Mana'eesh Lebanese Breakfast

Whats better than fresh baked bread in the morning? Mana'eesh of course! Traditional bread with zaatar or cheese or kishk, baked in a wood fire oven. Served with a cup of tea or a Arabic (Turkish) coffee. Its a light and delicious breakfast. Of course you can have it for lunch or dinner or anytime in between. It reminds me of waking up in the village in Lebanon and having these fresh from the bakery down the street. I don't have a wood burning oven in my apartment here in Vancouver but I do have a pizza stone that I can put in my oven. If you don't have one and you make your own pizza or flatbread at home I really suggest it. It helps you get a good crisp to the bottom and keeps the oven from cooling down too much when you open it. Now lets get started!

We start by making the dough the night before. Its a simple dough recipe and can be made with relative ease. You will need the following to make 4 portions, each about 12 inches in diameter.

-3 cups flour (00 flour or bread flour are good choices)

-1.5 cups water (30°C or 86°F, warm but not at all hot)

-0.2 oz active dry yeast (one small packet, instant or traditional are ok)

-2 tsp olive oil

-1.5 tsp sugar

-1 tsp salt

As for the toppings, no need to make all three varieties the first time but the zaatar is a staple. What is zaatar or kishk you ask? I assume some of you already know what these are but don't be shy if this is new!

-zaatar (a mix of thyme, sesame seeds and sumac) and olive oil

-fresh mozzarella cheese (you can add a bit of feta for a good saltiness or traditionally akawi cheese is used)

-kishk powder, onion, tomato, olive oil and water (a good detailed instruction of how to make the kishk can be found at https://zaatarandzaytoun.com/kishik-manoushe/ )

You may have noticed I don't have a pic of the dough being mixed. That's my mistake, not to worry I will be extra descriptive instead!

We want to start with the water and yeast. The water temperature is critical, too hot and the yeast will die and too cold and the yeast wont activate. I like to start with just a touch of water with the yeast. I find it easier to mix it in. Then keep adding water until its all mixed in. In about 5 to 10 min there will be a thick foam top layer, this is good!

Now we want to mix the flour, sugar and salt. You should split about a quarter of the flour mix into a small bowl on the side. Now the majority of the flour can get the olive oil and water/yeast mix. This is going to give you a very wet dough, mix this well, get the clumps out. I like to move the slop onto the counter once it is well combined. Slowly sprinkle the remaining flour on the table and mix it in to the slop! By the time you get the last bit of flour it should be a wet but solid dough. Sticky but not unworkable, you should be able to make a ball out of it. Cut it up into 4 equal pieces and roll them up. Put them on a plate or in a bowl, brush the top with olive oil then cover them. Refrigerate overnight.

This last step is optional. I like it as it lets me sleep in an extra 20min. I place my pizza stone in the oven, mid shelf. I set the timer to preheat the oven to 550°F about 20 min before I want to begin (or wake up) (PS: my oven takes about 20 min to reach temperature, it takes longer with the stone).

Good morning! I hope you had a good sleep. Chances are you woke up before the rest of the family to get this started. So lets do this!

First I want to mention it is important to have a pizza stone but if you don't have one just use a sheet tray, keep it in the oven and place the dough onto the preheated pan once we get to that part.

If it isn't yet preheated, get your oven to 550°C (bake, no need to set it to broil or convection)

Make some space on your counter, sprinkle some flour down and grab your first dough ball!

I like to flatten it out by hand at first. Then roll it out further with a rolling pin. Keep turning the dough as you are rolling to keep it round. You might need a bit more flour on the table while you are rolling it If the dough isnt freely sliding around on the table (it will stick to the pizza peel in the next steps).

A pizza peel (or sometimes called a pizza shovel) is a great tool to have as well. If you don't have one you can improvise, try using the back of a sheet tray and sliding the dough directly off of it into the oven.

Place the dough onto the peel!

Zaatar: Take your zaatar mix, add olive oil a little at a time. When its a thick consistency add a bit more oil and you should be good, it should be runny but not soupy. About 2 big tbsp of zaatar mix per manoushe (manaeesh is plural, manoushe is singular). Spread it on the dough, keeping it about a finger width away from the edges.

Cheese: I personally love fresh mozzarella. It is light and creamy. Traditionally you would use akawi cheese, it is a lightly salty brined cheese similar to mozzarella. If you cant find it where you live you could also add a small amount of feta to the mozzarella and get a similar flavour. Only put it on half the dough, not too close to the edge, it will spread as it melts. With this one you should also use a toothpick or something similar to poke the side without toppings. This keeps it from puffing up too much.

Kishk: I didn't make this one here but as I mentioned before, there is a great guide on the above mentioned site. Kishk is a bit harder to find but a Mediterranean specialty store should be a good place to find it. Spread it the same way you would spread the zaatar but just a touch thicker.

Once the toppings are on the dough, go ahead and slide it into the pizza stone. This step is a bit delicate, it will differ from person to person. With the light on in the oven watch the dough start to rise. If you see it puffing up evenly with only small bubbles you are Ok. It is normal and very likely that larger bubbles will also happen. In this case use something (I use a chopstick) to poke through any larger bubbles. There is a picture of this here.

Once the cheese starts to get some colour or the edge of the crust starts to brown it is time to remove it from the oven. Once you have done this a few times you will find how you like it. If you keep it in a touch longer it will be a touch tougher but you will get a bit of crispier crust. Personally I pull it out a touch early so the dough is softer!

Fold your manoushe in half and place it on a cooling rack. Keep baking the rest of the manaeesh. Once you have a good rhythm you will find that as one is baking you are rolling the next one out and they go pretty fast. If you pile them on top of each other they will keep each other warm. (make the cheese ones last, the cheese should be stringy while you eat them)

Eat em up, they taste way better with family or friends, I promise!

Tips: Serve some sliced up tomatoes and a few green onions on the side. And tea and coffee of course!