Taboon bread is a very famous old Palestinian bread very delicious specially with olive oil and thyme. Taboon is the oven that old Palestinian ladies used to use to bake this bread and lots of other dishes, here is it’s picture.
It is mainly a hole in the ground- a little more than a yard in diameter and 1.5 ft in depth- with a steel cover. It is covered from the inside with pebbles so as to keep the inside very hot.
In modern days, we cannot do these in most homes, so instead we try to imitate this beautiful oven using our conventional ovens and a baking sheet full of pebbles that you can gather from your backyard. I’ve got some decorative pebbles – the ones that are used in vase- from the dollar store, washed them with hot water and voila I got my taboon ready for baking.
Now let me introduce you to the Taboon bread: this is for 3 large ones so double if you want.
- 2 cups of all purpose white flour.
- 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour.
- 2 Tbsp of dry yeast.
- 1 Tbs of granulated sugar
- Enough warm water to make it a sticky dough- mine took 1.5 c.
If you have an electric mixer with a dough hook would be better otherwise you knead it with hands.
- First mix the dry ingredients well together then add the water a start mixing and kneading until you get a sticky dough like this in the picture. Let it rise in a warm place for almost an hour or until doubled.
- Sprinkle a clean surface with some whole wheat flour and divide the dough into three balls.
- Flatten one ball at a time to make it a circle- does not have to be perfect- then tap it with your finger tips to form this desirable shape as this makes it look more like the original one.
- In the mean time stick your mini taboon – the baking sheet with pebbles- in the oven and turn it on to the maximum, mine was 550℉. The pebbles have to be very very hot before baking the bread.
- Gently take your fist circle and place it carefully- be aware that the pebbles are very hot- on the mini taboon and watch it. It will huff and it will puff and it will blow your mind but not down don’t you worry :).
- It takes about 3 minutes for each one to be ready you can turn the broiler on but I didn’t need to do that as the oven was so so hot.
- It turned out so delicious and hubby was so glad 🙂
- I can fill these babies with almost anything and enjoy 🙂
I hope you’ve enjoyed this traditional bread today. Try it and tell me what do you think.
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.
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.
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 🙂
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 .
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… Read more »
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.
Hey, thanks for the forum post. Fantastic.
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