This homemade pita bread is soft and chewy with a nice big pocket for your favorite fillings!
Pita bread has a mild flavor and a gentle chew, it’s great for filling, dipping, or scooping. This recipe is easy and fun to make.
A Versatile Bread
Some types of pita are thicker and don’t have a pocket (like the ones you often see at your favorite Greek restaurants served with souvlaki). This recipe is an old church recipe that produces a thin pita with a large hollow pocket inside.
- This thin bread can be used for dipping, stuffing, even as a crust for pizza! Make a double batch to freeze!
- No need for a bread machine. Pita is one of the easier homemade bread recipes that don’t need much kneading and very little clean-up!
- Cut into triangles, brush with butter, season, and bake for homemade pita chips!
Naan vs Pita Bread
Naan and pita are flatbreads but they differ in texture (and ingredients). Naan has an egg and yogurt or buttermilk base with a chewier texture. Pita is made with basic bread ingredients like flour, yeast, and oil. It puffs up in the center, creating a pocket for fillings.
Ingredients
BREAD BASICS: All-purpose flour, yeast, sugar, salt, water, and oil make up the basic recipe for this pita bread.
SEASONINGS: Add some herbs or seasonings to the pita bread dough! This makes it especially delicious as a dipping bread. Try these blends: Greek Seasoning, Italian Seasoning, even this Everything Bagel Seasoning, which is really good for sandwich pitas!
How to Make Homemade Pita Bread
- Whisk ½ of the flour with yeast, sugar, & salt. Add warm water & oil, mix.
- Add remainder of flour & knead until smooth & elastic. Cover and let rise.
- Punch dough down, divide & allow to rise again.
- Flatten dough into circles & bake (per the recipe below).
Baking Tip
The high temperature causes an air pocket to form in the pita. We found these cooked up best for us when baked on an oven-safe cooling rack or baking rack.
Tasty Dips and Fillings for Pita
For dipping, serve with The Best Buffalo Chicken Dip, Avocado Dip, or a Smoked Salmon Dip. Of course, toasted pita is also great with Easy Tzatziki Sauce (Yogurt Cucumber Dip). As a pocket-filled sandwich, try a delicious filling of Tuna Egg Salad, Bacon Ranch Chicken Salad, or Chicken Souvlaki.
How to Store
Homemade pita bread will last about 3 days in a zippered bag at room temperature. Reheat it on a dry sauté pan to make it pliable again. Freeze pita bread by placing parchment paper between the pieces. It will stay fresh in the freezer for about 6 weeks.
Homemade Bread Recipes
- Homemade Cornbread Recipe – savory & sweet
- Homemade Crescent Rolls – light and flaky
- Cheese Bread (Quick Bread) – deliciously filling
- Homemade French Bread – crusty and delish
- Jalapeno Cheddar Bread – spicy and cheesy
- Fluffy Dinner Rolls – so soft
Did you make this Homemade Pita Bread? Be sure to leave a rating and a comment below!
Homemade Pita Bread
Ingredients
- 4 cups all-purpose flour divided
- 1 ½ teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon instant yeast
- 1 ¾ cup warm water
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
Instructions
- In a large bowl combine 2 cups of flour, yeast, sugar, and salt. Mix well and add the warm water and olive oil.
- Slowly stir in the remaining 2 cups of flour until the dough becomes firm and not sticky.
- Turn onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap, then a towel letting it rise for 20 minutes.
- Punch down the dough and divide into two equal parts, divide each half into six pieces for a total of 12.
- Shape each piece into a smooth ball, cover and let rise for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 500°F. On a floured surface roll each ball into a 7 inch circle.
- Place 4 circles onto a cooling rack or a baking tray and bake for 5 minutes. The dough will puff up creating a pocket in the middle and brown on the edges.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Bread
Cuisine Greek© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
how to do this with normal yeast?
We have not tested this recipe with normal yeast so I can’t say for sure. But I would love to hear how it turns out for you!
Five stars too
Excellent recipe. Easy dough to work with. I’ll make them again and again. A perfect recipe.
So happy you enjoyed this recipe, Laurie!
okay I have tried a good amount of these recipes and they always turn out fabulous! Thank you for a go to place between you and Sally I’m covered!
Aww thank you so much, Andrea! Glad you are enjoying our recipes.
Served this recipe with your chicken souvlaki and it turned out so good! I’m always so impressed with how easy these are to make and how well they puff up! SWP Employee
I am so happy to hear this you love this recipe as much as we do Samantha!
What kind of oil do you use in the homemade pita bread? Thanks
I generally use a light flavored oil in this recipe such as vegetable oil. Enjoy Steve!
After the dough balls are rolled out, can they be frozen to be baked later?
I haven’t tried freezing them at this stage Susan but I do think it would work. Let us know how it goes if you try it!
I had zero faith in myself being able to pull this off but your recipes have yet to fail me so I gave it a go. They puffed up beautifully and turned out so amazing! Thanks for the fool proof recipe!! ❤️ SWP Employee
So happy to hear that, Samantha! They are so fun to watch puff up in the oven!
Holly, is it possible to make this with whole wheat flour??
I’ve only made the recipe as written Christy so can’t say for sure how it’d change them. My experience is that substituting one-quarter whole wheat for all purpose flour will work well. More may also work for some recipes, but I haven’t tried it. Let us know how they turn out if you try it with whole wheat flour!