Home Made Manakish – The Middle East All Time Best Seller Breakfast!

You really don’t know the worth of things in your life, till you lose them! One of the things that I took granted in life was the good old traditional manakish (Flat Bread with Toppings). I never thought I would miss it when I moved to the UAE. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of Lebanese restaurants serve it, but it doesn’t have the same taste as in the bakery down the street back home.

If you ask any Lebanese born and raised there, what is your favourite breakfast. The most common answer will be a mankoushe topped with zaatar (thyme) and vegetables with top juice. In the good old days, this breakfast was worth 0.35$.

The love of mankoushe have spread across the Middle East and Arab world. And now that Ramadan is over, you can go back to having a good old-fashioned breakfast.

So try my recipe for manakish, and make sure you get the toppings (Keshk and Zaatar) from an authentic place. I would recommend Lebanese Roaster or Istanbul Supermarket if you live in UAE.

Ingredients:

For the Pizza Dough:

• - 5 Cups of Flour

• - 3 tsp Instant Yeast

• - 1/2 tbsp Salt

• - 2 tbsp Sugar

• - 3 tbsp Dry Powdered Milk

• - 1/2 Cup of Olive Oil

• - 2 Cups Warm Water

For the Cheese Topping:

• - 200 g Akkawi Czech Cheese

• - 200 g Nabulsi Cheese

For Zaatar Topping:

• - Dry Zaatar Powder

• - Olive Oil

For Keshk Topping:

- 1 Medium Onion Chopped

- 2 Medium Tomatoes Chopped

- Dry Keshk

- Olive Oil

Directions:

- In a large bowl, Add all the dry ingredients. Make a well in the middle, Add the oil and the warm water and start kneading for around 10 minutes (Set a timer) till you have a very smooth dough. Leave the dough covered in a dark warm place (ideally I put it in the oven) to rest for 1 hour if you are using instant yeast and 3 hours if you are using active dry yeast.

- Chop the cheese in huge chunks, then add boiling water. Let the cheese soak for 12 hours while changing the water every couple of hours. This process makes the cheese less salty. If you like your manakish salty, you can reduce the time of the process for 2- 4 hours instead. Once done, Smash the cheese and you are good to go.

- For the zaatar, in a bowl, add 2 tbsp of zaatar with olive oil till you have a light texture.

- For the keshk, in a bowl, add the chopped onions and tomatoes, 2 tbsp of keshk and 3 tbsp of olive oil. Mix it well, add more water if you see the texture is not smooth enough.

- With the topping ready, split the dough in four parts. Then using a rolling pin, roll the dough till you have a thin layer. Use a small bowl to form round shaped dough.

- Preheat the oven to 225 C. Sprinkle the basking tray with flour, Add the round shaped dough, With your hands wipe some oil on each one then add your favorite topping.

- Let it bake for 10 to 15 minutes, switch your heat to the top burner for few extra minutes to get a nice golden color.

Tips to make this recipe successful:

- If you are using active dry yeast not instant yeast, mix the yeast with 1/2 cup of warm water and let it rest covered for 15 minutes before adding it to the dry ingredients. In this case you only add 1 1/2 cup of water instead of 2 to the dough.

-Flour can be different from one brand to another so the measurements might be different. So when adding water, do it gradually. If the dough is sticky add more flour till its not. Once you fix your measurements for recipe, stick to the same brand so you don't have to remeasure.

- The oven has to be very hot prior placing the baking tray so that the dough doesn't rise again in the oven.

Cooking Video Tutorial: