Taboon bread is a very famous Palestinian bread that is known as the Musakhan bread as well. One that is east to make and very close to my heart. It is actually the closest flat bread to the traditional Egyptian aish baladi.
Taboon
I just wish I have 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.
Taboon bread is very delicious specially with olive oil and Za'atar. It is also the traditional bread used for making Musakhan.
In modern days, we cannot do this kind of oven in our homes, so instead we try to imitate this beautiful oven using our conventional oven 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.
What you'll need?
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.
Step by step
- 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 6 balls. I used to divide mine into 3 large balls but this time I needed a 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 for about 2-3 minutes.
You can serve this bread or stuff it with almost anything. Serve it as you normally serve pitas bread or you can make magnificent falafel sandwiches or shawarma wraps.
If you like this recipe do not forget to give it a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ star rating and attach a photo of your finished dish. It is always a pleasure of mine to see your photos and check your own take of the recipe. Thank you.
Taboon bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups (260g) all purpose white flour.
- 1/2 cup (65g) whole wheat flour, more for dusting.
- 1 Tablespoon dry yeast.
- 1/2 Tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt , I used pink salt.
- 1/2 to 3/4 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 1/2 minute.
- Take the bread out and cover with a clean kitchen towel to keep them soft.
Notes
- Some people like using pizza stone or a clay oven if you have it but I prefer the hot stones method.
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 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.
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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