This Recipe brings back so many memories. From the times where we would all sit around my grandmother early mornings as she would bake these Manakeesh on the sagge, outside in the open with the fire crackling under the sagge; to the times where my mom would send me to the nearest manakeesh bakery early mornings to get our breakfast manakeesh.
Manakeesh is a traditional breakfast dish in Lebanon. The toppings are all up to your imagination. Ranging from Zaatar, sausages and cheese, keshek, lamb with onions and seasoning, to anything you could think of. The world is your mankousheh, and all you have to do is create your topping!
For this recipe you’ll need:
- Zaatar
- Olive oil
- My Fluffy Crunchy Pizza Dough or Almost Anything Dough
My favorite was always a cheese mankousheh topped with toasted sesame seeds. I would walk to our nearest local bakery, which wasn’t that far, with my toppings in my hands. They provided the dough. I would tell them how much I wanted with what toppings, and they got to work on it. All I had to do was just sit there and wait for my manakeesh to be done.
Meanwhile at home, my mom would be preparing the sides which usually consisted of cut up vegetables of our choice such as fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, radishes, and anything that you could think of that would freshen up your taste buds with each bite of mankousheh. The best part is when those vegetables were fresh from the garden.
My parents did a lot of vegetable farming as i was growing up, and I fell in love with it. Seeing my food growing on plants and trees, caring for those tender creatures, and all I had to do whenever I needed a snack or if I was hungry is to reach up to one of them, and it would hand me my delicious sustenance for the day.
My favorite part was when I would go to visit my grandparents and often find my grandfather in his garden. He placed an old bed in his beautiful lush garden. When in doubt, I would go and find him there lying on his bed as he watered his trees and plants. It was always a delight when he would offer me fruits from his beautiful garden.
My grandfather’s love for gardening, and my parents love for gardening was contagious. I couldn’t help but fall in love with it. I now have my own garden and plants that I tend and care for. I love plants. I love caring for them, I love the peace and tranquility that they give us, and most of all I love the fruits that they provide us with.
Anyways, back to the manakeesh. I am sorry, but I can’t help it. I love plants way too much! Writing about manakeesh has apparently brought so many unexpected memories into my life. Who knew such a simple dish can hold so many memories.
So how do you make this thing called mankousheh? Well, let me tell you! Going gluten free, I thought this was a dish that I had to forgo. I was very sad at first, but eventually I got used to it. I kept trying to create a mankousheh recipe that is similar to the wheat dough manakeesh that I was used to, but I kept facing failure after failure. However, that did not stop me from wanting to continue to find this perfect recipe for a mankousheh.
I finally was inspired to create a gluten free pizza dough that turned out to be super delicious. I say inspired because it was really inspired by the Lord. I woke up one day, and had the idea, the ingredients, the amounts, and all that is needed to create this pizza dough. I tried it, and it was perfect from the beginning.
The thought occurred to me that I could use the exact pizza dough for manakeesh. I just need to cook it differently. And that’s what I did, and I am glad to say that it was a success.
So if you want to make manakeesh, you could find my pizza dough recipe right here and it will take you right to the recipe.
You’ll need to preheat the oven to 450 F before you begin preparing the dough as this dough uses baking powder for leavening. Baking powder reacts quickly with the dough, but it also loses its effect quickly. So, you’ll want to make sure that your oven is hot and ready to bake your manakeesh as soon as they are ready.
After you make the pizza dough, you can take about a tennis ball size dough and roll it into a circle of about 1/4 inch thickness, and 8 to 9 inches in diameter. You’ll want to do this on a silicone mat as the dough will stick to the surface that you are rolling it onto. Make sure to generously oil the rolling pin to prevent the dough from sticking to it.
Place the silicone mat with the dough on it onto a baking sheet, and place it into the oven on the bottom rack. The baking time for the dough will vary depending on the diameter and the thickness of the dough. So you’ll want to keep an eye on it as it bakes. Generally, the dough bakes in about 5 to 7 minutes. The one thing that you do not want to happen is for the dough to brown. You’ll want to take the dough out of the oven before this begins to happen. A brown dough means a hard and crusty mankoushe.
Make sure that you have the toppings ready before you begin to bake the manakeesh. For a zaatar mankoushe, you’ll of course need zaatar which you can find on amazon, or any arabic grocery store. You might be even lucky and find it at a regular grocery store in the Mediterranean food section.
Mix the zaatar with some olive oil. The ratio of zaatar to olive oil depends on how strong you want the zaatar flavor to be in in your mankoushe. The main thing however, is to make sure that the zaatar has a spreadable consistency. If you have too much oil in there, you’ll end up with a very oily mankoushe. Vice versa, if you have too little oil, you’ll end up with a dry mankoushe. Just make sure to balance that ratio to reach your desired consistency.
After you spread the zaatar toppings on the pre-baked mankoushe dough, place it back in the oven and bake for 2 more minutes.
Allow the manakeesh to cool slightly before delving into them. The traditional way of eating manakeesh is to fold them in half which would create a crescent shape with the toppings encased in the middle.
As I have mentioned before, you could serve manakeesh with all sorts of vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, olives, onions, and so on.
There are so many different kinds of manakeesh that you could make, but if I keep going, this post will never end! Be creative, and put whatever toppings you could think of on your mankoushe. Just make sure to adjust the baking requirements according to your toppings.
Manakeesh Zaatar (Lebanese Thyme Pizza)
Equipment
- Pizza pan
- Rolling Pin
- Silicone mat
- Small bowl
- Small spoon
Ingredients
- Zaatar
- My Fluffy Crunchy Pizza Dough or Almost Anything Dough
- Olive Oil
Instructions
- Prepare the topping by mixing about a ¼ cup of zaatar to about a ¼ cup of olive oil. The ratio of zaatar to olive oil depends on how strong you want the zaatar flavor to be in your mankoushe. The main thing however, is to make sure that the zaatar has a spreadable consistency. If you have too much oil in there, you’ll end up with a very oily mankoushe. Vice versa, if you have too little oil, you’ll end up with a dry mankoushe. Just make sure to balance that ratio to reach your desired consistency.
- Preheat the oven to 450 F before you begin preparing the dough as this dough uses baking powder for leavening. Baking powder reacts quickly with the dough, but it also loses its effect quickly. So, you’ll want to make sure that your oven is hot and ready to bake your manakeesh as soon as they are ready.
- Once the pizza dough is ready, take about a tennis ball size dough and roll it into a circle of about 1/4 inch thickness and 8 to 9 inches in diameter. You’ll want to do this on a silicone mat as the dough will stick to the surface that you are rolling it onto. Make sure to generously oil the rolling pin to prevent the dough from sticking to it.
- Place the silicone mat with the dough on it onto a baking sheet, and place it into the oven on the bottom rack.
- The baking time for the dough will vary depending on the diameter and the thickness of the dough. So you’ll want to keep an eye on it as it bakes. Generally, the dough bakes in about 5 to 7 minutes. The one thing that you do not want to happen is for the dough to brown. You’ll want to take the dough out of the oven before this begins to happen. A brown dough means a hard and crusty mankoushe.
- Take about a tablespoon or so of the zaatar mixture and spread it onto the prebaked dough. You need to be able to cover the entire dough with a light covering of the zaatar topping. If you put too much, the mankoushe will have a very strong taste, and would not be pleasant. The amount of zaatar topping that you put of course depends on you. If you like more zaatar, put more. If you like less zaatar, put less.
- Once you have placed the toppings on the mankoushe, place it back in the oven and bake for 2 more minutes.
- Allow the manakeesh to cool slightly before delving into them. The traditional way of eating manakeesh is to fold them in half which would create a crescent shape with the toppings encased in the middle.
- You could serve manakeesh with all sorts of vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, olives, onions, and so on.
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