Gyro Bread - Greek Pita Bread

Gyro bread is an easy greek pita bread that is made with only 4 ingredients.

Nothing can satisfy your hunger better than some good old fluffy bread. You make it into a Gyro wrap, serve alongside your favorite appetizers or have it with some creamy hummus (a middle eastern dip).

This hot soft, chewy bread right of the frying pan tastes great with right about anything. Once you experience the fresh aroma of the baked good as it fills your kitchen and house, you’ll never give in to buying store-bought pita bread ever again. So, let’s get down to business. It’s easier than you think it is.

What is Gyro or Greek Pita Bread?

Gyro or Greek Pita bread is a traditional bread served alongside falafel, lamb, hummus, or even curry throughout the Mediterranean. The Greeks gave it the name “Pita,” which simply translates to “flatbread.”

It can be made from a variety of grains and be baked, fried, steamed, or even grilled. The type we’re making today is customarily made on a stovetop resulting in beautiful golden-brown bumbles and char marks.

What’s in this Gyro Bread?

• Strong white flour: This will make the bread soft
• Dry instant yeast: To make the bread rise
• Salt: To taste
• Sugar: This works to give yeast extra nutrition

How to make this Gyro Bread?

Preparing the Yeast: Before we dive into making the bread, we will prepare the yeast to use in our bread. In a small bowl, mix yeast, sugar, and water. Cover this bowl and leave it in a warm place for 5-10 minutes. You can run some other errands around the house and return to the kitchen.

Preparing the dough: Now, take out a large bowl. Add flour, salt, and then the mixture of water and yeast we had just prepared.

Knead everything together for 6-8 minutes. You can use a stand mixer to do this step or just use your hands.

Once all ingredients are well kneaded and stuck together, forming a giant ball, brush the dough with some oil, place it in the bowl, and cover it with plastic wrap.

Let this big ball of dough sit for 30 minutes or until you it doubles its size.

Now, take the dough out of the bowl and split it into 6 evenly sized balls.
Cover these balls and let them rest for 10-15 minutes. We’ll be rolling these smaller balls in a while.

Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough balls to form a round shape of pitta bread. If you’d like, you could even stretch it using your hands. Beware to not flatten the dough balls to the point that they’re so thin that they stick to the counter.

Cooking the dough: Heat a non-sticking frying pan to medium heat, brush it with a little oil, and wipe off any excess. Cook each piece of Gyro Bread for about 3-4 minutes on each side until it is lightly colored.

Thanks to the yeast, these Gyro Bread will rise and might also have little bubbles form.

Once you take them off the pan, they’re ready to be served with your favorite food.

Top Tips

• When you roll out the dough balls, stop when they are about a quarter inch thick, and the circle is about 8-9 inches wide.
• When you’re rolling the dough, it helps to constantly be lifting and flipping the dough over. This prevents it from sticking to the counter.
• Even after lifting and flipping, if the dough sticks to the counter, it’ll help to use some dusting flour. Take out about a fistful of dusting flour and keep it next to you in a small bowl for when you think the dough is getting too sticky.
• Traditionally, Gyro Bread is served fresh. So while you’re waiting for the bread to cook on each side, you could simultaneously be rolling out another ball of dough. This will save you some time.

Some Variations

• Alternatively, you could even cook this recipe in the oven. All you need to do is heat the oven to 240°C and place a baking pan or large iron skillet on the middle rack and allow it to heat up. Now, place the rolled-out Gyro pieces of bread on the skillet. You will have to work in batches, as only one or two may fit. Bake for 2 minutes on each side or until they beautifully rise.
• You can make the bread using whole wheat flour as a healthier substitute.

Serving Suggestions

We can’t even begin to share with you all the fantastic food items that go incredibly well with Gyro bread. These can be served with hummus, falafel, lamb, or chicken curry. You could also stuff these with some veggies, cheese, any sort of protein, and other stuffings of your choice and enjoy delicious wraps.

You can even stuff them with peanut butter, banana, and apples to make some sweet dessert or snack for your kids!

The sky is the limit with this bread. Let us know how you like to serve yours in the comments below.

Storage

Make ahead of time: You can easily prepare this dough, plop it in the fridge, roll out, and cook the bread whenever you’d like to serve them.

Store: If you keep the bread stored in an air-tight container at room temperature, it can last a good 7 days.

Freeze: Once you’ve made this bread, you can package it in an air-tight container and freeze it for up to 3 months.

To reheat: Take the bread out of the freezer whenever you’d like to have it, and defrost it for 30 minutes at room temperature. Next, you can use a toaster or oven to reheat it. Both methods will take around 2 minutes to heat up the bread.

Recipe FAQ

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