Make Pita Pockets for Your Next Party!

You can make pita pockets on the grill!

If you want to impress the neighbors, have them over for a pita pocket party on the patio.  They’ll remember that a lot longer than they’ll remember burgers.

In the directions below, we’ll tell you how to make pita pockets in the oven.  But if you have a covered grill, you can easily move the operation outdoors. 

You’ll need a pizza stone.  Position it on upper shelf on your grill or, if you don’t have a shelf, rig a shelf to hold your stone with an old rack and some bricks or cans to hold it up.  Close the grill and let the stone heat for a half hour.  When you get ready to bake your pitas, the hot stone will cook them more than the heat from the grill though you will want to close the lid to keep the heat in. 

So bake your pitas using your grill and the directions below.  Remember, it takes a lot of heat to bake your pitas quickly and properly.  If your grill doesn’t have a built in thermometer, consider using an oven thermometer. 

You can make your pita pockets with the recipe below or with a bread mix.  Choose a bread mix to match the occasion.  (We have over 80 bread mixes to choose from.)

Ingredients

2 3/4 cups bread flour
1 7-gram packet of instant yeast  
1 1/4 cups warm (105 degree) water
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup stone ground whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons salt

Directions

1. With your stand type mixer, combine about 2/3’s of the white flour, the yeast, and the warm water. Mix with a dough hook for about 30 seconds. (This mixes in and hydrates the yeast.) Add the rest of the flour, the whole wheat flour, and then the olive oil and salt. Knead with the dough hook for about four minutes on medium speed or until the gluten is formed. Add a little more flour or water if needed to get the right consistency. The dough should be slightly wetter than bread dough.
2. Remove the dough to a greased bowl and let sit for about an hour or until the dough has doubled in size and is puffy.
3. Place a rack on the lowest shelf in the oven and remove the second rack so that you can reach into the oven with the formed pitas. Place a baking stone on the rack. Preheat the oven to 475 degrees.
4. Form the dough into 2-inch balls. (If you have a kitchen scale, 2 1/2 ounces will make a nice pocket.)  With a rolling pin, roll the balls flat to a thickness of about 1/4 inch. Let these disks sit on the counter uncovered for ten to fifteen minutes.
5. Pick up a disk and spray it with water using a mister, so that the top slightly wet. Fold the dough over to trap the moisture.  Dust an area on the counter with flour using a flour and sugar shaker. With the palm of your hand, pat the disk flat to 1/4-inch thickness again, turning once. If the disks are out-of-round, that’s okay. Repeat with the rest of the disks.  Let them rest for ten minutes.
6. Place three or four of the flat disks on the hot baking stone in the oven. An easy way to do it is to place the disks on a pizza peel and then slide the disks from the peel onto the hot stone.  Bake for 3 1/2 to 4 minutes. The pitas should be puffy but not browned. Remove the pitas from the oven and let them cool on a wire rack.  Continue until all are baked.

Baker’s notes:. If your pitas do not puff, there is not enough moisture trapped in the dough. They will still taste good.

Making Pita Pocket Sandwiches

There is no wrong way to make pita pocket sandwiches. 

Cut your pockets in half. Some of your pockets will be hollower than others.  That’s okay,  Use your thumb to compress the bread and hollow out the shell as needed. 

For our classes, we use mayo, provolone cheese, deli lunch meat, tomatoes, and sprouts or lettuce.  We form a sandwich bar and let people make their own sandwiches and add what they wish. 

We set the ingredients out to be used in this order:  Mayo, cheese, meat, tomato, and sprouts or shredded lettuce.  Usually a half teaspoon of mayo will do.  We cut the cheese slices and meat slices into pieces a little smaller than the pocket halves.  We cut the tomatoes into slices and then into half slices or fourths.  The lettuce or sprouts are the last item inserted into the pockets with enough is used to stuff the pockets. 

Everyone loves pita pockets. 

What You’ll Need

·         A pizza stone

·         A pizza peel or large spatula  

·         A cooling rack  

·         A mister