Pitas were a favored bread choice back in the gluten-full days for me. When I eliminated gluten, I couldn’t find gluten-free pita bread in the store. When I did finally locate it in the store across town, it was cost prohibitive.
I’ve spent a couple of years making others recipes for pita bread and often commit more time than I’d like. I’m definitely a convenience girl when it comes to bread. I have no shame in saying I buy my sandwich bread and bagels. Sometimes I even buy toaster waffles. But when I figured out I could make pita bread at home in no time at all, I stopped looking for it at the store!
Here’s the scoop on this bread: it’s made with sesame flour. Super simple, just grind white sesame seeds into flour using your high speed blender, food processor or coffee bean grinder. I use the coffee bean grinder most often since this recipe only uses 1/2 cup of sesame flour. When I take the lid off of the grinder, I exclaim, “Open, Sesame!” There truly is a treasure inside, sesame flour, and it doesn’t require forty thieves to unveil it.
I am having so much fun exploring uses of sesame flour beyond pita bread and hope to share some of those soon, too. For now, here’s my pita bread recipe. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
If you enjoy pita wedges with hummus, make sure you check out the Black Eyed Pea and Roasted Garlic Hummus shown in the photos!
Pitas in a Hurry: Gluten-free, Grain-Free, Dairy-Free AND Nut-Free!
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup filtered water
- 1 large egg from a happy hen
- 1 Tablespoon grapeseed oil
- 1/2 cup sesame seed flour (sesame seeds ground using blender, food processor or coffee bean grinder)
- 1 Tablespoon coconut flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- pinch of sea salt
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
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Line one large baking sheet with a Silpat mat or parchment paper. Set aside.
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In a small mixing bowl, whisk together water, egg and oil.
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Add in sesame seed flour, coconut flour, baking soda and salt. Mix well to combine.
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Let rest for five minutes.
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Pour into two equal portions on the baking sheet. Using a spatula, spread to a 6" circle.
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Place in oven for 15 to 18 minutes. The edges will begin to brown.
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Remove from oven and allow to cool.
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For pita pockets, cut in half and then slice into the halves to make pockets.
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For wedges to serve with hummus (as shown in photo), turn oven onto broil. Cut each baked pita into 8 wedges. Lightly brush with olive oil if desired. Broil on high until crispy.
Love this! How many sesame seeds (approximately) do you think it takes to make 1/2 C of flour? Trying to decide if I have enough sesame seeds in the pantry;)
I didn’t know this off the top of my head, so came home and tested for you. I put 1/2 cup of sesame seeds in the coffee grinder and got 3/4 cup plus about a Tablespoon of sesame meal. I hope that helps!
Man, those look good! Making your own sesame flour is brilliant, Johnna! Can’t wait to share this post on FB today and include it in my ongoing bread series. 🙂 This one might top your Sriracha cashews! 😉
Shirley
Thanks for sharing, Shirley. While I really do like these pitas (using them for pizza crust tonight), it will take something really super duper to top the Sriracha cashews. Addicted!
In my humus I don’t use tahini, hate it, to me it’s bitter. Instead I use a massive amount of sesame seeds, roasted. Will put up recipe on my blog soon.
Going to try your pita bread recipe, looks interesting.
Kittie and I went to Real Food Daily last nite. After 16 hours in transit from Paris not really ready to make dinner. Love their Mexico City Tacos… all vegan. They don’t even have honey.
I agree, tahini does have a tinge of bitterness. I offset that with citrus juice, but like your suggestion of using roasted sesame seeds.
Real Food Daily sounds delicious!
Made your sesame bread! Delish!
Thank you for the recipe. I ate both of them when came out of the oven. Oops ! They are so easy I’m going to make tonight:).
This is my greatest challenge with these–they sure don’t last long! 🙂
Just came across your sesame pitta bread – am certainly going to try it!
Read comment re slight bitter taste of tahini – I discovered that drizzling agave syrup & mixing with spring water is a delicious jam like paste – my 3 year granddaughter loves it!!
I hope you’ll give it a try! I agree a touch of sweet can often offset the bitter of tahini. I had tahini in Israel that had absolutely no bitter taste to it and wish I could find that in the U.S.