I’m excited to share my grandma’s recipe for grilled pita with honey and feta. This is a nostalgic childhood dish for me, which brings back warm memories of cooking on my grandma’s traditional wood-fired stove. My grandma made this every Sunday morning while I was growing up, and she would cook the dough directly on the hot, metal surface of our wood-burning stove until charred and pillowy soft. After cooking the dough, she would slather it with grass-fed butter or olive oil, local feta, and honey. My cousins and I used to enjoy 1 or 2 of these grilled breads for our weekly Sunday breakfast.
And now I’m thrilled to add my Modern Nonna touch to this recipe and bring one of my favorite childhood recipes into your home. The beauty of this recipe is that it’s all about using up the last bits of whatever kind of dough you may have leftover, whether a pizza, pita, or flatbread dough. If you don’t want to make homemade dough, you can also use store-bought pizza dough. In this recipe, I refer to the dough as “pita bread” but this is very similar to my pizza dough recipe.
The dough is cooked directly on the barbeque, which produces beautiful char marks, but a hot pan on the stovetop also works as well. Though feta is the traditional cheese of choice in my family, you can add any salty cheese you like here; I used provolone. And for a little spice, you can also try this recipe with store-bought hot honey drizzled on top. If you’re familiar with my recipes, you know I am in love with the combination of feta and honey: you can’t go wrong combining salty, creamy, and sweet.
Grilled Pita with Honey and Feta
Ingredients
The Yeast:
- 1 packet of active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons, 7 grams)
- 1 ¼ cups warm water (300ml)
- 1 teaspoon sugar (5 grams)
The Dough:
- 3 cups all-purpose flour (450 grams) plus more for dusting
- ½ teaspoon salt (3 grams)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil for the dough
Additional Toppings:
- drizzle of olive oil brushed on the dough before grilling
- slices of provolone cheese or any cheese, such as Kashkaval, mozzarella, etc. optional*
- crumbled feta, measured with your heart
- drizzle of honey or hot honey
Instructions
Activating the Yeast:
- Note: Activating the yeast is the most important part of this recipe. If the yeast does not activate, start this step all over. If it does not activate it means that the water was too hot, too cold, or the yeast was old or bad. The water should be around 100-110 degrees Fahrenheit.
- In a bowl, add the yeast, sugar and warm water. Give it a quick whisk and leave it to activate and foam up for 5 to 10 minutes.
The Dough:
- Add the flour and salt to a large bowl (stand mixer instructions in notes below) and mix together. Pour in the activated yeast mixture and stir with a spatula or wooden spoon.
- Pour the dough out onto the clean counter and begin to knead it. If the dough is sticky, add 1 tablespoon of flour at a time (I used about 1/4 cup or less) and knead until you have a smooth dough.
- You will know the dough is ready when you press down on it with a finger and the indent bounces back up slowly. I knead by hand for 8 to 10 minutes. If you don't know how to knead dough, watch this Youtube tutorial here: How to knead bread dough
- Once the dough is kneaded, shape it into a ball and oil it up with the olive oil. Place it in a big bowl and let it rest, covered with plastic wrap, in a warm dry place away from drafts. (This can be in a turned-off oven, microwave, or cupboard.) Let rest for about 2 hours, until the dough has tripled in size.
- When the dough has risen, remove the plastic wrap and punch it down in the middle so it deflates. Place the dough on the counter and divide into four equal pieces.
- Roll each piece into a ball and start to roll out the pitas one by one. I take a dough ball, flatten it with my hands and begin to stretch out the dough gently with my fingers, rotating it around.
- If you don’t know how to gently stretch dough with your hands you can skip this step, grab a rolling pin, and roll it as thin as possible, making sure you rotate the rolling pin in all directions. Be sure to lightly flour the dough and rolling pin, if the dough gets sticky.
- Roll out all four pitas as thin as possible and set them aside. Place each one onto a piece of parchment paper.
Grilling Method:
- Note: before you start, make sure you have all the toppings ready.
- Brush one side of the pitas with olive oil and get the BBQ ready. Please follow your manual on how to safely use and operate a grill or have someone assist you.
- Preheat the barbecue to 450F. If you don't have a BBQ or grill, you can do this in a pan on the stove.
- Place the pita onto the hot grill, oil side down, and peel off the parchment paper on top.
- Close the lid of the BBQ and let the dough cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until it bubbles up. This happens very quickly so keep an eye on it.
- Flip the pita over (with BBQ tongs or a BBQ-safe spatula) and immediately add the cheese slices and crumbled feta.
- Close the lid for another 1 to 2 minutes, or until the other side is charred and the cheese starts to melt.
- Remove the pita from the heat and generously drizzle it with honey or hot honey. Serve hot!
One Response
I did any flour nut had bought fabulous pita from a middle eastern grocery store (best pita in town) used that instead i used what I had in the house used Bulgarian feta which I prefer it’s creamier with a lovely taste chopped up basil tomates and had roasted garlic with honey on top it was so yummy