Up your pita game by making your own: these pitas are light, airy, and pillowy and are the perfect spongy vehicles to stuff, tear, mop, and scoop—making the whole eating experience really very satisfying.
1. Put the water into a small bowl and sprinkle with the yeast and sugar. Set aside for 5–6 minutes to react and become foamy. 2. Put both flours and the salt into the bowl of a stand mixer, with the dough hook in place, and mix on low speed to combine. Add the olive oil and the yeast mixture, turning the speed to medium-high, and knead for 7 minutes. The dough should be smooth, elastic, and a bit sticky. 3. Transfer the dough to a well-oiled large bowl, cover with a damp kitchen towel, and let rise in a warm place for 1–2 hours, or until doubled in size. Alternatively, let rise, covered and refrigerated, overnight. 4. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and divide into six 3½ oz/100g pieces. Use your hands to roll each piece into a round ball. Cover with a damp kitchen towel and let rest for 20 minutes. 5. Preheat the oven to 500°F or your highest oven setting. Place a large baking sheet in the oven to warm up. 6. Cut out two pieces of parchment paper roughly the size of your baking sheet, lay them out on your work surface, and sprinkle them with a little flour. Top one piece of paper with two balls of dough, spaced well apart, and use a lightly floured rolling pin to roll each one out into a round, roughly 5 inches/12cm in diameter. Don’t tear or overwork the pitas at all, or they won’t puff up. 7. Carefully transfer the paper with the two rolled-out rounds to your preheated sheet and bake for 4–5 minutes, or until lightly golden and puffy. Transfer to a clean bowl and cover with a damp kitchen towel to keep warm (save the parchment paper to reuse again). While they’re in the oven, prepare the other two rounds in the same way and, when ready, transfer them to the hot sheet and bake in the same way. Continue until you’ve made six pitas in total. Keep them covered in the bowl until you’re ready to serve.
Make the dough the night before, letting it rise in the fridge overnight and bringing it back up to room temperature when you’re ready to work with it again. Freeze the raw dough once you’ve rolled it into rounds, wrapping it very well before storing it in an airtight container. Defrost before cooking.
Ottolenghi Test Kitchen - Shelf Love