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DOUGHRISEFOUNDERS
Recipe
5 min read
Sourdough Pita Bread with Za'atar Butter and Spring Herbs
Soft, pillowy sourdough pita bread with a wild herb za'atar butter. A genuinely useful recipe for spring baking with your active starter.
That first puff of a pita hitting a hot pan is one of the better things in baking. One second you've got a flat disc of dough, and then it balloons up like a tiny pillow, steam trapped inside, and you know it's going to be good. Spring is the right season for this kind of bread. The kitchen isn't sweaty, fermentation moves at a sensible pace, and you've got fresh herbs everywhere , on windowsills, in markets, in bunches stuffed into a jug by the sink. This sourdough pita bread recipe makes the most of all of it.
Most pita recipes use commercial yeast and are done in an afternoon. This one uses your active sourdough starter and a longer, slower ferment, which gives you something with a lot more flavour. The dough is relatively low hydration by sourdough standards, easy to handle, and it comes together without any fuss. You can bake them in a cast iron pan, a regular frying pan, or directly on a hot oven floor if you want to get dramatic about it. I've been making these on Friday evenings lately, served with a za'atar butter that takes about three minutes to put together. Mates are always impressed, and I'm not doing very much at all.
The Dough
- 400g strong white bread flour
- 80g active sourdough starter (100% hydration)
- 220g warm water
- 8g (1½ tsp) fine sea salt
- 10g (2 tsp) olive oil
Za'atar Butter
- 80g unsalted butter, softened
- 2 tbsp za'atar
- 1 small clove of garlic, finely grated
- Pinch of flaky salt
To Serve
- Small handful of fresh mint
- Small handful of flat-leaf parsley
- A few sprigs of fresh dill
- Extra olive oil, to drizzle
Baker's Tips
- Your starter needs to be properly active for this , fed and at peak, domed on top with plenty of bubbles. If you're not sure how to read it or your timings keep going off, the DoughRise Coach is genuinely useful for troubleshooting exactly this kind of thing. You describe what's happening, it helps you figure out why.
- Don't roll the pitas too thin. Around 3–4mm gives you the steam pocket you want. Too thin and they won't puff properly; too thick and they end up a bit doughy in the middle.
- Rest the shaped rounds for 15–20 minutes before cooking. It relaxes the gluten after rolling and makes a real difference to how evenly they puff.
METHOD
- In a large bowl, combine the warm water and active sourdough starter. Mix well until the starter is fully dispersed. Add the olive oil, then add the flour and salt. Mix until a rough dough comes together, then tip out onto a clean surface and knead for 6–8 minutes until smooth and just slightly tacky. It should feel like soft leather, not sticky.
- Shape the dough into a ball, return it to the bowl, cover with a damp cloth or plate, and leave at room temperature to bulk ferment. In a warm spring kitchen (around 21–23°C) this will take roughly 5–7 hours. You're looking for the dough to increase by about 50–60% and feel noticeably airy when you prod it. Use the DoughRise fermentation calculator if your kitchen runs particularly warm or cool.
- Once bulk is done, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into 8 equal pieces (roughly 90g each). Shape each piece into a tight ball by tucking the dough under itself repeatedly. Cover loosely and leave to rest for 20 minutes.
- Working with one ball at a time, use a rolling pin to roll each out into a rough oval or circle, around 3–4mm thick. Don't go any thinner than this. Cover the rolled rounds with a clean tea towel while you work through the rest.
Why this works
That dramatic puff you get with pita isn't magic, it's steam. When a thin disc of dough hits a very hot surface, the moisture inside turns to steam rapidly and has nowhere to go except up, pushing the two layers apart. This is why the pan temperature matters so much, and why rolling too thick prevents a proper pocket forming. The gluten network you've built during kneading and fermentation is strong enough to hold that steam in without tearing.
INTO THE PAN
- Heat a cast iron pan or heavy frying pan over a high heat until it is very hot. You want it properly hot, not medium-hot. A drop of water should skitter and evaporate immediately. No oil needed.
- Lay one pita round into the dry pan. Cook for about 60–90 seconds. You'll see bubbles forming across the surface. Flip it and cook for another 60 seconds. On the second flip (back to the original side), it should puff up fully. Cook for 20–30 seconds more, then remove. Wrap in a clean tea towel to keep warm and soft while you cook the rest.
- While the pitas are still warm, make the za'atar butter. Mix the softened butter with za'atar, grated garlic, and a pinch of flaky salt until well combined. Taste and adjust. It should be herby, a little nutty, and savoury.
- Serve the warm pitas spread generously with za'atar butter and scattered with torn mint, parsley, and dill. A final drizzle of olive oil isn't strictly necessary but is very much recommended.
Want to dial in this recipe for a different batch size or flour type? Use the free DoughRise Baker's Percentages Calculator to scale everything accurately without doing the maths by hand.
Happy baking! Find everything you need at doughrise.store