance.

Pita also contains vitamins. This:

• choline;
• TO;
• RR;
• B1, B2, B5.

It is also rich in minerals, including:

• sodium;
• magnesium;
• zinc;
• potassium;
• selenium;
• iron;
• calcium;
• phosphorus;
• copper;
• manganese.

Arabic bread is healthy and does not harm the body. Just be careful, it is difficult to resist, and excessive consumption can lead to the addition of extra unwanted pounds.

How Arabic bread is baked on an industrial scale

The recipe and cooking technology are traditional. Differences in scale and mechanization of processes:

• dough is kneaded by dough mixing machines;
• special molding and dosing machines roll out and shape the blanks;
• semi-finished products are fed into the oven by a conveyor;
• The power and productivity of the furnaces are designed for large volumes.

The finished bread is packaged in bags and delivered to points of sale.

How to choose pita in a store

Typically, Arabic bread is packaged in transparent bags through which you can see what the baked goods look like.
Carefully inspect to ensure the bread is fresh, without traces of mold or foreign inclusions.

Advice: do not buy too much bread so that it does not have time to weather and dry out, but retains all its extraordinary properties.

If suddenly you didn’t have time or forgot to go to the store, but you need to cook dinner and don’t have bread, bake it yourself. Arabic bread can be prepared in your own kitchen. It's not difficult at all. You just need to know some subtleties, which we will tell you about next, we will provide proven recipes and you will definitely succeed.

Recipe for shawarma in pita at home

Cooking time: 35-40 minutes. Number of servings: 4-5. Calorie content per 100 grams: 180-265 kcal. Kitchen utensils: several large bowls; cutlery (spoons, knives); Grill pan; oven mitts; wooden spatula; a piece of parchment paper; Kitchen Scales.

Ingredients

Step-by-step cooking process

1. We wash the eggplant and cut it into large rings. Peel the onion and also cut it into rings.

2. Place the prepared eggplant and onion on a dry grill pan and fry the ingredients for about three minutes on each side.

3. Cut 150 g of suluguni into thin slices. Place slices of fried eggplant, onion and slices of suluguni into two pitas. Transfer the products to a serving dish.

4. Cut 100 g of ham into large and thin slices. Wash and cut fresh cucumber into slices. Finely chop or grate 20-30 g of kachoricotta.

5. In the next two pitas we put the prepared cheese, cucumber and ham, then transfer the finished products to a serving dish.

6. Wash and cut 2 radishes and 1 avocado into slices. Sprinkle the prepared avocado with lemon juice to taste.
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7. After this, cut 50 g of caciocavallo into slices. We put all the prepared ingredients into the remaining two pitas and transfer the products to a dish.

8. Decorate the dish with a mix of salads, or according to your own taste.

Video recipe for shawarma in pita at home

The video offered for viewing covers in detail the step-by-step process of preparing delicious snacks with pita bread.

Pita without yeast. Preparing sourdough

First of all, you should prepare the starter. To do this, you need to knead the dough from 200 grams of flour, 50 milliliters of milk and 50 milliliters of water. After this, it must be placed in a warm place for three days. By this time, bubbles will form on the surface of the dough. In addition, the product will have a sour odor, characteristic of the fermentation process. This means that the starter is ready for use, it can be stored in the refrigerator, and then reused as needed.

The product must be refreshed before use. To do this, you need to take 100 grams of starter from the refrigerator, mix it with 100 grams of flour and 50 milliliters of water and put it back in a warm place. After a couple of hours, the dough should have increased by half. It happens that fermentation takes longer than the specified time. If the process is delayed, then the starter should be refreshed again.

The main microorganisms of this product are acetic acid and Bread baked with such leaven does not spoil for a long time. In addition, when it is regularly consumed as food, a favorable environment is created in the human body for the development of beneficial microflora and the destruction of pathogenic ones. From time immemorial, our ancestors baked bread not with yeast, but with sourdough. This time-tested product will come in very handy today.

Cooking tips

• To prevent the pita from burning, try to monitor the intensity of the stove fire when baking the product in a frying pan. Don't make the heat too high, as this will simply burn your cake on the outside and remain raw on the inside. In addition, it is best to bake a raw flatbread in the oven at 200 degrees, constantly monitoring the level of rise of the dough: if the product has swollen too much, immediately open the oven door to prevent tears from appearing on the delicate surface of the pita.
• To prepare pita shawarma, you can also use a wide variety of fillings, for example, meat. For example, you need to grind the chicken through a meat grinder, add finely chopped onion and salt. Then simmer the meat in a frying pan for about seven minutes, stirring constantly, and then put the resulting filling into the pita.
• In addition, this product can be made sweet by filling it with jam, marmalade or slices of canned fruit.
• Filled pita bread can dry out quickly if left outdoors for a long time. To avoid this, you can wrap the snack in plastic wrap and leave it at room temperature.

Important subtleties for pita to “puff up”

• Roll out circles of uniform thickness. They should not be very thick, but thin ones are not suitable either. A sufficient size is 3-5 mm.
• The dough pieces should have a shape as close as possible to a regular circle. The amount of water vapor generated inside the dough during baking depends on this.
• The stove or frying pan must be preheated to maximum temperatures.
• When baking in the oven, you must immediately preheat the baking sheet on which the bread will be baked.
• When baking pita in a frying pan, heat one side of the flatbread until bubbles appear on the surface, turn over and heat for 20 seconds (bubbles will also appear) and return to the first side. The cake will begin to actively inflate.

How and with what to serve the product

• Pita is a universal snack that perfectly serves as a hearty breakfast, nutritious lunch or early dinner. If you are watching your figure, I do not recommend consuming the product late in the evening, since the calorie content of the snack is quite high.
• Don't forget to serve appropriate drinks with your pita. In my opinion, milk, kefir or yogurt are best suited to a product without filling. As for pita shawarma, vegetable juices, tea or unsweetened coffee are perfect for this snack.
• Many gourmets believe that filled pita will become much tastier if it is topped with a suitable sauce. The most popular sauces for this appetizer are ketchup, mayonnaise or sour cream. It is also worth noting that pita with sweet and sour Chinese sauce turns out incredibly tasty.
• It is customary to eat pita with your hands, without using cutlery. However, if your snacks are going to be eaten by children, cut the product into small pieces with a sharp knife and serve on a spacious plate with a fork.

History of appearance

So what is pitta (or pitta)? Pita is a traditional Middle Eastern dish, popular in Greece, Israel, and Arab countries. It is a thin round flat unleavened bread - made from white or brown flour. (you can now also find tortillas made from multigrain flour, as well as tortillas with sprouted grains)

To understand what pita is, you need to look deep into the pages of history. The first mentions of flatbread appeared in the Old Testament - on the pages you can find the words “pat of bread”, which stands for “loaf”.

A distinctive feature of the bread is a small pocket inside, which allows you to make the flatbread a kind of plate for the main dish. The traditional Arabian pitta has a diameter of 10-15 centimeters.

The popularity of this dish grew in the 1950s. A boom in street food sales has begun in Israel. It was Jewish immigrants from North Africa who popularized pita, offering city dwellers falafel wrapped in unleavened thin bread.

It is quite difficult to answer the question of what nationality the dish is - pita; it is often prepared in Greece, Israel, Turkey and Egypt.

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We hope you understand more or less whose national dish is pitta! How is the unique pocket made that allows you to stuff bread?

• When frying, water vapor is produced;
• It accumulates in a bubble in the center of the cake;
• The steam separates the layers of dough;
• This creates a small pocket that can be separated with a sharp knife.

We found out what kind of dish this is - pita. It's time to talk about what makes a delicious flatbread, and we'll give you a detailed, simple recipe.

Helpful information

Now that you know how to make pita, I recommend paying attention to other, no less reliable and quick recipes for delicious snacks that can be easily prepared at home.

• Try the very appetizing homemade shawarma with chicken in pita bread, famous for its amazing taste and incomparable, memorable aroma.
• Also, don’t forget about the delicious lavash roll with chicken, which is rightfully considered one of the most attractive appetizers. Even the most notorious picky eaters are unable to refuse such a delicacy.
• Also, try low-calorie pita bread with cheese and herbs. This light and satisfying dish will attract the attention of those gourmets who would not like to gain extra pounds.
• Surprisingly tender herring under a fur coat is a worthy decoration for the holiday table. A nutritious and aromatic dish will not leave indifferent even those who do not like fish-based products.
• If you want to experiment, check out these great recipes for pita rolls with a variety of fillings. Maybe among them you will find the best one, ideal for your family.

Thanks everyone for your attention to the recipes! I look forward to your comments on the recipes just described. In addition, share your own findings and experiences in preparing pita and its filling. Maybe you use different ingredients or prepare the dough in a different way? Tell us about it, let's develop the perfect recipes together! Bon appetit everyone and more exciting discoveries in cooking!