Today I am sharing with you a recipe for homemade Pitta Bread with Nigella Seeds! Pitta bread is ideal for dipping into hummus or a tzatziki dip as a snack, or to stuff with meat, falafel, or veggies for a healthier kebab-style meal!
This pitta bread tastes best on the day it is made, but you can also freeze any leftovers for another day!
How to make Pitta Bread
This pitta bread is extremely easy to make! All you need to do is make a simple bread dough by combining strong bread flour, yeast, salt, a little oil, and water! My below pitta bread recipe also calls for the addition of nigella seeds as I think they add a really nice flavour to the dough! The ingredients are combined and kneaded until they form a smooth and elastic dough.
You then need to prove the dough for an hour until doubled in size, before dividing it into six and rolling it out into the typical oval pitta bread shape!
The pitta breads are then baked in a hot oven on a hot baking tray (preheat the baking tray while preheating the oven) for only 5-7 minutes. By preheating the tray and making sure the oven is really hot, the pitta breads will start to rise and puff up as soon as they hit the hot tray!
It’s important not to bake the pitta breads for too long, just until they get a bit of colour. Then you must remove them from the oven and wrap them in a clean dish towel to keep them nice and soft!
What are Nigella Seeds (Black Onion Seeds)?
I have heard Nigella seeds mentioned everywhere but I never knew what they were or what they tasted like! Then I found out that a different word for them was Black Onion Seeds, and when I found them in the supermarket and gave them a smell I actually did know what they were! I know them from Turkish flatbreads that we used to buy from a Turkish shop in Germany – white puffy round flatbreads that are topped with sesame seeds and/or these black onion seeds!
I absolutely love the taste and think they are a perfect addition to these pitta breads! If you cannot find or do not want to add them, just leave them out to make plain pitta bread. You could also use a different small seed of your choice.
A few serving suggestions…
As I mentioned above, pitta breads are excellent snacks! I love cutting them into strips and then dipping them into some homemade hummus or tzatziki! I have some good recipes for those on my blog, so make sure you go and check them out!
Pitta bread is also great for stuffing and making sandwiches as it has a nice pocket inside if you slice the bread open horizontally! You could sue these pittas to have a fakeaway night and stuff them with meat or falafels as a vegetarian option, salsa, salad, and sauces to make homemade, slightly healthier kebabs! Make sure to check out this recipe for Homemade Falafels, as well as my Quick Tomato and Red Onion Salsa and Tzatziki Dip (a Greek yoghurt dip with garlic and cucumber) which are great for stuffing these pitta breads with!
More Bread Baking Recipes
I loooooooove baking bread more than anything else in the world! I have loads of different bread recipes on my blog so why not check out some of my favourites below?
- Crusty Sourdough Loaf
- Wholemeal Sourdough Baton
- Seeded Sourdough Bread
- Rye Sourdough Loaf
- German “Laugenbrezeln” (Pretzels) | German Baking Classic
- “Muntermacher” | Mixed Seed and Carrot Bread
- 3-day Crusty French Baguettes (totally worth it!)
- Italian Rosemary Focaccia Bread
- Pesto Star Bread
- German “Bauernbrot” | German Baking Classic
- Cheddar Cheese and Chive Soda Bread
- Twist Bread – 3 Ways (plain/seeded, black olive, rosemary & sundried tomato)
- Pumpkin Seed Sourdough
- Olive Ciabatta Bread Sticks (with homemade Tzatziki) | Bake Off Technical Challenge
Pitta Bread with Nigella Seeds (Black Onion Seeds)
Recipe
Ingredients:
- 250g strong white bread flour
- 7g (1 sachet) fast-action dried yeast
- 20g Nigella seeds (black onion seeds)
- 5g fine sea salt
- 1 tbsp olive oil, plus a little for kneading and greasing
- 160ml lukewarm water
Method:
- Weigh the flour into a mixing bowl and add the salt to one side of the bowl and the dried yeast to the other. Briefly mix the two in with the flour on their respective sides of the bowl. Add in the Nigella seeds, then mix together all the dry ingredients until fully combined.
- Pour in the olive oil and water and stir to form a rough dough. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled surface, then knead for 5-10 minutes until smooth.
- Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with clingfilm. Leave the dough to prove for 30-60 minutes until doubled in size. Check out my tips above on how to prove dough in a cool environment or speed up the proofing process.
- Once the dough has doubled in size turn it onto a lightly floured surface. Knock it back (i.e. push out some of the air) using your fingertips or the knuckles of your hand. Then divide the dough into 6 roughly equal pieces.
- Preheat the oven to 250°C and place a baking tray in the oven to heat up.
- In the meantime, roll the dough into 6 large ovals, about half a centimetre in thickness.
- Once the oven is hot, dust the tray with flour and place three of the pitta breads onto the hot tray. Bake for 5-7 minutes until browned and puffed up.
- Remove the pitta breads from the oven and wrap in a clean tea towel to keep them warm and soft. Then repeat with the remaining three pitta breads.
- Serve the pitta while still warm, my recommendation would be to stuff them with salad, veggies, chicken and/or falafel and a nice homemade Tzsaziki sauce!
Leave any remaining pitta breads to cool completely before storing in a freezer bag at room temperature for 2-3 days or freezing.
