Recipe for Sourdough Pitas
Make these simple sourdough pitas for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. This is an everyday recipe to practice using your sourdough starter on a weekly basis.
Ingredients
- 1 cup Sourdough starter - doubled in size with lots of bubbles
- 2 cups Water
- 2 tsp. Sea Salt
- 1/3 cup Olive or Avocado Oil
- 5-6 cups Whole Wheat Flour
Instructions
- At least six hours before baking, combine 1 cup of starter, 2 cups of water, 2 tsp. sea salt, 1/3 cup of oil, 5-6 cups of flour. Add the flour slowly, a few cups at a time. Watch for the dough to stiffen and to stop leaving a sticky dough-trail on the bowl. Be really careful not to add too much flour or your pitas will crack when baked. Be patient and watch the flour absorb the liquids until it firms up and clears the sides of the bowl.
- Knead the dough for 8 minutes in a stand mixer or 12 minutes by hand.
- Form a smooth, uniform ball of dough and place in pre-greased container. Make sure your bowl is big enough for the dough to double in size. Cover and let sit for at least six hours, but up to ten or twelve (overnight) is fine.
- Divide the dough into 15-20 pieces and form them into smooth balls.
- Preheat your oven WITH THE PAN inside to 500F/260c.
- Begin rolling out each small ball as you might a pizza dough. Keep the width uniform to prevent burning in overly thin areas. Don't overwork the dough to ensure the best success with poofy pitas.
- Once the oven and pan are preheated, quickly place the pitas on the pan. Keep your pan in the middle of your oven to prevent burning yourself as you reach in and out. I use the longest, sturdiest spatula I have to place and remove pitas. Move quickly and keep the oven open only as long as necessary to prevent dropping the temperature too much.
- Bake for about five minutes but watch the pitas so they don't turn too brown on top or they'll break. Each oven is different so adjust your bake time accordingly. After a few minutes, you should see the pitas poof.
Notes
You may substitute out 2 or more cups of white flour for the whole wheat flour. Bob's Red Mill is the brand of organic-labeled white baking flour that I use. The white flour is a bit lighter and can give you more poof in your pita.
If you want your pitas to poof, be sure your sourdough starter is full of bubbles and doubled in size.
Sometimes your pitas don't poof but they taste delicious anyway. Just keep experimenting with the recipe until you get the hang of it.
If I want these pitas for breakfast, I mix them up the night before and let them ferment overnight on my counter.
If your house is cold, place the culturing dough in a warm place like by the woodstove or on top of the fridge.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!