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I know that two days before Christmas I should be sharing something Christmas related with you. But I made these Pita Pockets last week and they were so good I can’t wait to tell you about them. How about I spin them to you as a great bread option for your Christmas turkey leftovers? Imagine a lovely turkey salad nestled in a homemade Sourdough Pita Pocket. There. Now they sound Christmas related.
I found this recipe on the internet for Sourdough Pita. But it measures out all of the ingredients using a scale (which I do not have in my primitive kitchen) and it doesn’t have the soak time needed to neutralize the phytic acid and other anti-nutrients, so I changed it. I also used this recipe for the baking instructions. The results were wonderful. Most of my Pitas even puffed properly so when I cut them I had the ‘pocket’. The few that didn’t became Pita chips for eating with hummus a couple of days later.
Sourdough Pita Bread (plan ahead, needs time to soak)
1 cup sourdough starter
1/2 cup water
1 Tablespoon coconut oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2- 3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (or flour of your choice)
Combine starter, water, oil and salt until well mixed. Add 1 1/2 cups of flour, mix in. Add rest of flour 1/2 cup at a time (I used my freshly washed hands for this as the dough got too thick). Depending on the hydration of your starter you might need more or less flour than I listed. You want the dough to hold to itself more than to your hands. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes until it becomes smooth and elastic. Butter the top of the dough, give it a flip and butter the other side. Cover and let rest for 8-12 hours or overnight. At that point you could proceed to the next step or punch it down and let it rise again to give it a longer soak time.
Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface (I use unbleached flour for this). Divide the dough into balls. I made mine larger than golf balls but smaller than baseballs and ended up with 14 balls. Allow the dough to rest for 10 minutes or so.
With the oven rack as low as it will go, heat oven to 500 degrees. Heat your baking pan also.*
Using a rolling pin and your floured surface, roll out your dough balls into circles about 6 inches in diameter and 1/4 inch thick.
Bake each circle (on the lowest rack) for 4 minutes, then flip over and bake an additional 2 minutes. Remove from oven. Using a spatula press down the puff. Cover with a cloth. Repeat until all pitas are baked.
*I ended up with a pretty good rhythm for the baking part. I used 2 cookie sheets heating both of them up in the oven one on each rack. The lower rack is the only one used for baking, while the baking was in process for the first 4 minutes (before flipping) I left the other cookie sheet on the top rack. Then when I flipped the pitas I would remove the top cookie sheet and put my pitas on it (I could only fit 2 at a time). After the final 2 minutes baking I took out the finished pitas, removed them from the pan to a bread board, put in the ready to make ones on the bottom rack and put the empty cookie sheet back on the top rack to keep it hot. Repeating until all pitas were cooked.
>Good timing! I planned for pita pockets on this weeks menu, but the store only had generic pita bread with very long shelf lives. I scrapped the plan for this week, but will add it back for next! Thank you!
>Homemade tzatziki…plain yogurt, grated cucumber, and crushed garlic. I grate the whole cucumber and then drain out the liquid…others don't use the seeds. Experiment with how much garlic you like. We like ours fairly garlicky. I like this just as a dip with pita or bread or drizzled over roast chicken. I'd show you a picture but I'm camaraless until I figure something out. I wish you'd stop posting such good ideas….you're giving me way too many things to want to do this time of year! (grin)
>Oops–can't even spell my own name…sheesh…
>Kim,
I'm glad that my timing is good 🙂
I thought these were much better than any I have had store bought.
Angela,
I made a yogurt sauce but only did yogurt, garlic, salt and pepper. I never thought of the cucumber. Yum!
>Great recipe! I had been searching for a sourdough pita recipe that included an overnight soak – this one worked out well for me 🙂 I had some trouble moving the pitas into the oven without tearing them – but they still tasted delicious!
>Gracefultable,
I'm glad you liked them. I'm making them again this week. I can't remember having trouble moving them but most likely I was pretty generous with the flour when rolling them out. I tend to use too much flour when doing things like tortillas so it would make sense that I used quite a bit. I'll try to pay attention this week and note in the recipe.
>Wow- this recipe looks great! I can't wait to try this. Question- have you ever tried freezing the pita breads once they are cooked? How convenient it would be to pull one out of the freezer as needed!
Kylie
>Kylie,
I haven't frozen them. Each time I've made them there have not been enough left over 🙂
I think that it would work well to cut them and open the pocket and then freeze them. They would be very convenient to have on hand.
>Excellent recipe! Thanks! There's nowhere around where I live to buy sourdough breads, so making these is a real treat. They taste great!
>You are welcome Katie. Wardeh at Gnowfglins has sourdough pita as one of the recipes in her sourdough ecourse. I haven't made them yet but from her video they look sooooo much better than mine. If you are wanting to learn more about sourdough and find some terrific recipes you might check out her ecourse.
I made the recipe but substituted wheat for rye and coconut oil for butter. Not sure if was because I used rye or too much flour but I would recommend using more butter/oil as they did come out a bit dry. (I’m thinking just too much flour) I quadrupled the batch sliced them all open and have them in the freezer for a later date.
Glad to find a recipe like this thanks for sharing. I’ll be making more and experimenting as I go.
Hi Stephen,
Thanks for the feedback. I haven’t made this for awhile but should revisit them. Especially since I have more experience working with sourdough now than I did when this recipe was created. Let me know if you do experiment.
I tried them with whole wheat and another half table spoon of butter and only 4 cups of flour (in adouble batch), did a triple rise they worked great. The longer soak time during the triple rise is very beneficial I think. Adding some garlic and herbs I think would be yummy. I might use this recipe and just make a loaf also.
Hi Stephen,
Thank you for sharing your changes. Garlic and herbs are a great idea.
You bet
My loaf was successful by the way. Baking at 350 for about 55 minutes for anyone interested in trying this.
sorry if I’m being a bit thick, but what does this stage- ‘ Butter the top of the dough, give it a flip and butter the other side’ mean please? Butter it like you would a piece of bread? Brush it with melted butter? Or something else?! Sorry, new to this, but looking forward to trying it :0D
Hi rea,
I usually use soft butter and rub it over the dough with my fingers. You could use brush with melted butter. The butter is just to help keep the dough from drying out.
Thank you! Will try this weekend when I’ve enough starter
This looks interesting. I am trying to use only sourdough recipes due to the better glycemic index of sourdough breads. I am curious why you cut them before freezing them? I’ve frozen store bought pita breads with out cutting them.
Hi Carla,
I cut them only so they are ready to go when thawed. It’s not necessary to do. 🙂
Millie,
Thank you for such a wonderful recipe. I have been making your minimum
knead bread for a while now, using for pizza crust, donuts, bread, and cinnamon bread, but this is my first try with the pitas and they came out great!! I used my rectangular pizza stone on the bottom rack and could fit them 4 – 6 at a time depending on size, so this was a breeze. I can’t wait to try them with some homemade falafel.
Hi Tracy,
Wonderful! So glad this worked for you. Using the pizza stone is perfect. 🙂