Man’oushé

hand holding Man'oushé
enjoying a picnic with filled Man’oushé

In Lebanon, Man’oushé is usually rolled out thinly, and eaten rolled up or folded. The Lebanese garnish it with a nice mixture of olive oil, zata’r, and fresh mint as well as cucumbers and tomatoes. That is a really refreshing breakfast or snack. Since I live in a van, I prefer making the small breads a little thicker (up to 1cm when baked) and stuffing them with some fresh ingredients, salad or rice and vegetables. I usually just quickly cook them in a small non stick pan and some olive oil.

If you want to prepare Man’oushé for the next few days, you can also portion the dough into small balls after it has risen. Wrap them in plastic wrap or freezer bags and store them in the freezer. Like this you can have bigger amounts ready for a feast, or just treat yourself to a tasty breakfast every morning of the week.

INGREDIENTS (serves 8 | takes 15 minutes)

  • 500 gr. of flour
  • 1 teaspoon of salt
  • 1 teaspoon of sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon of dry yeast (or 20gr. fresh yeast)
  • 1 tablespoon of olive oil
  • 300 ml of lukewarm water
  • 1 bowl and a kitchen towel

PREPARATION

On flour: since I have a wheat intolerance I use other flours such as kamut, rye, spelt, or buckwheat. Any of these flours work well with this recipe, the only thing that may change is the amount of water needed to achieve the right consistency. Rye and buckwheat astonishingly need less water. They tend to get more sticky than spelt flour or kamut. Just slowly add the water and see how your texture comes along. If the dough sticks to your fingers, keep mixing before you add any more water, you may even have a little water leftover. If it gets too gooey, you can add a small amount of flour to save your mess from going into the garbage.

First, mix the dry ingredients in a bowl (including the dry yeast, if that is what you are using). I usually use a tablespoon to do the mixing. Next, add the olive oil and keep stirring it into your mix of flour, salt, sugar, and yeast. Make sure it doesn’t stay stuck to your spoon, you want all that green goodness in your dough.

Now you can start adding the lukewarm water – make sure it is not too hot! When I have fresh yeast, I break up the cube into little pieces and allow it to dissolve in the warm water, while I am preparing the dry ingredients. Slowly add small amounts of water and keep mixing with the spoon. When the mixture starts to be crumbly and the spoon is hard to move through, switch to using your (clean!) hands.

Keep adding water and kneading lightly until the whole mixture can be shaped into one consistent ball. From there, knead for another five minutes. Your dough is well mixed when the surface becomes smooth. Now leave it in the bowl and cover tightly with a kitchen towel. Your dough needs to rest for at least one hour in a warm, draft-free place.

When the dough has risen nicely, punch it down and preroll into eight balls of the same size. Now you can start forming your little pieces of bread by hand or roll out your dough as a delicious pizza base.

Baking: you can bake them in the oven on hot (about 180 degrees) for 5 to ten minutes (depending on the thickness of your dough) with a little olive oil and salt on top. If you like to use it as a pizza base, spread your tomato base and any toppings before you bake them a few minutes longer in the oven. Round mini pizza also works really well in the pan – fry on one side first, then flip, then add toppings.

Based on the recipe of Barbara Abdeni Masaad from her book: Man’oushé

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