Whole Wheat Pita Bread

 This Whole Wheat Pita Bread is made with just a few simple pantry ingredients. Its soft texture and delicious whole wheat flavor is far better than any store-bought pita bread I’ve tried.

TIPS FOR MAKING YOUR OWN HOMEMADE WHOLE WHEAT PITA BREAD:

• I usually make my pita bread with all white whole wheat flour. If you want a milder wheat flavor, you can replace half of the whole wheat flour with bread flour, or even all purpose.
• If your dough isn’t stretching as you roll it out, let it rest for 5 minutes, covered with a clean towel, and try again. I roll mine out using a rolling pin on a lightly floured cutting board.
• You can bake your pita in a very hot oven on a baking stone (or directly on the oven racks). My preferred method, though, is to bake them on my electric griddle. It’s easier than opening the oven repeatedly to put in each batch of pita bread and to flip them over. (Especially when there are small children running around the kitchen.)
• Wrapping the warm baked pita bread in a clean kitchen towel produces a softer bread.
• As soon as it’s cool, freeze any pita bread that you won’t eat by the second day. Defrost frozen pita for a few minutes on the counter and it will taste as good as it did the day you made it!

Whole Wheat Pita Bread

This Whole Wheat Pita Bread is made with just a few simple pantry ingredients. It’s soft texture and delicious whole wheat flavor is far better than any store-bought pita bread I've tried.

 Prep Time30 mins

 Cook Time15 mins

 Rise Time45 mins

 Total Time1 hr 30 mins

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups warm water 105-115 degrees F
• 2 ½ teaspoons instant yeast
• 1 tablespoon honey
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 ¼ - 3 ½ cups white whole wheat flour

Instructions

• Add the warm water, yeast and honey to the bowl of a stand mixer. (If you prefer, the dough can be mixed and kneaded by hand.) Stir gently. Set aside for 5 minutes until foamy.
• Add olive oil, salt and 3 ¼ cups white whole wheat flour to the bowl. Using the paddle attachment, mix until combined. Switch to the dough hook and knead on low speed for 8 minutes, adding up to ¼ cup more flour if the dough is too sticky. The dough should feel only slightly sticky when you touch it with your finger.
• Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap and let rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until doubled in size.
• If you are baking the pita on a baking stone in the oven, at this point you should place the baking stone in the oven and preheat oven to 500 degrees F. You can also bake the pita directly on the oven racks if you don’t have a baking stone. Or, bake them on a griddle, which I find to be easiest. (You’ll preheat the griddle right before baking as it doesn’t take as long to heat up as the baking stone.)
• Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and punch it down to release any air. Form dough into a ball and cut it into 10 equal pieces. Working with one dough piece at a time, gently shape it into a ball and then roll it into a 6-inch round on a lightly floured surface. Lay rounds on a sheet of parchment and cover with a clean kitchen towel.
• Let dough rounds rest for 30 minutes. During this time they will puff up slightly.
• Meanwhile, if you are baking the pita on a griddle rather than in the oven, preheat the griddle. I heat mine to between 350-375 degrees F.
• Once dough rounds have rested, bake them 2 or 3 at a time, either in the oven or on the griddle. Bake on the first side for about 2 minutes, then flip and cook 1-2 minutes on the second side until lightly golden.
• Let pitas cool slightly and then wrap loosely in a clean kitchen towel to finish cooling. This produces softer pita bread.
• Store in a zip-top plastic bag at room temperature for 2 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.