Not your ordinary pita bread, this pocket full of love is unlike any other earthly bread. Whether you split open each pocket and fill with Armenian string cheese or just smear on a pat of butter, there is no wrong way to enjoy Heavenly Armenian Pita Bread.

Fresh from the oven is best, and you will have a hard time keeping grabbing hands and hungry stomachs from devouring all of your labor of love in one sitting.

However, if you're lucky enough to save some bread for leftovers, it does make for a great sandwich the next day. Traditionally, we ate this bread with our Thanksgiving meal and used the extra bread for leftover turkey sandwiches the next day. There is no better way to eat turkey leftovers!!!

Check out the step-by-step cooking video below:https://www.youtube.com/embed/EqDASvU-OuM

Cut or torn into wedges, this bread also makes a great accompaniment to hummus or your other favorite dips. The possibilities are endless! But my all-time favorite way to enjoy Armenian bread is with a smear of butter.

There is something so satisfying about the taste and crumb of this bread. It is actually nothing like regular pita bread, other than the fact that you can cut it and stuff it. The texture is a bit soft and chewy on the inside and crusty on the outside.

With such few ingredients, it is truly amazing how this bread turns out so well.

Baked loaves of heavenly Armenian pita bread

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Ingredients for Heavenly Armenian Bread:
How to Make Heavenly Armenian Pita Bread:
Can I use instant yeast instead of active dry yeast?
📖 Recipe

Ingredients for Heavenly Armenian Bread:

salt

flour

warm water

active dry yeast

sugar

How to Make Heavenly Armenian Pita Bread:

Mix flour and salt in a large bowl. Add warm water slowly and mix with hands.
In a small bowl, combine yeast, tepid water, and sugar. Stir and let sit until foamy.
Once yeast has dissolved, add yeast mixture to flour mixture.
Knead the dough with your hands, incorporating all of the dry and wet ingredients until you get a shaggy consistency that can be divided into two sections for kneading by a machine mixer with the dough attachment. Or continue to knead by hand. Dough should be moist, soft, smooth and pull away from the sides of the bowl when sufficiently kneaded.
Rub butter all over the inside of the bowl where you will let the dough rise.
Put dough inside greased bowl and turn over once or twice to coat outside of dough with a thin film of butter and then cover bowl with plastic wrap and moistened tea towels. Spray the inside of the plastic wrap with cooking spray to keep dough from sticking.
Put the dough in a warm place to rise.
Let dough rise until double in size.
Turn over dough. Punch down. Then cover and rise again until double in size.
After second rise, form the dough into balls, a size slightly smaller than a baseball.
Lay the balls of dough 2 inches apart, placed between two bedding sheets, and a sheet of plastic on top.
Let the balls of dough rise again for ½ hour to an hour until about double in size.
Then, with a rolling pin and using light pressure, roll each ball on a bread board to ¼ inch thick.
Put the flattened dough back on the sheets for its fourth and final rise.
Place an oven rack near the top of the oven and preheat to 500 degrees.
Heat a sturdy cookie sheet on the oven rack to preheat the tray.
With great care to not disturb the dough, gently place the dough on the hot tray and put in oven to bake.
Bake dough.
Remove bread to a cooling rack and enjoy!

Balls of Heavenly Armenian pita bread dough

Heavenly Armenian pita bread dough rolled out on cutting board

Can I use instant yeast instead of active dry yeast?

Yes! The substitution is:

3 ⅓ tsp. instant yeast (I like the SAF brand) for the 4 ½ teaspoon of active dry yeast.

(You need 25% less instant yeast than regular active dry yeast.)

📖 Recipe

Heavenly Armenian Pita Bread

Not your ordinary pita bread, this pocket full of love is unlike any other earthly bread.

Print Recipe

Prep Time 1

Cook Time 6

Course Side Dish

Cuisine Armenian

Servings loaves

Ingredients

5 lbs or approximately 16 cups of all-purpose flour Lehi Roller Mills or Gold Meadow brands recommended
1 tablespoon salt
5-5 ½ cups warm water
2 pkgs. active dry yeast 4 ½ tsps.
½ cup tepid water
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons of butter for coating the sides of the bowl for 1st and 2nd rise.
Cooking spray to coat inside layer of plastic wrap.

Instructions

Mix flour and salt in a large bowl. Add 5-5 ½ c. warm water slowly and mix with hands.
In a small bowl, combine yeast, tepid water, and sugar. Stir and let sit until foamy.
Once yeast has dissolved, add yeast mixture to flour mixture.
Knead the dough with your hands, incorporating all of the dry and wet ingredients until you get a shaggy consistency that can be divided into two sections for kneading by a machine mixer with the dough attachment. Or continue to knead by hand. Dough should be moist, soft, smooth and pull away from the sides of the bowl when sufficiently kneaded.
Rub butter all over the inside of the bowl where you will let the dough rise. (A stainless steel or glass bowl works best.)
Put dough inside greased bowl and turn over once or twice to coat outside of dough with a thin film of butter and then cover bowl with plastic wrap and moistened tea towels. Spray the inside of the plastic wrap with cooking spray to keep dough from sticking.
Put the dough in a warm place to rise. E.g. You could turn on the oven for a minute or two and then turn off to let the dough rise in there. You could also add a pan of boiling water to the bottom rack of the oven. (Reminder: Don't leave the oven on!)
Let dough rise until double in size.
Turn over dough. Punch down. Then cover and rise again until double in size.
After second rise, form the dough into balls, a size slightly smaller than a baseball. As you round the dough, pull from the top and turn it under and pinch the seams to form a nice rounded shape.
Lay the balls of dough 2" apart, placed between two bedding sheets, and a sheet of plastic on top. (You can cut a plastic table cloth from a fabric store or hardware store. Or use a vinyl tablecloth for insulation.)
Let the balls of dough rise again for ½ hour to an hour until about double in size.
Then, with a rolling pin and using light pressure, roll each ball on a bread board to ¼ inch thick.
Put the flattened dough back on the sheets and rest another ½-1 hr.
Place an oven rack near the top of the oven and preheat to 500 degrees.
10 minutes before baking, place a sturdy cookie sheet (light silver preferred to dark ones) on the oven rack to preheat the tray.
With great care to not disturb the dough, gently place the dough on the hot tray and put in oven to bake.
Watch carefully as the pocket bread rises. It will be done in 2-8 minutes. While wearing extra thick oven mitts, carefully check with a spatula that the bread pockets are a little brown on the bottom and golden on top.
Remove bread to a cooling rack.