Manakeesh Dough

Manakeesh anchor the Lebanese breakfast experience and elevate appetizers and snacking to a new level of greatness. You can enjoy a man’oushe with any of the toppings listed in the following recipes, cut in slices or wrapped in a piece of paper, on the run. It tastes chewy and soft, often with charred edges from a traditional wood-­fired oven, an effect you can achieve with a baking stone or steel in a standard oven at high temperatures.

Prep: 15 minutes

Rest: 1 hour 30 minutes

Total: 1 hour 45 minutes

Makes: dough for 4 flatbreads

Lebanese Baking: More Than 100 Recipes for Sweet and Savory Baked Goods Maureen Abood

INGREDIENTS

• 248 grams (2 cups plus 1 tablespoon) bread flour, 
plus more as needed

• 5 grams (1½ teaspoons) instant yeast

• 4 grams (1 teaspoon) granulated white sugar

• 12 grams (2 teaspoons) fine sea salt

• 170 grams (¾ cup) water, warm (105–­110°F, 40–­43°C)

• 4 grams (1 teaspoon) extra virgin olive oil

DIRECTIONS

1. In the large bowl of a stand mixer, add the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt and stir to combine with a wooden spoon or the dough hook (not attached). Slowly add the water and mix until a shaggy dough forms, 1 minute.

2. Attach the dough hook, set the mixer speed to medium-­high, and knead the dough until smooth and slightly sticky, 3 minutes.

3. Coat a medium mixing bowl with the oil. Ball the dough, transfer it to the prepared bowl, and flip the dough to coat it completely with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and lay a kitchen towel over that. Let the dough rise until it almost doubles in size, 45 minutes.

4. Quarter the dough and ball the quarters (as pictured on page 219).

5. On the counter, place the balls 3 inches (7.5 cm) apart, cover them with plastic wrap, and lay a kitchen towel over that. Let them rise again until they almost double in size, 45 more minutes.

6. Use where indicated in the recipes that follow.

Note

To store the dough, wrap the balls individually in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for up to 8 hours or freeze them for up to 1 month. When ready to use, thaw them for about 4 hours in the refrigerator, bring them to room temperature, and use as indicated.

Reprinted from Lebanese Baking: More Than 100 Recipes for Sweet and Savory Baked Goods by Maureen Abood. Text copyright © 2024 by Maureen Abood. Photography © Kristin Teig. Used with permission of the publisher, Countryman Press, an imprint of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

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