Can You Freeze Pita Bread?

Bread has always been one of the most basic foods to eat. It is a food that has been eaten by humanity for thousands of years. The pita bread is a puffy kind of bread with a roundish form that makes it resemble pancakes. Pita bread can be easily made in the comfort of your home; all you need is some salt, yeast, water, and flour. 

One major distinctive feature of pita bread is the spacious pocket found in its middle. This air pocket is formed as a result of the puffed up dough rising and cooling down to a flat form. 

Although pita bread is made from a primary set of ingredients, there are several unique recipes that can be used in making it. Pita bread can also be used as an ingredient in other meals like breakfast pita pizza, jalapeño popper pita pizza, and lots more. 

Seeing how useful pita bread is at home, you may want to prepare a large amount of it for mass storage. For the purpose of long-term preservation grocery stores regularly freeze their pita bread. 

So if you’ve been wondering: can you freeze pita bread? The answer is yes, you can freeze pita bread. Feel free to stock up on store-bought or homemade pita bread; you’ll get up to three months of quality preservation through freezing. 

You shouldn’t freeze your pita bread beyond three months. Although it might be safe to eat after that time frame, the bread’s quality would have drastically reduced. This means that your best bet at eating frozen pita while it’s still fresh is to eat it within the first three months of freezing.  

Freezing Pita Bread 

Apart from being eaten as is, pita bread has a lot of other uses; you can even eat your hummus and other favorite dips with chunks of pita bread. If you eat pita bread a lot, it makes much sense to freeze a significant amount of it for regular use on later dates. However, there are correct steps to follow when you’re freezing pita bread. Failure to follow these steps will result in your batch of frozen pita bread being stale after thawing. 

You should know that the quality of store-bought pita bread, or homemade ones, will affect how well it preserves in the freezer. If you’ll be buying from the grocer, it is best to choose fresher pita bread with higher moisture content – instead of those that are already going stale and hard. Those who prefer to make their pita bread at home should freeze it shortly after being made. 

How to Freeze Pita Bread  

Here are some simple steps to follow for freezing and successfully increasing the shelf life of your pita bread: 

• If you’re purchasing pita bread from the grocer with the intention of freezing, you’ll need to select the freshest batch. If you’ll be making it from scratch at home, you should freeze it shortly after making it. 
• Store-bought pita bread will have its own packaging. If you wish to freeze the pita bread in that packaging you’ll have to wrap it in aluminum foil. The purpose of wrapping in aluminum foil is to protect the pita bread from potential freezer burn. If your pita bread was made at home, you can first package it in a freezer-safe plastic bag before finally wrapping it in aluminum foil. 
• When packing your pita bread into freezer-safe bags, you need to vacuum as much air as possible out of the bags. Leaving air in the bags will cause the pita bread to rapidly go stale and hard. Freezers have a tendency of drastically reducing moisture in the freezer bread if there’s much air in the bag.  
• After vacuum packing the pita bread for storage in the freezer, write the present date on the pack with a marker. Locate a clear space in the freezer to keep the pita bread. You must be careful not to place heavier food items on the pita bread; heavier items can compromise the integrity of the pita bread’s shape and freshness. 

Note that pita bread can’t be left sitting on the countertop for too long. Pita bread can only last about two days when left to sit at room temperature. If you only need short-term preservation for the pita bread, you can place it in a refrigerator to keep for up to 4 days. Make sure you discard of any pita bread that has gone stale.      Naves Espaciales, Tu Tienda Online de Artículos Espaciales 🛸

How to Thaw Frozen Pita Bread 

Time will come when you’d want to use some of the frozen pita bread – make sure you only take out a portion that you can finish at once so as to avoid refreezing. After taking the frozen bread out of the freezer, remove its packaging and place the bread on the kitchen countertop to defrost. 

If the pita bread you froze is store-bought, I’d advise you not to take it out of the original packaging when defrosting. The packaging keeps it protected against room temperature air that facilitates rapid growth of mold and bacteria. 

In case you don’t have time to wait for the pita bread to defrost on the countertop, the oven is a faster alternative. Set the oven to 300⁰F and leave the pita bread to reheat for a couple of minutes; the bread with have a crusty exterior afterwards. 

The microwave can also be used to thaw frozen pita bread. You may add little sprinkles of water to the pita bread before placing inside the microwave to thaw – doing that will keep the pita bread moist and fresh.   

Is Pita Bread Healthy?  

Generally, pita bread is usually made from the same base ingredients. However, there are different recipes that are used to make unique variations of pita bread. The whole-grain types of pita bread are a lot more nutritious than other ones. Pita bread is rich in selenium, manganese, vitamin B, protein, and digestible carbohydrates. 

In addition to its own health benefits, you can make healthier meals out of pita bread by using it as a wrap for nutritious vegetables and other healthy stuffings.