Have you made Pita Bread

I ran across this this morning that sounds interesting:

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/how-to-make-pita-bread-at-home?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us

Have you made Pita Bread and want to share your recipe?

My housemate in India makes rotis (aka chapattis) easily and quickly, and they always puff up, so they form pockets like pita. Here's his method:

Ingredients:
-- Whole wheat flour. (Indian whole wheat flour "chakki atta" is very fine ground, not as coarse as American whole wheat flour, but that works too.)
-- Water.

Equipment:
-- A chapatti pan, which is a flat or concave iron pan (thinner than cast iron). Cast iron works great but the heat response time is slow, so it may take a few tries to learn the right heat setting.
-- Rolling pin (flat profile, not tapered. Or maybe the tapered ones work fine too, i don't know).
-- Gas stove is ideal, for reliably puffing up every single chapatti, but with a very hot pan sometimes it's possible to get them to puff up on the hot pan itself.
-- Metal tongs for flipping are helpful but not essential.
-- A dish or basket lined with a kitchen towel for the finished chapattis.

Mix up a dough of flour and water. The dough should be on the stiff side so it won't be sticky, but not so dry that it will have dry folds that don't reseal. Cover and leave ball of dough to rest for at least 30 min. If you've made too much and have to keep it overnight, put it in the fridge.

Divide it up into balls, roll and pinch and roll them between your palms to seal cracks. (My estimate is they are maybe 50 to 70 grams each but I'm not sure. He's amazing at making them all the same size.)

Heat a cast iron pan on the stove. (How hot? I don't know, pretty hot, a little hotter than just water droplets dancing)

Roll out flat and round (pita-sized). Use a sprinkle of flour as needed to prevent sticking. Try to get it round but it's okay if some look like maps of different countries. The rounder it is, the more likely it will puff up perfectly.

Cook the roti on one side until it starts bubbling up in spots, and there are a few light brown toasted spots across the bottom. It should happen pretty quickly, like, idk, 30 sec? Less than a minute. Make a note of the heat setting once you get it right, for future reference.

Flip it. Optionally, gently press down with a wadded clean kitchen towel to make all parts of it touch the hot iron. It may puff up completely here on the iron, in which case it's done.

If it has bubbled up in parts, and has light brown toasted spots on the bottom, flip it over onto a medium gas flame. Move it around with the tongs to prevent burning, until it puffs up all over. That steam inside is what really does the final cooking of all parts of the dough without making it crispy at all. Ideally it puffs up into a ball, making a perfect pocket like pita. If there are burnt spots, or a crack, or spots that are too paper thin, it won't puff up all over because steam will escape or the thin spots already turned crisp.

Wrap finished chapattis in a waiting kitchen towel.

My housemate is so good at rolling fast, even and round that he can roll the next one while the last one is on the pan. Most North Indian women, and men who have lived alone, can do it, but I find it difficult.

How timely!

I just made a pita bread dough from sourdough discard this morning! I'll let you know how it goes. :D

I use this recipe Soft Whole Wheat Flatbread – with Yeast by Celebrating Flavors...but for some reason their website won't connect at the moment.

Make a fantastic pita and it uses yogurt.

https://www.celebratingflavors.com/soft-whole-wheat-flatbread/#wpzoom-recipe-card

I'm successfully making pita bread on top of the stove in a cast iron pan.  I just start out with a basic white-bread dough recipe that I first let raise in bulk, then divide into individual patties that I flatten out and let rise a second time.

You have to get the cast-iron pan smoking hot.  Take one flattened bread and lay it on the hot iron for just 30 seconds.  Then flip it over, and leave on side two for about 90-120 seconds.  When the bread puffs up and reaches the golden brown stage you want, flip it back over to side #1 and continue toasting side one till golden brown.

The purpose of the first 30 second heating is to form a solid crust that rising air pressure doesn't punch through.  Once that first seal is make, the pitas will buff nicely without bursting.

BTW, I've also successfully made made naan on the door of my woodstove.  My woodstove has a glass window that lets you see the fire.  Take a risen patty of dough, open the door and slap it sideways onto the inner glass surface.  Close the door back and let it roast for ~90 seconds.  You can actually see the naan browning from outside, while it's sticking to the glass.

Make sure though that the dough is humid, but not wet or oily.  Oily, wet, or completly dry dough will NOT stick to the glass.  Dough that's been risen under a moist towel is perfect.

I found a very similar recipe to the one I use.

https://recipepocket.com/how-to-make-naan-bread-at-home/#recipe

How To Make Naan Bread At Home
This homemade naan recipe is so easy to make, you’ll never want to buy it again. It’s soft, puffy and dotted with dark golden specks just like the ones you get at Indian restaurants.
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Prep Time : 10minutes mins Cook Time : 30minutes mins proving time : 2hours hours Total Time : 2hours hrs 40minutes mins

INGREDIENTS
▢2 teaspoon dry active yeast
▢375 grams (1 ½ cups) water
▢600 grams (1.3 lb) plain flour / all-purpose
▢2 teaspoon sugar
▢2 teaspoon salt
▢¼ teaspoon baking soda
▢4 tablespoons canola oil
▢5 tablespoons natural yogurt
Cook Mode

INSTRUCTIONS
Place all the ingredients into a stand mixer bowl. Using the dough hook knead on low speed for 30 seconds the scrape down the sides of the bowl, then knead for up to 5 minutes.
Leave the dough in the bowl, scrape the sides clean and shape the dough into a ball, tightly cover the bowl with plastic food wrap and allow to double in size.
Scrape the dough from the mixing bowl onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 12 even size balls. Use a rolling pin to roll out each ball into 18 cm (7 inch) rounds.
To stop the dough from sticking to the bench and rolling pin,keep the dough dusted on the top and bottom with flour.
Make sure that the dough is of an even thickness and not rolled out too thin. It needs to be about 3-5 mm (0.12 - 0.19 inch) thick,otherwise is won’t puff up properly.
Roll out about 3- 4 flat breads then start cooking. While one flat bread is cooking, roll out another while keeping an eye on the one in the pan.
Cooking Naan
You want to get the skillet nice and hot before placing the first naan in. When you are ready to cook the naan, turn down the heat to medium and add the first naan, make sure you dust of any excess flour before you do so.
You should see it almost instantly start to bubble and start to puff up, when this happens turn the bread over and cook the other side. You may have to adjust the heat from time to time to prevent burning.
Stack the naan on top of each other once they are cooked and keep wrapped in a clean tea towel to keep warm until ready to serve.
Notes
Even Sized Naan - Use kitchen scales to get the total weight of the dough then divide into 12. Then use this weight to weigh the dough into smaller portions.
On average the total weight of the dough is about 1.10 kg (2.4 lb) when divided into 12 the weight of each dough ball is about 90 grams (3.2 oz).
Dust With Flour - This dough is sticky, to make handling easier dust the bench and lightly coat the dough pieces in flour.
Skillet Size - The cast iron skillet I use is about 20 cm (7.9 inch) in diameter which is ideal for the 18 cm (7 inch) rolled out flat breads.
If your skillet is smaller, make the naan a little smaller to accommodate the size of the skillet.
To make smaller naan you could either:
Roll out the dough into smaller circles and make them sightly thicker or
make a few more naans by weighing out smaller pieces of dough.
Dust Off Excess Flour - Before cooking remove any excess flour, this will help to keep the pan and flat breads clean. If you get flour in the pan the tiny bits tend to burn and can discolour the naan. If this happens wipe the pan clean with a damp tea towel.
Wrap To Keep Warm - Line a plate with a clean tea towel and stack the naans on top after they are cooked, keep covered with another clean tea towel to keep warm.
Yogurt Alternatives - You could use either cream, sour cream or buttermilk. These are not in a traditional naan recipe but, are good alternatives if you don’t have yogurt.
Make Mini Naan Bread these are great for kids, small eaters or for when you want to serve these at a party.
Instead of making 12 naan as outlined in the recipe make dough balls that weigh about 60 grams (2 oz) each.
As mentioned early the average total weight of the dough for this recipe is about 1.10 kg (2.4 lb). If you make each dough ball around 60 grams (2 oz) you would get about 18 mini naan from this recipe. Roll them out to about 10 - 12 cm (4 inches) in diameter.
***
RECIPE VARIATIONS
Turn This Into A Garlic Naan Bread Recipe by adding two minced garlic cloves to the dough.
Brush With Plain Butter – Hot plain or garlic naan can be brushed with melted butter, it can plain or flavoured.
Brush with Flavoured Butter – If you like fresh garlic, mix in two minced garlic cloves into the butter and brush this over the hot naan.
Alternatively, you can make garlic butter by mixing in a little garlic powder into melted butter.
One of our favorite combinations is to mix garlic powder and onion powder into melted butter.
You could also spread melted butter over the naan and sprinkle on garlic powder or a mix of garlic and onion powder. Don’t be heavy handed with the garlic powder, if too much is used the flavour is too strong.

My Pita's were a success! Yay! It took a bit searching for the right heat on the pan, but after the first two not puffing up completely rest of them went well!

The dough was super easy to make, the recipe I used just asked to mix wet ingredients and then add flour + salt and mix by hand until combined.
I believe the wet ingredients were sourdough discard, milk, yoghurt and olive oil. I didn't have plain yoghurt so I used unsweetened banana yoghurt.

Michael Qulek wrote:You have to get the cast-iron pan smoking hot.  Take one flattened bread and lay it on the hot iron for just 30 seconds.  Then flip it over, and leave on side two for about 90-120 seconds.  When the bread puffs up and reaches the golden brown stage you want, flip it back over to side #1 and continue toasting side one till golden brown.

The purpose of the first 30 second heating is to form a solid crust that rising air pressure doesn't punch through.  Once that first seal is make, the pitas will buff nicely without bursting.

This guidance was really useful, thank you Michael!