A really easy pitta recipe that I've adapted to make sourdough. Delicious pillows of chewiness that are great stuffed with, well, stuff. Any stuff.
The Dough
| Ingredient | Metric | Imperial | Baker's Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stong Bread Flour | 225 grams | 7.94 oz | 52.94% |
| Plain flour | 200 grams | 7.06 oz | 47.06% |
| Starter (100% hydration) | 200 grams | 7.06 oz | 47.06% |
| Caster sugar | 10 grams | 0.35 oz | 2.35% |
| Salt | 8 grams | 0.28 oz | 1.88% |
| Olive oil | 20 grams | 0.71 oz | 4.71% |
| Water | 225 ml | 8 teaspoons | 52.94% |
- Total Flour Weight:
- 425 grams
Percentages are relative to flour weight (flour equals 100%) and every other ingredient is a percentage of this. Flour from the starter is not counted. This recipe was originally in grams and has been automatically converted to other measures.
Stick everything in a bowl, bar the salt, and mix to a sticky-ish dough. Sometimes I add a little more flour if it's looking too sticky at this stage. Eventually you want a fairly smooth dough after a few light kneads, so bare that in mind. Cover and leave to autolyse for 30 mins. Then add the salt and knead lightly for maybe a minute or so until it's coming together. Cover and leave for 20 mins, then another very short knead (half a minute, maybe). Cover and leave for another 20 mins, then another very short knead. It should be fairly smooth, but still a little tacky.
Leave for another 20 mins, then dump out onto an oiled surface. Split into 90-ish gram pieces (you should get about 8 or so), roll them into balls, and pop each onto a floured baking sheet or a tray. Seal the whole tray in a bag (or oil a piece of clingfilm and wrap so it's airtight-ish) and stick in the fridge overnight.
In the morning, whack the oven on to full (or 250c). I have a pizza stone in there, but if not, stick a thick oven sheet in to heat up. Meanwhile, roll a couple of the balls into an oval shape, not too thin, not too thick. Leave them to rest for a few mins while the oven heats up. When it's shimmering hot, hoy a couple in and onto the stone/tray in a quick motion, so as not to let too much heat out. Then roll out a couple more ready to go in next.
Bake for about three to five minutes each, until they've puffed up like a pillow and are barely coloured - just a shade of brown at the edge maybe. Continue until you have a pleasing pile of pillows on a wire rack. You may be able to do more than two at once. Depends how big your stone/tray/oven is.
This is a bit of a work in progress, and I've not tried steaming the oven, though they come out soft and chewy without, so not sure what steam would bring. Might be worth trying. Suffice to say they are delicious. They might take a little extra salt (I've done them with regular yeast in the past, and they seem to taste saltier that way). Also you could try maybe gently heating the olive oil with rosemary (and maybe garlic), sift out the leaves (and garlic), then letting it go cold before adding to the mix at the beginning. Or pressing chopped coriander leaves in after you roll them out. Or some lemon zest. Or whatever you like, really. We have a freezer full.
Basically, these make shop-bought pitta look like idiots. Let me know how you get on.
Replies
Fantastic. I'll have to give this a shot.
My fav recipe atm thank youthank you
Looks terrific! I am thinking of giving it a go tomorrow.
Just a quick question - I am using Kialla organic white flour. Is this what you are referring to as 'white flour'? If so, what Kialla flour would I use for the 'strong bread flour'. Could I use 425 g of Kialla white flour (high in gluten)?
thanks,
jeanette
Made these for lunch today -- worked really well, so many thanks Bread Or Alive! I didn't refrigerate overnight, and that didn't seem a problem. A few got a bit too thin and crispy, so I'll remember not to roll them out too much next time, and I'll also be more patient with preheating the oven -- when they take too long to bake they also seemed to dry out more. Oh, and I skipped the sugar. All in all, they look set to become a favourite, and especially for salad sangers now that the vegie garden is delivering.
Cheers,
Frank
Fantastic and very easy to make. I made mine with 100% wholewheat starter , white strong flour and white plain flour. Watching them puff up in the oven is fun! Yeah, I know, I should get out more
Cheers
Fay
Just pulled out of the oven...best part, unlike loaf bread I get to taste while fresh from oven steamy goodiness. Next time, I need to roll out a little thicker, since I noticed that the thinner areas didn't puff like pita. The ones that didn't evenly puff remind me of naan I used to make with packaged yeast.
Thanks for a great recipe to change things up a bit and oh so easy to make!
Tracy
Have been looking for some ideas for the kids lunch boxes so I tried these today. I used a wheat levain but made them with Kamut flour ,as we are trying to get away from wheat where possible, they turned out fantastic. The kids just love them so I think they become a regular on the weekly lunch menu. I found them very simple to make but needed a bit more water because I used Kamut flour. I may even try to do them on a larger scale at work.
Thanks so much for sharing your work.
These look amazing!!! Can you share the recipe you used pleased. I'm just new to this sourdough thing - have 2 starters going for a week now.. One rye and the other organic wholewheat.
Kamut is wheat considered to be related to Durum as milled for pasta production. I believe the protein is actually about 40% higher than normal wheat. Whilst unproven it is claimed that as much as 70% of people that are sensitive to normal wheat can consume Kamut based products with no ill effects. Psychosomatic or medical.
I am very confused about the American measurements listed above. They are not converted to the way we measure. We measure in standard proportions such as: 1 Tbsp, 1/2 Tbsp, 1 tsp, 1/2 tsp, 1/4 tsp, 1/8 tsp - they can be exact, doubled, tripled, etc., rounded, and heaped, and "pinched" or "dashed" but our measurement tools just do not allow for something like ".88 Tbsp" or "1.44 Tbsp." Cups are similar. They can also be a "scant" measurement or a cup plus so many Tbsp or tsps. I would really love to have this recipe. Is there anyone out there who can help me with this?
And there are two other things: Oven temperatures aren't the same, and I don't know what Stong Bread Flour is. Would any other bread flour do?
Really hope I am not being a pest about this. Thank you all. I really love this site!
Victoria
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Hello VeeVee,
If you are using the volumes then I would just round them to the nearest aliquot that you are familiar with. Obviously the computer program used to do the conversions doesn't make any adjustment to conventional aliquots but gives the exact conversion.
Most would recommend that you use mass for your recipes because of the differences than can arise from using volume measures due to different packing densities etc. Electronic kitchen scales are reasonably priced and usually are dual ranged for both Imperial and metric measurement.
There are plenty of conversion sites on the web that will convert Celsius to Fahrenheit for you and it would be easy to set up a table in Excel or spreadsheet of your choice if you wanted to.
If you look at the nutritional data on the side/back of the pack there should be an entry for 'protien'. If that is higher than say 11-11.5% then the flour should be fine, especially if it is labelled bread flour. And if it is labelled bread flour and there is no nutritional data then I would go with that.
Hope this helps and good baking.
Farinam
What a fantastic idea! They look delicious!
These were so easy and came out exactly as described. I realised that I had no white strong flour so used wholemeal and they turned out just fine. I am so proud of them and it never ceases to amaze me how water, flour and salt can turn out in so many different ways.
I would recommend this recipe to any sourdough baker but especially to those just starting out like me - very easy, very delicious, an inspiration to go on with sourdough baking.
Thanks, Bread or Alive! This was my very first time making pita and they came out GREAT! I stuffed them with falafels (the ones that lasted until dinnertime, anyway). I've made this twice now.
Hi
I made these the other day, and apart from the first two which I left in the oven too long and they got crispy, they turned out very well.
Thanks for the recipe - I gave a double batch of these a go last weekend, and they worked really well.
My dough was quite soft (possibly too soft?), and once making the balls on the tray, I left them out of the fridge for about 4 hrs, where they may have prooved too long, so kind of all stuck together.
Once re-balling, rolling them out a little, and baking they still made really good tasty pillows however.
Tasted great stuffed with some Moroccan style meatballs, yoghurt, chilli-sauce and green salad leaves/herbs :)
Works like a charm! Although I must say that after baking, they should cool down inside a plastic bag, that way they don't dehydrate, staying soft and lasting longer. When I bake pita it can last for more than a week in the fridge, but almost every time it ends right away, cause it's so good!
I’m keen to try a sourdough variant for pittas. Instead of plain flour, could I use semolina for an alternative texture. I’ve a lot of semolina at the moment and just keen to try something different???
Move over sourdough bread these soft pittas are way better.
Thanks for the recipe. Also I found you don’t need to refrigerate.