Taboon bread is a very famous Palestinian flatbread also known as the Musakhan bread as well. It is easy to make and very close to my heart. It is actually the closest flatbread to the traditional Egyptian aish baladi.
I just wish I had a real Taboon oven, imagine cooking in an underground oven made of mud, clay, straw and smooth stones and pebbles. I bet the food and bread will smell totally different and will definitely get this earthy smell that you might get from a traditional clay pot.
❤️ Why You'll Love It
- The recipe does not require special oven
- This Taboon bread dough is very easy to make for most home cooks.
- Needs a handful of ingredients that you can easily find in your grocery store.
Taboon bread is very delicious, especially when dipped in olive oil and zaatar spice. It is also the traditional bread used for making Musakhan.
In modern kitchens, we cannot make this kind of oven, so instead we try to imitate this beautiful oven using our conventional oven and a baking sheet full of large pebbles that you can gather from your backyard. I've got some river rocks from the dollar store, washed them with hot water and voila I got my taboon ready for baking.
📝 Ingredients
Note: This is an overview of the ingredients. You'll find the full measurements and instructions in the recipe card (printable) at the bottom of the page.
Ingredients and/or variations
- A mix of All purpose flour and whole wheat flour gives the perfect results. You can use only whole wheat or white flour, but make sure to adjust water accordingly.
- Yeast, I use instant yeast for the taboon. Traditional Taboon bakers like using fresh yeast. Commercial yeast is readily available and easier to find.
- Sugar, to activate the yeast.
- Salt, for flavor.
Pretty much what you'll need for any bread. Flour, water, yeast and sugar. Here we've used both all purpose flour and whole wheat flour. You can of course make it with either one alone but just adjust the amount of water as needed. Taboon dough needs to be sticky as you can see from the image or video. so adjust accordingly as each flour brand is different.
🥄 Instructions
Note: This is an overview of the instructions. The detailed instructions are in the recipe card below.
- In a mixer bowl, combine all the dry ingredients.
- Pour water little by little while kneading the dough until the dough comes together.
- You'll need to end up with a sticky dough like the one shown above.
- Cover and let it rest and rise for an hour or until double in size.
- Divide the dough into six balls. I used to divide mine into 3 large balls but this time I needed smaller size taboons.
- Roll dough into a 6 inch circle using more whole wheat flour to aid in rolling.
- With your finger tips press or tap lightly into the dough surface.
- Place taboon bread directly over the pebbles and bake bread for about 2-3 minutes.
🥣 Equipment
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- River rocks or loose stones/ pebbles.
- Cast iron pan
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👍 Amira's Tips
- Make sure that the stones you are using do not have a wax layer on them; otherwise, they will smoke in the oven, and the smoke alarm will go off.
- Make sure that you place the tray with pebbles in the oven first to get really hot.
- Carefully place the rolled taboon dough on the hot stones and watch out as it will be extremely hot.
- If you do not want to deal with the pebbles, you can use a cast iron skillet. Heat it up first before placing the bread in to bake.
🍽️ Serve With
- Although this bread is known as the bread for Musakhan, it is a delicious bread to dip in Baba Ghanoush or hummus; here is How to Make Hummus.
- Serve this taboon bread with Chicken Shawarma and they are great to make Falafel Sandwich too.
📣 Related Recipes
- Unleavened bread is easy to make and does not require any special ingredients or equipment. All you need is flour, water, olive oil and salt.
- Turkish Simit is a beloved traditional street bread with a unique sesame-crusted exterior. Also known as Turkish sesame bagel thiis bread is great with a cup of tea or with feta cheese.
- Lebanese Pita Bread Recipe is a pillowy fluffy bread of the Middle East that store bought cannot even come close to.
- Whole Wheat Pita Bread is a nutty soft pita bread made from whole wheat flour mixture. Great for making falafel pockets, dipping in Hummus or using using to mop up stews and soups.
If you love this recipe, please leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating! Thank you.
Taboon Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups (250g) all-purpose white flour
- ½ cup (65g) whole wheat flour , more for dusting.
- 1 Tablespoon instant yeast
- ½ Tablespoon granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt , I used pink salt.
- ½ to ¾ cup warm water to make it a sticky dough
Instructions
- In a large bowl or your mixer bowl, add the first 5 ingredients and mix well.
- Start adding water little by little until a sticky dough forms that does not come off the bowl easily.
- Cover and let it rise for almost 1hour.
- Preheat oven to the max (mine was 550F)
- Place baking pebbles on a baking sheet and let it preheat in the middle section of your oven.
- Dust a clean working surface with whole wheat flour.
- Turn the dough into the surface and divide into 6 equal balls.
- Take one ball and cover the rest with a plastic wrap.
- Roll the ball into a 6 inch circle.
- Take out the baking sheet from oven and carefully place the rolled dough on the pebbles.
- Bake for about 2 minutes then turn the broiler on for about 1 ½ minute.
- Take the bread out and cover with a clean kitchen towel to keep them soft.
Video
Notes
- Some people like using pizza stone or a clay oven if you have it but I prefer the hot stones method.
Nutrition
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John
shukran!
Anna Likousis
thank you for this wonderful recipe.
Dee
Dear Amira, first thank you for your blog and posts. I made your taboun recipe, but the first one I rolled out a bit too thin and put it directly in oven on oven rack, just in hopes this would give more authentic Taboon flavour but to my surprise the bread poires like a pita. After towards the rest I cooked in pan and they cake out perfect like you described, but I wanted to know can this recipe also be used for pita? Thank you in advance!
Dee
One more thing I had to add about half cup water to dough as it was bit dry while I kneaded by hand... I used regular all purpose flour.
Amira
Dee, thank you so much for sharing your experience with all of us. I guess you could use it for pita. I have another recipe for pita bread if you are interested. Thanks
Patricia
Hola Amira!
I just stumbled across your web site via Pinterest - I grew up in Egypt (well my first childhood years)…it is very close to my heart.
My parents said that one thing I was demanding on a daily basis was my “Aish balady” - do you have the authentic recipe for it? I would love making it for my parents as a surprise And will check the rest of your web site for Egyptian recipes
Amira
Thanks Patricia for your sweet comment, unfortunately I haven't reached a good recipe for Aish baladi yet. I hope I will soon.
Bindhu
Amira. I am a bit confused. Dont we have to turn the bread ,
Dalal
This looks amazing. It’s not clear though, once the pebbles are hot, do I remove the baking sheet from the oven, or leave it in there while cooking the bread? Thank you.
Amira
Dalal, sorry for the confusion. Yes dear, take the baking sheet with the pebbles out, place the raw bread on then return to the oven to fully bake. Hope this will help. Let me know if you need anything else.
Samantha mawed
Salam. What an interesting way of doing these breads. I sometimes use the oven but find it easier and faster to use two frying pans, well of course I do twenty thirty every time a couple of times per week but never tried it on pebbles. Will definitely try that, oh and by the way, no salt in your dough? Salt will help the dough become more elastic. Thanks for a great site, I originally came for the maqloobi and found a treasure 🙂
Amira
Thanks Samantha for your kind words. It is an interesting way of baking bread right? I actually got it from a friend and I made it as is, next time I will add salt , thanks for the tip .
robert
I live in USA, here we call it pita bread, or Texas flat bread. From my study, every nation on the planet seems to have a flat bread recipe, and all are interesting.
I make my bread with a natural yeast starter made from organic grapes, then mix half white flour with half whole wheat flour, and water.
To cook it, I build a hot wood fire in my BBQ then set the lid on by half or more, and when the lid is hot, I put the bread on the top of the bbq, the result is a lovely flat bread, which I serve with the usual greek gyro ingredients.
To any and all, if you have a small Weber bbq, the lid, set over a small, hot wood fire, makes a really nice place to make flat bread.
Amira
Robert, what a great suggestion, this would be very helpful to my readers. Unfortunately I do not have a weber. I even thought of inverting a wok over stovetop to get the same result. Thanks again and hoping to see more of your great tips around here.
Williammug
Hey, thanks for the forum post. Fantastic.
hey
yo
Caroline
Thank you so much for the delicious taboun , they are awsome !!!
I cook them without the pebbles .. I went outside I looked everywhere in Canada , I didnt find one pebble in the ground!! they turned yummyy though
Amira
You are welcome dear, I'm glad you liked it.
Theresa
Just wondering, do you put the rolled dough directly on the stones?
Amira
Thanks Theresa for passing by, and yes I put it directly on the stones.
Mairi
Amira,
I made this for our family dinner this evening alongside a Palestinian stew, it was delicious!! Thank you so so much for posting these wonderful recipes, I will defiantly be making more of them. And thank you for attaching pictures of how things are to look at various stages, I found them very helpful as this was the first arabic dish I have made.
Shukran! Nahaarak Saeed.
Dave Clinch
Dear Amira
As salaam alaikom
Just making some more Taboon bread according to your recipe. Now waiting for the dough to prove. By 4.30pm we'll be dipping in to the zaytoun wa za'atar again!
Ma as salaameh!
Dave
Amira
I'm really happy that you are making these again :).. Thanks for keeping me updated, I was going to make it today for dinner too.
Sawsan Abulaimoun
Thank you so much! I'm Palestinian and as a kid I saw my paternal grandma make taboon. I'm gonna make some today in the oven on an overturned skillet using your recipe 🙂
Dave Clinch
Sabah al khair ya Amira. Kefik?
I made the tabun bread. It was quite successful, slightly too doughy though. It did taste good mind.I was quite pleased with it.Dipping it into the zaytoun and za'atar was sublime, reminding me too of my time in the villages in South Hebron Hills.
I've just made some more this morning. I have improved the kneading technique I think and it looks drier while it's proving. I'll let you know if the bread is better than last time.
Amira
Well well well I am so pleased that this recipe reminded of the good time although it was not the same taste. I've never tasted the original one before so this is my only experience with it. Please let us know how you did this time. I highly appreciate your feed back.
Dave Clinch
As salaam alaikom
I was in Palestine for five weeks last November. I was working with students at schools in Umm Al Khair and Susya in the South Hebron Hills. I stayed in the villages for some of the time. I saw tabun bread being made in the oven in the ground in Susya by Sannah whose family i stayed with.
I also had srak bread in Umm Al Khair, a Bedouin village.
Both breads are just beautiful. No need for cutlery, as everything can be picked up with the bread. I have beautiful memories of sharing bread in the villages, especially with za'atar and olive oil.
I am about to make some tabun bread in the morning, for the first time..
Ma as salaameh
Love and solidarity
Dave Clinch
Amira
Wa Alaykom Assalam Dave 🙂
What a great opportunity you had ... I guess it is very rare to see such ovens these days- as I've heard from my friends over there. I hope this recipe will turn out so close to the one that you used to have. Oh and with zaatar and olive oil yummm, a heavenly taste. Hope to hear from you again.
Charles
Well, I'd have to find a whole load of pebbles, but this looks positively delightful. I love learning about world breads, and baking techniques too - thanks for sharing this - I'm going to give it a try sometime, although I'm not sure where I will find the stones from... must look around at local gardening stores!
Amira
Hi Charles, I've got mine from the decorating section in a dollar store- where everything is only $1- check your cheapest store you may find them there.
Shady
Very Nice Pics, makes it Yummy to try and eat!
Amira
It is indeed yummy , thanks for your sweet comment
Denise Browning@From Brazil To You
Amira: How interesting!!!! I love to see both the traditional and modern ways that this bread can be baked. Flat breads have always been one of my favorite...This Palestinian Taboon is a must-have. It's so versatile!! It can be eaten filled with many things as a sandwich or just an an accompainment for meat or vegetable stews. Well, I hope you have had a great holiday!
Amira
That's true Denise, you can stuff them with anything and enjoy .. try them and tell me what do you think.
Deema
This bread gave me a little taste of home. It turned out great. I had a hard time moving the dough from the counter to the rocks without it ripping but it just needs practice or just more flour. Thanks!