Homemade Whole Wheat Pita Bread
By
Before you try to make this Whole Wheat Pita Bread recipe, here is what you need to know: Pita Bread is EASY to make!
That’s it. That’s all you need to know.
Know why I’m telling you that? Because as I was researching different recipes and trying to figure out the best way to make pita bread – every recipe seemed sooo difficult. I felt like ducking out on my Funky Fresh Challenge committment this week because, really? Did I have time and energy to make such a complicated recipe? And did I really want to share a complicated recipe with you? Why no, I did not.
So, because I just couldn’t help myself - I took short cuts and figured out how to make this recipe easy. And guess what? It worked. There is no reason to make cooking so complicated. Goodness. As if trying to keep my desk cleaned off isn’t difficult enough.
I should also note that these pita pockets tasted so good that we couldn’t get over it. I will definitely be making these again and again. Especially since they are so easy! And I know that they will freeze well, and will be a wonderful item to have in the freezer to pull out for quick meals!
Whole Wheat Pita Bread
3 cups whole wheat flour (I use freshly ground whole wheat from hard white wheat)
1 1/2 teaspoons yeast
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 Tablespoons honey
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 cup warm water
Stir together flour, yeast, and sea salt. Add honey, oil, and water, stirring until a nice dough forms. Knead the dough on a well floured surface for 4-5 minutes. (In other words: Mix dry ingredients. Add liquid ingredients. Stir well. Knead.) See? Easy.
Place dough back into the bowl, cover, and allow dough to rest and rise for about an hour. (My dough never rose very high, but that’s okay.)
Pull dough out of the bowl. Knead for about 30 seconds. Cut dough into eight equal parts.
Roll each into a circle, about six or seven inches in diameter. Place circles directly onto a baking sheet after rolling. I baked mine on a well seasoned baking stone, so didn’t find that I needed to grease my pan, but feel free to grease yours if you need to.
Allow the dough circles to rest/rise on the baking sheet while you heat your oven to 500°. Place baking sheet of pita circles into hot oven. Bake for 5-8 minutes – just long enough for them to puff up and brown slightly.
Allow pitas to cool, slice in half, and serve as desired. I made chicken salad for ours (recipe coming soon). So delicious!
Don’t ever let anyone tell you making pita bread is hard. And how much do these cost in the store, anyway? I’m pretty sure making these is huge money saver (not to mention they are surely much healthier).
Now it’s your turn to share!! If you have a blog, write about your experience with Trying Something New in our Funky Fresh Kitchen Challenge. Link up your post with us here so we can all come read about it! If you don’t have a blog, we still want to hear what you tried! And be sure to tell us how your experiment tasted, too!
Be sure to leave a comment on this post! All comments will be entered in our giveway for two $25 and one $50 gift certificates to the Heavenly Homemakers Shop!
Didn’t even think about being able to make it,but I am excited. It is on my bucket list for the week. Thank you!!
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These do look great, sending recipe to my daughter to make….as I probably will not….she is in to the wheat products, I am not so much…..maybe later :)
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Yum, I will definitely be trying these! Looks like they would freeze well too, for easy & quick lunches! :)
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Thank you so much for sharing this. In the kitchen now making it.
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Tried to make these and they were a total flop! :( They were very tough to roll out and didn’t poof in the oven at all, I had to throw them away, they were like hockey pucks :(
Love all your other recipes though!! :)
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These were great! The dough also worked great to make some mini pizzas in the oven. I just let the dough sit for about 30 to rise some and then rolled the dough out and put about two pizzas per cookie sheet. I cooked them for about 15 minutes at 450 and everyone loved them. This was really fast and great since I work full time and have two little kids and a husband to feed :)
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I have been trying to eat more coconut, so I remade my favorite cookies into a coconut chocolate chip cookie! It turned out better using coconut oil instead of butter, a big plus!
How would I soak these?
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Looks absolutely delicious! Chicken salad is always great in pitas!
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Can’t wait to try these. And the chicken salad! Yummy!
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About how many pitas does this make?
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Laura Reply:
October 3rd, 2012 at 8:56 am
One recipe makes 8 round pita breads, which cut in half makes 16 pockets. :)
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Made these this morning. The dough was wonderful, but when I baked them…500 for 5 minutes they burned and so I lowered the stove to 400 for 5 minutes. They didn’t pocket, but they will be good for personal pan pizzas. : ) I’ll try again, maybe they will pocket next time. : )
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tried once half turned out, was a while ago will try again, looks so easy.
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I made these last week and my family loved them! I used the chicken quesadilla filling recipe you have to go in them and they were delicious. Next week I am planning on using the new chicken salad recipe you posted today. Thanks so much for being a blessing to our family with all of your recipe posts and encouraging blogs. I am praying for you and your family today! Have a great weekend Laura! :)
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This is the first time that I am commenting about a recipe. I made these last week and this was the easiest bread recipe. They puffed up well and bake really fast. Will surely make them again. Thanks.
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So I think I’m rolling-impaired. Do you have any tips for getting it to roll into nice pretty circles? I started with a ball and tried to roll from the center out, evenly all the way around. Mine look more like pumpkins! But I guess that’s ok for this time of year! :-)
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Birdie Reply:
October 11th, 2012 at 1:40 pm
Hello Katie. Could you roll, turn dough a little, roll, turn dough a little? I’m going to try this recipe
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Katie Reply:
October 11th, 2012 at 7:09 pm
I can try that next time! Thanks! This recipe turned out great for me, even with my misshapes!
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Just saw this recipe mentioned of=n a friend’s facebook. She linked to the recipe…sounds delicious. We are making homemade hummus for school this week, so homemade pita is a perfect fit. Sounds easy enough for little helpers-if you know what I mean!
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Hi Laura!
First of all, I wanted to say you are my favorite food blog! I love everything I’ve tried and am so happy I found you about 1 year ago. I wanted to ask a question about the pita pockets. I just tried to make them and I followed the recipe exactly. But, they did not puff at all. I know my yeast is good because I also made my regular bread earlier today and it was fine. They also didn’t rise before I split them in 8 equal pieces. We’re still going to eat them. They’ll just be like thick tortillas. :-) I want to try again but was wondering if you had any suggestions. I might try adding more yeast next time, just to see. Thanks again.
Julie–mom to almost 7 JBZ’s
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LindseyforLaura@HHM Reply:
November 21st, 2012 at 10:03 am
Hmmm, I am not sure why that would be. Laura does use fresh ground wheat so it is possible that the texture is different, making hers easier to rise…
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We’ve made this recipe twice. Both times, I get less than 10% puffing. But our family loves the “flat” bread anyway. Not sure what the problem is, but I’ll keep making the recipe…..
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Kali Kirby Reply:
November 1st, 2012 at 11:17 am
Hey love your blog and all your healthy choices:-) Tried this and it was flat a well:-( Next time I think I’ll put yeast, warm water, sugar and let out rise and than mix all together. Won’t try it out right away cause I made to batches today. Kathleen or Julie you could try that or pizza is good with these:-) Mom of go four boys.
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SO much better than store bought pita bread!
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Waiting for Laura to respond before I make this…and my daughter wanted to try it too….she is all about eating healthy and I want her to be happy with this recipe when she trys it… so Laura can you please get back with us and let us know why the ones who made it , their’s did not rise like your’s did ? Thanks
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Kali Kirby Reply:
November 1st, 2012 at 12:16 pm
Couldn’t wait did a third batch mixing yeast, warm water, and honey let you know how it tureens out rising s as we speak. My were flat manage to cut in half for pita somehow amazing! Hope the next batch turns out looking like hers.
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Laura Reply:
November 27th, 2012 at 9:25 pm
I really don’t know why some would rise and some would remain flat. I’m still pretty new at making pitas too! (How’s that for not at all helpful?) ;)
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JD Reply:
April 9th, 2013 at 8:45 pm
Maybe it has to do with the type of yeast they bought? Rapid rise vs normal active?
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Thanks Kali,
Did you use the same flour Laura uses ? I noticed she uses whole wheat flour ( from freshly ground whole wheat from hard white wheat ) this could make a difference…..haven’t seen any of that in my area…she must order it somewhere, and I wonder does she ground it herself or buy it that way ???? Maybe she will respond and let us know….
Keep us posted on your third batch you’re making :)
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Laura Reply:
November 27th, 2012 at 9:26 pm
Sorry for the delay. My inbox is overloaded with questions and I have a huge struggle keeping up. Thanks for your patience!
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Hey Mona, I just went back and read her flour as well wondering if that does make a difference. I don’t know what my is called my dad gives it to me? Hers looks more white though. They rose a bit more soaking it but not as many pocket like as hers. Supper yummy though. Like I did make a chicken Caesar pita with first batch and it was amazing! Thinking it might be her wheat I’ll have to check that out will be hard to buy when I get it for free.
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Carmen Reply:
January 5th, 2013 at 1:40 pm
That sound really good!
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I made these today using 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 unbleached all purpose; they were a HUGE success. My fifteen year old daughter does not like pita pockets, so she cautiously tried one, and the next thing I knew, I was ‘hiding’ them so they could be used for our pulled pork sandwiches. When she suggested I stop buying bread from the store and just make up batches of the pockets, I knew I had struck gold, since it is my goal for 2013 to get away from the store-bought breads. Thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Made these this morning for lunch! So quick and so easy….and SO yummy! Wow! So excited to be able to make my own pita bread!
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Just tried this recipe but instead i switched the type of flour but thanks so much I have my catering exam in a few days and this recipe is perfect, it tasted delicious and it was so easy ;D thanks :)
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I made another batch! They are SO good! The husband gave rave reviews…and he’s a no wheat flour ever kind of a guy. We stuffed them with Greek tacos and feta cheese! They are just perfect. I also thought about stuffing them with a Runza filling instead of making the traditional Runza.
Someone was asking why some did not rise. My first batch I divided the dough into 10 parts instead of 8 and I noticed the ones that I really squished flat when i rolled them out towards the edges did not rise around the edges. Maybe because of unevenness? My 2nd batch rose great and they are perfect (I stuck to the 8 parts). I also used regular whole wheat flour from the store. We get the brand that says Montana in it. Also, after mine puff up, they do de-puff after a bit. When we heat them for serving, we just pop them in a toaster oven and they puff up again.
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i just started milling our grains. im trying different recipes and this one was a keeper. as a family of 8 we all loved this pita bread.our kids 12,11,9,8,5,and 3 all loved it and they wanted more im goign to have to try a double batch. glad i have a double oven. this recipe was easy and delicous
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Omg! I made these for the first time in my life!!! Awesome. I adjusted the recipe like one of the people that left comments. I used half wheat/half all purp flour. Let it rise in warm spot and baked at 450(i know my oven would burn them at 500. Pockets are beautiful! Thx so much.
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I made these with white flour (I know! but I’m out of wheat and at least it’s preservative free :) ) and they puffed up great. One of my eight did some weird stuff though, and the part that didn’t puff up was rolled a good bit thinner than the rest of it. Maybe you have to not roll them out too thin? Anyway, these are super yummy and were ready faster than a whole loaf of bread would be. Thanks so much for the recipe!
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I made these and they were so good. However, I noticed that only a couple of mine puffed up fully and were the only ones we could use as true “pockets.” Did I do something wrong???
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Laura Reply:
April 4th, 2013 at 8:26 am
I don’t think so. Mine don’t all puff up like they are supposed to either. :)
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How does your pizza stone hold up to being put into such a hot oven? I always preheat the oven with the stone in, I have had one break on me after being put in a hot oven right from the countertop.
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Laura Reply:
April 4th, 2013 at 12:40 pm
I’ve never had any trouble, but you may feel more comfortable using a metal pan. :)
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Thank you for the recipe! I’m a disaster in the kitchen, and even I could make them. They’re wonderful! Not sure the best way to store these though?
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I have made these a few times. I have found that they puff better if my stone is hot. I also move my oven rack to the second highest position. It seems like putting them closer to the heat source helps them puff better. I just finished a batched, and they all puffed, though the one with little finger prints in the dough came out a little wonky :)
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I don’t usually leave replies for recipes I try, but I am so impressed with this one! This recipe is so stinking easy, and the product is fantastic! These are infinitely superior to store bought pitas, not to mention extremely cost-effective and more nutritious. Thank you very much for sharing! I will be making these again and again.
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Should i use Rapid yeast or Active yeast instant yeast?
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Laura Reply:
May 1st, 2013 at 8:20 pm
I use active rise, but I think either one would work!
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Thanks for sharing. I love to see recipes that can be put. in. simple. terms. Usually I am a last minute whats for dinner if I am busy but always love it to be homemade. I am going to make and stuff with grilled chx from last night and a black bean black rice aspargus from the garden bleu cheese oil red bell pepper tomato salad leftovers. yum will post an outcome. thanks again for the blog….JG
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Okay, I did a google search on how to make these, and you know how about a million recipes come up? Then you need to weed through, and it is frustrating, right?
Not today, because “Heavenly Homemakers” came up as one of the hits, and I looked no further. I not only love your recipes, I love the sheer entertainment of them. So even if they weren’t awesome just-what-I-was-looking-for recipes, I’d check them out because I feel happy when I read your posts. :)
That is all.
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