Entertaining + Fun: Homemade Pita Bread

Pita bread is surprisingly super easy to make at home; in this post, you’ll get all the tips and tricks to make the pita breads puff perfectly!

Three puffed homemade pita breads on a cooling rack.

I think the puffing aspect of pita bread is what scares the bejeebies out of most people who think they might, at some point in their life, want to try making pita bread on their own at home.

Or maybe that’s just me since I’m pretty sure most normal people don’t go around obsessing about the pitfalls of pita bread.

I had these epic nightmares of what would happen when all of my children had their faces pressed to the lighted oven door to watch the at-home science experiment of how pitas puff to make perfect little pockets…and I subsequently envisioned their dejected expressions when the pitas.did.not.puff.

Because I was sure that would happen and that vision was definitely not going to win me mother-of-the-year award.

Oh wait, that actually did happen. See? Non-puffing pitas are a serious bummer.

However, I was forced to revisit the pita bread conundrum when I came across a chicken recipe I had to try immediately (which I’ll be sharing on Friday) and which called for pita bread.

I couldn’t bring myself to ruin a deliciously inviting meal with the cardboard-variety pitas I’ve spied (and yes bought) at the store on past occasions.

So I took a deep breath.

Embarked on some deep meditation to calm my inner angst.

And I made pitas.

And let me tell you, they were so wonderfully successful that I am kicking myself for not making them before.

Yes, yes, there were a few that refused to puff. But thankfully there were enough that did magically puff to appease the four little grubby faces watching in amazement.

The trick with pitas, I learned after making a triple batch, is that a) they need to be rolled out as evenly as possible (overly thin or thick spots in the same pita round make for trouble when puffing) and b) the top of the pita dough needs to be a tad bit moist (no dry dough!) in order to perform the puff.

Seriously, pita bread is one of the easiest yeast doughs to make.

And how could you not feel superhuman when you’ve just created a piece of bread that has a pocket inside of it for goodness sakes.

That alone is worth the effort to make them.

A.pocket.in.bread. It’s revolutionary, I tell you.