I have made pita twice recently, both times it stayed puffed after baking. I know when I have bought it from the store it was flat.

It tastes great, it is just difficult to store.

Idk but you should absolutely stuff it with something tasty and eat it that way

They should make arayes

When making bread becomes a PITA.

I stuffed them with buffalo ranch soy curls, facon, and lettuce.

I was gonna suggest shirazi salad but this is great too!

Perforate it before baking so the air can escape

how big are they each before cooking? 40g a piece is a solid point. also, how are you cooking it?
this is a solid video with recipe and at home cooking methods: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXlo1L_p42U

I may be making some Shiraz salad tomorrow. That sounds great.

They are 113g each. Baked at 450°/232° for 5 minutes on a baking stone.

Just my rolling pin.

At first glance I thought it was a turtle and you were a vet.

But then I saw the second picture and thought, "You killed a turtle? You monster!!!!"

Then I stuffed it with buffalo ranch soy curls and lettuce.

poor mr turtle 😔.

I use to eat them with peanut butter, heirloom tomato slices and thousand island dressing, but I'm kind of strange.

My guess is it got a bit toasted while you were making it. Is it crispy at all? Pita usually isn't crispy.

It is a bit crispy. Less so than the first batch, but I added oil and sugar to the second to help soften it.

Maybe try cooking it for slightly less time.

EDIT: Also when you're done cooking it, wrap it in a towel. When you cook more, wrap it in the same towel. This will help to soften the crust through a steaming process.

Yeah, I'll echo the lack of holes being the issue. If you check commercially made pita, there's perforations. You might also wanna dial back the temp a tad to reduce crisping

That being said, puffy pitas are perfectly normal. They tend to be softer though

Check out America's Test Kitchen's recipe, it's my go-to:
https://youtu.be/ZK0ayq4as5c

Sugar also helps it turn crispy.

No. You have to take it out of the oven earlier. It shouldn't be crispy, but soft.

Sounds like the only issue could be size. Since you've got so much more mass, you've also got that much more gluten to keep things thick and stable. Drop to about 40-50g each, get 'em nice and flat, and cook like normal with a little less total time, and you should have a proper rise and deflation. Good luck!

Won't help with the puffiness (other commenters are probably right about it being over baked), but I recently learned that chalupa shells are deep fried pita bread. Just in case you need an excuse to experiment more

Did you cook the turtle before you ate them?

I stack them after baking and flatten them out a little.

The last time I made them I put them in a bowl lined with a towel, and then covered the bowl with another towel. That seemed to help some. I cut the cooking time down from 6-8 minutes to 5. Going to drop the heat some tomorrow. I still have half the batch to bake for my pathfinder game.

I guess that does read like I eat turtles. But I was talking about eating pita bread.

But of course you have to cook turtles. Darwin ate a lot of them
https://alloftheanimals.com/what-charles-darwin-consumed-while-aboard-the-beagle/