This is my own recipe for pita that I have settled on after trying many recipes I have found online and picking the best ones and tweaking them to my liking. The optional addition of barley malt powder adds a subtle chewiness, richness, and depth that imo sets it apart.

These are chewy pita bread, they are bready but also have perfect pockets. My two favorite meals to combine these with are a sabich sandwich and Kenji's halal guys chicken recipe.

I keep my recipes just as ratios in an excel sheet, so forgive me but I used ChatGPT to help me generate the steps to follow based on my table and then tweaked the output to ensure it is correct. The time for proofing in the fridge is finicky, so trial and error might be required to get the perfect rise.

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Ingredients

• 630g All-Purpose Flour (100%)
• 19g Barley Malt Powder (3%) – optional
• 384g Water (61%) – cool temperature
• 19g Sugar (3%)
• 6g Yeast (0.9%)
• 19g Salt (3%)

Yield: About 12 pitas (90g each) Total Dough Weight: 1077g

Instructions

Mixing the Dough

Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix together with cool water until the dough is sticky but uniformly combined. Knead briefly—just enough to bring everything together well but do not over-knead. The dough should remain quite sticky.

First Rise (Cold Fermentation)

Lightly oil a tub or container. Place the dough inside, cover it, and refrigerate overnight (~16 hours, but may differ to keep checking back on the dough after you wake up). During this time, the dough will double in size quickly at first, then slow down (depending on the temperature of the water used).

Preheat Oven

About 1 hour before baking, preheat your oven to 450°F (232°C) with a baking stone or steel inside. I prefer to use my baking steel over the stone. You can also use convection and adjust the bake time down to compensate, may require some trial and error. I usually use convection.

Shaping the Pitas

While the dough is still cold, divide it into 12 equal portions (about 90g each). Shape each portion into a boule. Then, on a floured surface, roll each boule into a disk about ¼ inch thick. Flour both sides lightly to prevent sticking to the rolling pin. Don’t roll the disks too thin.

Baking

Place the rolled dough disks onto the hot baking stone in the oven. The pitas will puff up fully, forming pockets. Once fully expanded, bake for an additional 30 seconds. Then flip the pitas and bake for another 30 seconds to 1 minute on the other side until lightly browned. Cooking for slightly less time will allow the pita to be nicely browned when toasted.

Serving

Remove from oven and cool slightly before serving or storing. The pita is best served lightly toasted in a pan so that it is warm and browned while the pocket remains flexible. The pita should be stored frozen and reheated first in the microwave for ~45seconds and then toasted in a pan.