Pumpkin Pita Bread recipe, is an elevated pita bread made with fresh pumpkin and walnut oil; a spectacular dipping bread for all our favorite Autumn Eats!
Pita Bread
We know that pita bread, as yummy as it may be, is really just flour and water, maybe a drizzle of olive oil to enrich the dough.
Pita bread, in my home, is often the go-to bread for a tapas spread; I like to think of it as a more user friendly cracker for great dips.
It’s perfect for most any dip, particularly hummus, which is always on a tapas spread in my home.
Store bought pita bread, unless it’s from a bakery, leaves much to be desired.
Therefore, many years ago, I took to making all my own pita bread.
It’s so easy that I taught my children to make it, when they were in their early teens.
Pumpkin
For those of you who have followed my kitchen and garden shenanigans over the years, you will remember the spring I decided to plant pumpkins.
Hah! The best thing that came out of that experience was the Pumpkin Blossoms that I stuffed.
As for the pumpkins, they helped themselves to my entire yard and yielded very little squash. Never again!
Pumpkin Harvest Season
I have a renewed respect for the hard work and dedication of our local farmers. Now, when it is pumpkin harvest season, I run just as fast as I can to buy up a bunch of these gorgeous whimsical looking veggies we are all crazy about.
Since pumpkins are a squash, therefore very gentle in flavor, they lend themselves to both sweet or savory dishes.
When I bring home my autumn harvest of pumpkins, I quick roast them, extract all the pulp, puree it and divi up into 2-cup size bags.
Some I keep in the fridge to start baking with right away, while the rest goes in the freezer for the holiday season ahead.
Pumpkin Pita Bread
What?? Who ever heard of Pumpkin Pita!
Well, in my home, it is now an autumn ‘thing’ that revisits year after year.
It makes for a beautiful dough that rises easily (about an hour).
It gives the bread a beautiful autumn color and the taste is rich instead of bland.
This year I took pumpkin, a step further (the whimsical kitchen witch in my kitchen made me do it), and made some fabulous hummus recipes with squash!
Oh My Goodness the Pumpkin Hummus or Roasted Butternut Squash Hummus and pumpkin pita are a marriage for sure!
Since I usually drizzle a little olive oil in the pita dough, this year I tried walnut oil with the pumpkin pita instead.
That extra nutty flavor, along with the gentle flavor of the pumpkin makes for a bread you will want to eat all by itself.
Walnut Oil In Pumpkin Pita
Walnut oil has a rich flavor that is perfect to drizzle on cold dishes. Its flavor is slightly sweet and definitely nutty.
Walnut oil is not really suitable for frying or cooking over high heat.
The flavor can become slightly bitter or it simply loses its nutty flavor.
While most nut oils are not really suitable for cooking over high heat, I have found that using them in slow baked recipes, such as cookies, pie crusts or bread, retains the nutty flavor.
Therefore I use various types of nut oils often in my baking.
Making This Pumpkin Pita Bread Recipe
If you browse through my blog, cookbook or have watched me cook in cooking shows on various networks, you will know that I often seek to make a variety of breads, crackers or other pastries.
Making bread is so easy, any pre-teenager can be taught to do it. So… why not you!
Like so many other types of baked items that simply need a ratio of wet to dry ingredients, bread is much the same, it just needs yeast to make it rise.
In a bowl with pureed pumpkin, a drizzle of walnut oil, a little water and some yeast, you simply keep stirring in flour until the dough comes together and is no longer sticky.
Let it rise about an hour, bake and there you have it!
Ingredients Needed
- Yeast
- Salt
- Sugar
- Pumpkin puree
- Walnut oil
- Water
- Flour
- Coarse salt
Equipment Needed
- Mixing bowl
- Basting brust
- Measuring cup
- Measuring spoons
- Baking sheet
- Parchment paper
- Wooden spoon
- Knife
- Blender or immersion blender
- Oven
More Pumpkin Recipes To Love
While this pumpkin pita bread would be considered a savory pumpkin recipe, as would be my favorite Persian Fesenjan Chicken Pumpkin Walnut Stew, I have lots of sweet recipes for pumpkin too.
However, before we dive into some great pumpkin sweet treats, we really must address the elephant in the room; pumpkin isn’t sweet!
Although when pumpkin season rolls around, we are thinking pies, lattes and lots of other pumpkin recipes, we are really enjoying ‘Pumpkin Spice Blend‘.
Now there, is where the iconic pumpkin flavors is really coming from, which is why I add it to my pie crusts in Autumn as well!
- Homemade Pumpkin Spice Pumpkin Pie – with pumpkin spice in both the custard and crust.
- Pumpkin Ganache Spiced Cake – A spiced cake with rye flour, Guinness and molasses, pumpkin ganache with white chocolate and cardamom and coconut cream foam is nothing short of Grand!
- Date and Pumpkin Seed Cake – let’s not forget those pumpkin seeds we all love to roast and make them the star of this cake, caramelized!
Pumpkin Pita Bread Recipe
Equipment
- Rolling Pin
- Sheet pan and parchment paper
Ingredients
- 2 tsp Quick Yeast
- 2 tsp Sugar
- 1 tbsp Salt
- 1/2 cup Pumpkin puree
- 2 tbsp Walnut oil more for basting
- 1 1/4 cups Lukewarm water
- 4-5 cups All Purpose Flour more for dusting
- 1 tsp Coarse salt
Instructions
- Pour water in a large bowl. Sprinkle yeast and sugar on top. Allow to sit 5 minutes to form a foam.
- Add salt, pumpkin and oil. Stir.
- Slowly add flour and stir until it becomes difficult to stir. Now it’s time to get a little messy. With your hands, begin to press added flour into the dough, add more flour, and keep pressing and folding, adding flour until it forms a lovely plump ball.
- In a clean bowl, pour a little oil to glaze the bowl. Place dough ball in the oiled bowl, cover and let it sit in a warm (not hot) place to rise. It will rise in about one hour. A little longer in cooler climate.
- Once it rises, sprinkle a little flour on top, and punch it down. On a floured surface roll out the dough. Cut into 12 pieces and shape into flat/oval pieces about 1/4 inch thick.
- Preheat oven to 400 – Place parchment paper on the baking sheet.
- Once the strips are on the pan, brush lightly with oil and sprinkle with coarse salt.
- Bake for 18 – 20 minutes, until golden on top.
Video
Notes
I believe the table... that place that draws people to gather, is the most powerful symbol of togetherness. All that happens before the table is set, the planning, the gathering, the preparing, are all an intricate part of the dance that create the mood of celebration to share with friends and loved ones.
