Zaatar Bread - Manakish/ Manakeesh

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in ½ cup of the warm water. Add the sugar and when it begins to froth, stir in the remaining water.

Add 3 cups of flour slowly and stir it vigorously. Let the mixture rest for 10-15 minutes till it froths.

Stir in the salt and the 2 tbspns of the virgin olive oil and mix it well.

Gradually add the remaining 3 cups of flour (you may need a little less or more flour)until you have a dough that makes a perfect ball. Keep kneading the dough continuously for a good 10-15 minutes till the dough becomes soft, very smooth and stops sticking to your fingers.

Pour the remaining 1 tbspn of oil on this round soft dough to grease it evenly . Cover the doughball with clingfilm and leave for it to rise for 2-3 hours.

Meanwhile you can take the zaatar topping ingredients (or a cup of zaatar mixture that can be easily found in any middle eastern store with the oil ) and mix it in a small bowl to make it an oily mixture.

Once the dough has risen , you can roll the dough and divide into either small balls or 2-3 large balls ( we chose to make 2 big 12″ breads. If you wish to serve manakeesh as an appetizer for friends and family , you can make mini manakeesh breads served as small bites to eat.)

Roll out the ball on a floured surface with a floured rolling pin to a thickness of about ¼ inch and roll it to as big/small as you wish. Take a fork and poke it all over the bread avoiding the dough to puff up while being baked .

You can now preheat the oven to 250°C (450°F) for 15-20 minutes.

Place a greaseproof paper on a round baking tray and gently pick the stretched round dough and place it on top of the greaseproof paper. Gently spread 1 spoon of the Zaatar mixture on the bread.

Zaatar bread is ready to bake. Place it in the preheated oven and let it bake for 5-10 minutes or until you can see slight browning. Hot yumminess is ready to dive into. See it on my blog https://ayoodcooks.wordpress.com/