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Here's the best homemade pita bread recipe, that's flavorful, and easy to make. It's soft and elastic perfect for wraps. Fresh pita bread is much more tasty than store-bought and frozen.
What is Pita bread? Pita bread is a Greek flat bread with a round shape cooked on a very hot surface like a frying pan, a grill, or a griddle. It is used to make wraps like Souvlaki wraps or Gyros wraps you may also know it as Gyros bread.
Table Of Contents
- Ingredients
- How To Make Pita Bread
- Is Pita Bread Healthy?
- To Make A Greek Pita Wrap
- Storing
- Recipe
Ingredients
What is Pita bread made of? Pita bread is made of flour, yeast, water, sugar, salt, and a neutral oil such as sunflower or corn oil.
Instant dry yeast works best in this recipe but you can use fresh if you like as well. Substituting with 18 grams of fresh yeast instead of dry.
How To Make Pita Bread
Here's how to make Gyro bread / Greek Pita Bread:
- Mix together the dry ingredients (flour, salt, sugar)
- Dissolve yeast in water
- Add wet ingredients (water with yeast and the oil) to the dry ingredients
- Knead by hand until you get a soft dough (you may use an electric mixer if you wish)
- Rest dough until doubled in a warm oven
- Cut and separate the dough into small round balls
- Open each dough ball into a round flat disk, no need to use a rolling pin you can do it with your hands
How To Cook Pita Bread:
- Heat a non-stick frying pan, cast iron pan, griddle, or grill over high heat
- Brush the pan or the grates of the grill with oil
- Cook the flatbread for 2 and a half minutes to 3 minutes overall flipping it halfway once or twice to get even color on both sides
NOTE: If you don't want to make big flatbread to use for wraps you can make smaller ones 15 cm (6-inch) instead of 20 cm (8-inch). They'll be more like soft, round, mini breads to serve together with soups, stews, or dips.
Is Pita Bread Healthy?
Classic Greek Pita flatbread you can't say it's a healthy food. It's not unhealthy though either. It's neutral because it doesn't give much in terms of nutrition. The flour is refined white flour so one way Pita bread can be healthy is when made with whole-wheat flour that contains many nutrients, including fiber, which is missing from refined white flour.
If you're looking for a healthy Pita bread recipe you can try my Greek yogurt pita bread that's also made without any yeast.
Calories In Pita Bread
As for Pita bread calories, there are 373 kcal in each flatbread this recipe yields. The flatbreads are big enough though and turning one into a wrap is very filling. Especially with some low-calorie, high-protein pita bread fillings such as Grilled chicken, Chicken Souvlaki, and Tzatziki.
Recipes For Pita Bread
Here are a few recipes for using pita bread:
- Chicken Gyros With Tzatziki
- Marinated Pork Gyros Wraps
- Pork Souvlaki Pita Wraps
- Pita Chips
To Make A Greek Pita Wrap
Add the following ingredients to make a Pita bread wrap:
- Protein ⟶ Gyros, Meatballs, Souvlaki (meat skewer), or Halloumi (for a Vegetarian version)
- A sauce ⟶ Tzatziki (what's traditionally added), Tirokafteri (feta cheese dip), or Mayo Mustard sauce (another classic served in Greek grillhouses)
- Potato fries (optional)
- Veggies ⟶ Tomatoes, Onions (raw, sliced), Cucumbers, Lettuce (shredded)
Storing
Homemade pita bread freezes well. Just place it in a plastic freezer bag and freeze for up to 6 months. You don't need to reheat it after thawing just let it reach room temperature.
In the fridge, it will keep nicely for up to 4 days if you place it on a plate and cover the stack airtightly with plastic wrap.
What To Eat With Pita Bread:
In Greece, Pita bread is a favorite side to grilled meat. Especially to Souvlaki (skewers). Also, it goes hand in hand with Tzatziki or a spicy Feta Dip. A Greek salad is also a classic to serve together with Pita flatbread.
Recipe
Greek Pita Bread Recipe
Authentic Greek Pita bread recipe. Soft and flexible perfect to use for Gyros and Souvlaki wraps.
4.50 from 2 votes
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Course: Appetizer
Cuisine: Greek
Keyword: bread, Wrap
Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes minutes
Servings: 6 flatbreads
Calories: 373kcal
Ingredients
- 500 grams (4 cups + 2 tablespoons) all-purpose flour
- 9 grams (1 tablespoon) instant dry yeast
- 300 ml lukewarm water
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons sunflower or corn oil + some extra to oil the pan and the pitas
Instructions
Sift flour in a large bowl.
Mix flour with salt and sugar.
Dissolve yeast in water.
Add the oil and yeast water to the flour.
Knead for 6-10 minutes until you have a soft non-sticky dough. See Note 1 below.
Oil lightly the bowl and the top of the dough. Place the dough in the bowl.
Cover the bowl with a dampened tea towel.
Heat the oven to 100°C/ 210°F for 2 minutes then turn it off.
Rise. Place the bowl in the oven and allow to rise for 1 hour and 30 minutes until almost tripled in size. Alternatively, you can leave it to rise at room temperature.
Press the dough to remove the air. Then transfer to a lightly oiled working surface.
Knead dough for a minute.
Shape into a round ball and then into a cord.
Cut the dough in half and then cut each half into 3 pieces of the same size (6 in total).
Shape each piece into a round ball. Make sure you close the bottom of the dough well.
Brush lightly each dough ball with oil. Then cover with a tea towel and rest for 10 minutes.
Shape into flatbread. Take a dough ball and open it up with your hands into a round 20-cm (8-inch) disk.
Heat a non-stick frying pan (or a cast-iron skillet) over high heat.
Brush pan with oil.
Cook the flatbread for 1 minute then flip and cook for another minute. Then turn the heat to low and cook for 30 more seconds. See Note 2 below.
Transfer the flatbread to a clean tea towel to cool. Turn the heat to high again.
Prepare the next flatbread.
Continue like this until you cook all the Pita.
Serve with dips, make wraps, or store it in the freezer for later use.
To store in the freezer place in a freezer plastic bag and freeze for up to 6 months.
Video
Notes
Note 1: As you begin kneading the dough it might feel like it needs more water. Give it some time for the flour to absorb the water by kneading. If it still feels too sticky, dust in some extra flour. On the other hand, if while kneading the dough feels too dense, add a very small amount of extra water.
Note 2: The pan should be really hot but not smokey hot. If it gets smokey hot remove from heat and allow the temperature to drop for a few seconds before adding the Pita.
Nutrition
Serving: 1flatbread | Calories: 373kcal | Carbohydrates: 65g | Protein: 9g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 0.02g | Sodium: 393mg | Potassium: 104mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin C: 0.01mg | Calcium: 15mg | Iron: 4mg
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More Greek Pies And Breads Recipes
- Greek Vasilopita - New Year's Bread
- Greek Phyllo Meat Pie (Kimadopita)
- Roasted Vegetable Pie
- Macaroni Pie Recipe (Makaronopita)
