Once you start making this homemade pita bread recipe, you won't be able to stop! Soft, puffy, and flavorful, it beats any kind from the grocery store.
This homemade pita bread recipe comes from my friend Molly Yeh. It’s been on my list to try for years, but for one reason or another, I never made it until this spring. When I finally did, what Jack and I thought would be a fun, one-time cooking project turned into a full-on pita bread obsession. We started putting extra yogurt on the grocery list just so we could make it!
If you’re thinking, “Wait. Yogurt? In pita bread?”, you’re not crazy. It’s not a typical pita bread recipe ingredient.
But in my opinion, it’s what makes this pita bread so exceptional. It’s not only thicker, softer, and puffier than any other homemade or store-bought pita I’ve tried, but also it has a tangy, sourdough-like flavor. It’s just as delicious plain as it is with a filling or a dip, and as Molly writes, it’d make a pretty great sleeping bag too. If your experience is anything like ours, once you start making it, you won’t be able to stop.
How to Make Pita Bread
This pita bread recipe is easy to make! Here’s how it goes:
First, make the pita dough. Activate the yeast by mixing it with warm water and a teaspoon of sugar. When the yeast mixture foams, add it to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, and mix it with the flour, salt, remaining sugar, oil, and yogurt. Knead the dough, either with the stand mixer on medium speed or by hand, until it’s soft and slightly sticky, 7 to 10 minutes.
Once you’ve kneaded the dough, let it rise. Transfer it to an oiled bowl and cover it with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap. Set it aside for about 2 hours, or until the dough has doubled in size.
Then, divide the dough into balls. This recipe makes 12 small flatbreads, so you’ll split it up into 12 equal parts. Cover the balls, and let the dough rest for 20 more minutes.
Next, roll out the pita bread! Use a rolling pin to roll the dough balls into 1/4 to 1/2-inch thick circles on a lightly floured surface. Keep any dough you’re not working with covered as you roll out the pita.
Once you’ve rolled out all the dough, bake! Arrange the dough circles on two parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake one sheet at a time at 500°F until the pita bread is puffy and golden brown on top. That’s it! Transfer the freshly baked pita to a wire rack to cool, and enjoy.
Note: When we make this pita bread recipe, there are always a few pita that don’t puff up to form pockets. That’s ok! They’re still great for dipping or enjoying as flatbreads.
Pita Bread Recipe Tips
- Weigh your flour. Because this recipe uses a large amount of flour, you should weigh it if you can. This way, you’ll know exactly how much flour you’re using. Cup measurements are much less precise, as they can vary based on a variety of factors (your specific measuring cups, how tightly you pack your flour, etc.). If you don’t have a kitchen scale, check out this post for my best tips on measuring flour with measuring cups.
- Bake one sheet at a time. Because temperatures vary throughout an oven, bake one sheet at a time for the most even cooking. You don’t want the pita bread on the bottom rack to burn before the top rack starts to brown! And with only one baking sheet in the oven, you can position a rack in the center to give the pita space to puff up.
- Rotate the pan. Jack and I start checking our pita bread a few minutes before we think it’ll be ready, at around the 5 minute mark. At that point, if one side of the pan is more puffy or golden than the other, we rotate it and bake for a few more minutes so that both sides can cook evenly.
- Freeze some for later. Whenever we make this recipe, we almost always freeze half the batch to have on hand for snacking later on. If you plan to store and reheat the pita bread, pull it out of the oven just before it starts to brown. Molly recommends thawing or reheating it in the toaster, where it’ll brown up without getting too crisp or burnt.
Pita Bread Serving Suggestions
This pita bread is so soft, fluffy, and flavorful that we honestly love to eat it plain! However, it’s also fantastic with all sorts of fillings, spreads, and dips. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Fill it with falafel, pickled red onions, tahini sauce, and fresh herbs.
- Stuff it with egg salad, vegan egg salad, or my chickpea salad sandwich filling.
- Toast it, slice it into wedges, and add it to a crudité platter with white bean dip and fresh veggies.
- Load it up with my easy chickpea shawarma.
- Use it to scoop up saucy shakshuka or baked feta.
- Pile it with grilled veggies and tzatziki sauce for a light summer meal.
- Top it with peanut butter, sliced banana or apple, and a drizzle of honey.
- Or dip it into hummus, baba ganoush, or muhammara for a healthy snack!
How do you like to eat your homemade pita? Let me know in the comments!
More Favorite Bread Recipes
If you love this homemade pita bread recipe, try making one of these recipes next:
Homemade Pita Bread
Ingredients
- ¾ cup warm water
- 1 package active dry yeast, 2¼ teaspoons
- 1 teaspoon plus 1 tablespoon sugar
- 3¾ cups bread flour, 469 grams, plus more for dusting
- 1½ teaspoons sea salt
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for the bowl
- ¾ cup whole-milk Greek yogurt
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, combine the water, yeast, and 1 teaspoon of sugar. Let the mixture sit until it’s foamy on top, about 5 minutes.
- In a large mixing bowl or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the flour, salt, and remaining tablespoon sugar. Add the yeast mixture, oil, and yogurt, and mix to combine. Knead the dough, either in the stand mixer on medium speed or by hand on a clean work surface, adding more flour if needed, until it’s soft and slightly sticky, 7 to 10 minutes. Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl, cover with a towel or plastic wrap, and let rise until it’s doubled in size, about 2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 500°F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface and divide it into 12 equal balls. Cover and let rise an additional 20 minutes.
- Roll the balls out into circles that are ¼ to ½-inch thick. Place them onto the baking sheets an inch apart, then bake, one sheet at a time, until they’re puffy and lightly browned on top. Begin checking at 5 minutes. We bake them for about 8 minutes, rotating the pan after the 5 minute mark if one side of the sheet is puffing up more than the other. Transfer the pitas to a wire rack to cool.
Excellent work, Jeanine and Jack! Pita bread gives a much-needed nutritional boost to both adults and children equally. The best ones are soft and spongy, double-layered and round with the right amount of puff and taste. Only ingredients are required namely flour, water, salt and yeast. But if you still do not wish to take the hassle of homemade bread, order and enjoy with your favorite stuffing.
I’ve always ate my share as a sandwich. Usually, the pita ? was stuffed and overflowing with tuna salad, fried or grilled chicken salad. The other way of consumption was sectioned and dipped into a flavored hummus like, spinach & artichoke, lemon, or jalapeño. Mmm.. mmmm.. mmm ? I can’t wait to give this recipe a try.? Thanks
Hope you enjoy!
Hello, has anyone made these without a stand mixer? If so, how would you go about it? I don’t have one and wondered if I could just use a hand mixer.
Hi Lynda, you can knead it by hand on a clean work surface. I wouldn’t recommend a hand mixer.
Hi!
Can you make dough and then refrigerate until ready to roll out and heat?
Hi Ali, we haven’t tried this, so I’m not sure. If you try it, make sure to allow the dough to come to room temperature before you divide it into balls. Let us know how it goes!
I’d love to make this but I have or am going, plant-based. Can I substitute something for the whole milk Greek yogurt?
Thank you
Janet
Hi Janet, we haven’t (successfully) tested a pita recipe without the yogurt. It’s possible that a plant-based yogurt might work.
Where may I observe the nutrition facts for this version of the recipe?
Hi Brenda, We don’t calculate nutrition info for our recipes. To get a nutrition estimate, you can plug it into an online calculator such as MyFitnessPal.
Hi there, the pita bread is delicious, however my pita bread didnt rise much but the dough did grow 2x though, not sure where i went wrong. I used bread flour and followed the rest of the ingredients.
Hi, It could be the temperature of your oven or the freshness of your yeast, though we often have a few pitas that don’t form pockets. We like to use them as flatbreads or for dipping. Hope this helps!
So delicious and easy to make! I was nervous to make these as I don’t have much experience with breads, but I followed the recipe exactly and they turned out cute and fluffy. Ate with your muhammara recipe!
Hi Julia, I’m so glad you loved them! We’re obsessed 🙂
I’m plant based. Do you think non dairy cashew yogurt would work?
Hi Sydney, I think a plant based yogurt might work, but I haven’t tried.
Ok, I’ll try as I am plant based, no animal foods in my diet at all. Thank you. 🙂
I love homemade pita and would love to try this recipe but I am sticking to whole wheat when baking bread products. Would this recipe work, as is, if I substituted whole wheat? Or, should I use 50% whole wheat and 50% wheat flour?
Hi Susan, I’ve made it with 50/50, but I haven’t tried all whole wheat. I don’t know if they’d be too dense.
Made this today. They do not have pocket but so soft and puff. My husband and my daughter can’t stop eating. Any advice about the pocket.
I will definitely make it again. Thank you for the recipe.
Made these yesterday in my KitcenAid stand mixer, followed recipe exactly and they were AMAZING! I’ve frozen half the batch before I ate them all, hoping they will be just as good from freezer. This recipe is a keeper, thank you!
I’m so glad you loved them!
Made these and used sour cream instead of greek yogurt. They are pillow soft snd very delicious. I won’t even try another recipe since this one is perfect!
thankyou ! i was wondering that
OMG….It’s 10:30pm, I made a batch of this pita bread. I already ate 3 of them. When the family wakes up tomorrow morning, they will wonder how come there is less than in the recipe!!
OK, I’ll tell them I could not resist. They are amazing, and right, better than in the store.
I dipped one of them in labne and oil…Ohhh!!
Thanks again for sharing the recipe…
Ha ha, that’s how it usually goes for us too :). I’m so glad you loved it.
Hi. do you use rapid rise yeast or reg yeast?
rapid rise or instant yeast will work here.
If I use instant yeast, do I just add it to the dry ingredients, or do I still need to add to the water/sugar …?
If I just add to the dry ingredients, do I just add the same amount of water to the dry ingredients as noted in the recipe?
Hi Taryn, you can use instant yeast exactly how it’s written in the recipe. I hope you enjoy the pita!
Which brand of parchment paper do you recommend? I seem to be only able to find parchment paper that withstands 450 degrees F.
Hi Nicole, I think they all say 450° – I haven’t had an issue with this recipe since they’re only in the oven for about 5 minutes.
made this it is awesome, then I made it with tahini in place of oil and added a 1/4 C of sesame seeds, OMG!
This is my go to for pita! I live in Colorado so I have to add just a touch more liquid. These are truly delightful, so soft and puffy absolutely delicious flavor.
My whole family loves these! Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe!
I’m so glad they were a hit!
Great Idea,
Im going to try this tonight since I use this recipe rather frequently!
Thank you!!
Amazing, beautiful, they turn out like a balloons,thank you
No problems at all with the pitas puffing up when cooked on a baking stone. Super tender dough. Thanks for the recipe.
I managed to get this to work out, but I think the recipe should be either entirely in grams or in imperial measurements, not both. I honestly think the grams to cup ratio isn’t correct. I sifted my flour and it was still way too much, I had to add another cup of water to even it out. Also, my oven doesn’t run hot and I found that 500 was way too high, had to bring it down to 425 and even then I had to knock down how long they were in the oven. But they were puffy and tasted great.
Hi Catherine, I’m glad you enjoyed them. It’s possible your scoop had too much flour packed (which is why we like to list a weight for recipes like this). If you measure flour using this method, it comes out the same: https://www.loveandlemons.com/how-to-measure-flour/
As I said, I sift my flour to make sure I don’t compact it down. It may have been my yoghurt, which is definitely more solid than liquid.
Hi! We did all exactly how it describes in recipe – they came out like on picture BUT super hard. Like stones. Have nothing to do with pita bread. Worse recipe we could find to try. Waist of time and flour.
Hi Inna, I’m sorry these didn’t work out for you. There’s been a lot of expired yeast at stores lately, I wonder if the yeast was the issue if they didn’t rise.
Honestly this was such a rude comment. I’ve tried this recipe and it works great! Sometimes you have to try things a few times for it to work right….try to be kind.