020/18 – Mana’eesh:

I saw a post by Tony Mazraani on the Uuni Facebook group where he posted his Mana’eesh cook. I hadn’t seen this before but it looked cool and it contained zaatar which I love so I decided to make it for breakfast at the weekend.

The Dough:

I had a look oneline and found this recipe which looked pretty simple. I also liked that you make the dough the night before and leave it in the fridge which is handy for a breakfast cook! 

Plain flour, yeast and salt were put into a mixing bowl followed by water and rapeseed oil. I gave it a good mix for a few minutes but could see there wasn’t enough water in the mix as it was like breadcrumbs. I gradually added more water as the mixer was running until the dough took a better form and I left it mixing for 10 minutes after that.

The dough was put into the 6 litre plastic container I got from Amazon for £5.23:

I put the lid on then left it in the fridge overnight.

In the morning I split the dough into 6 balls and put them into the proving trays I got from Amazon for £22.95.

I left the dough to prove for an hour then went out and fired up the Uuni 3 with pellets. I was tempted to use the gas but I wanted to try it at 550c so went for pellets on this run.

Lighting the Fire:

2 handfuls of Uuni pellets and a flamer at the front. I left it a couple of minutes then filled up the jam hopper with pellets and ran the looftlighter for about 2 minutes. The Uuni was roaring like a jet fighter! I will write this up next time and take some photos.

Cooking:

I had ordered some Zaatar from Amazon, the best value deal was for a 1kg bag on Prime for £9.36 which for some reason was cheaper than a 500g bag!

For the first run I wasn’t too sure how to stretch and shape the bread, I didn’t think I wanted it like a pizza and knew I was meant to be pushing my fingers into the dough to dimple it so I did that then brushed rapeseed oil on and sprinkled Zaatar on top.

#1 came out ok, bit of an odd shape, bit burnt on top – I knew I had to shape the dough better next run:

#2 was a better shape but still not stretched out enough – #3 had to be stretched better!

#3 was looking a lot better shape and thickness wise, bit burnt in places to less time under the flames:

#4 might have been the best one. Great shape and really soft bread:

#5 was pretty good as well but shape wise maybe not as good as #4.

After each bread was cooked I wrapped them together in tin foil. When I unwrapped them later the steam from the bread had softened them all, they tore apart really easily.

The fire management was easy with the jam funnel, much easier to keep the temperature at 550c. Looking at some of the breads it might have been better a little cooler!

This was a great breakfast, something a bit different. We had it with mashed avocado, chopped tomatoes and olives (my daughters request!). Really simple prep and cook but one I will do again for sure.

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