Palestinian Taboon flatbread is a Levantine yeasted bread that is traditionally prepared in clay ovens or on hot stones. This recipe adapts the technique and makes it easy for home cooks to enjoy the flavors and traditions without having to build an outdoor oven.
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Enjoy this traditional flatbread with traditional hummus, eggplant hummus, Mutabal, homemade labneh, Levantine fried tomatoes (Galayet bandora) Ful Medames, bread dipping oil or used as the base in Musakhan (Sumac chicken and onions), which is a traditional Palestinian recipe.
This recipe is featured in my What to Eat with Hummus (21 amazing ideas) post. Serve it with soups like my Turkish Red Lentil Soup.
What is Taboon?
Traditional taboon bread is a type of Palestinian flatbread (part of a collection of uniquely Palestinian recipes) baked in a dome-shaped clay oven called a taboon (or tabun). It's made from a simple dough of flour, water/milk, salt, sugar, yeast, and oil. It's rolled out into thin rounds and slapped onto the taboon oven's walls.
This results in a crispy exterior and soft interior with characteristic air pockets. Its versatility makes it a perfect accompaniment to dips, wraps, and sandwiches.
Another technique involves dimpling the bread and cooking it directly on hot stones (like river rocks). The end result is a wavy flatbread with crispy edges and soft center.
I don’t expect you to have a clay oven in your backyard or to run to the nearest river to harvest rocks. This recipe adapts the technique and makes it accessible to home cooks. You don’t need a special oven to make this recipe! A cast iron pan or shallow Dutch oven is all you need.
Ingredients
This recipe comes together with just a few standard simple ingredients.
Ingredient Notes and Substitutions
- Flour: Depending on your taste and preference, you can use some whole wheat flour in this recipe. A good starting point is 2 cups of white flour plus 1 cup whole wheat. As long as you maintain the total quantity listed in the recipe, you can play around with the proportions.
- Yeast: I use and recommend instant yeast, but you can use dry active yeast. If you use dry active yeast, keep the quantity the same and pre-bloom it in the warm liquid before adding it to the dry ingredients. You can also use fresh yeast, but do adjust the quantity. When using fresh yeast instead of dry, use double the amount by weight.
- Milk: The milk helps keep the final product soft and pliable. If you want to keep this recipe vegan, you can replace the milk with an equal amount of water.
- Oil: Olive oil is my go-to choice here but you can use avocado or vegetable oil instead.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
This dough is incredibly versatile and can be used as the basis for other recipes such as hand pies (cheese fatayer, spinach fatayer and meat-filled fatayer), Cheese Manakish and Zaatar Manakish.
How to make this Taboon Bread Recipe
I recommend that you read through all the steps below to get a good understanding of the process.
Step 1. Mix. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the dry ingredients and mix well to combine. Add the warm water, milk and oil. Run the stand mixer until a ball of dough forms, about 5-7 minutes. If the dough is too sticky and doesn’t form into a ball, add flour 1 tablespoon at a time until you have a soft and supple dough ball.
Step 2. Rise. Rub the dough ball lightly with oil on all sides and let it rise, covered, in the bowl of the stand mixer for 1 hour.
Step 3. Divide and Shape. After the bread dough has risen to about double its original size, divide it into 6 equal pieces. Shape each piece of dough into a tight ball and rest them on your kitchen counter for 10 minutes, covered, so that the gluten can relax.
Step 4. Flatten. Using a rolling pin, flatten the dough balls into a ¼ inch (0.6cm) thick.
Step 5. Dimple. Dimple all over with your fingers by pressing down to create ridges.
Step 6. Cook. Place a heavy bottom cast iron skillet on the stove and heat it on medium-high for 5 minutes. In one quick move, transfer the dough to the hot pan. Cook on one side, without disturbing for 30-45 seconds.
Step 7. Flip. Check the bottom of the flatbread, it should be lightly browned. Carefully flip the flatbread and cook for another 30-45 seconds. Don’t burn the bread. If the pan is too hot, reduce the heat, wait a few minutes and repeat the process.
Step 8. Store. Stack flatbreads and store in a clean kitchen towel to keep them warm.
NOTE: Alternatively, you can bake this bread on a baking sheet in an oven pre-heated to 500F/260C for 5-6 minutes or until cooked through.
Expert Tips
- Skip the mixer. You can certainly mix this dough by hand in a large bowl if you don’t have a stand mixer. Make sure to knead it for a full 5 minutes after it comes together on your countertop.
- Pizza Stone. This flatbread can be prepared in a large skillet, in the oven or directly in a pizza oven or on a pizza stone.
- Go old school. If you’re up for the challenge of baking this bread on smooth stones but you don’t know where to start? You can bake the bread directly on food grade baking stones (the kind used to weigh down a pie crust when par-baking).
- Easy Freezing. Place a piece of parchment paper between each flatbread before freezing so it’s easier to take out what you need later on.
Recipe FAQs
Taboon bread is a Levantine flatbread traditionally baked in a dome-shaped clay oven called a taboon. It's made from a simple dough of flour, water, salt, yeast, and oil rolled out into thin rounds and slapped onto the taboon oven's inner walls.
Taboon can be stored in a ziplock bag at room temperature on the counter for 2 days or refrigerated for up to 5 days. They can also be frozen for up to 6 months.
If you’re looking to save some time, you can make the dough 1 day ahead of time and let it rise in the fridge overnight. This longer, slower rise is actually beneficial in many ways and the result will be a much easier to digest bread for those with gluten sensitives. Just use half the amount of yeast if you plan to let the dough rise in the fridge overnight.
Other Homemade Bread Recipes You will Enjoy
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Recipe Card
Taboon (Palestinian Flatbread)
Equipment
- 1 Cast iron skillet or pan
Ingredients
- 3 cups All-purpose flour - 420 grams. You can use bread flour too. See note for whole wheat.
- 1 tablespoon Instant yeast - 9 grams
- 1 tablespoon White sugar - 12.5 grams
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt - 5 grams
- ½ cup Water, warmed - 120 grams
- ½ cup Milk, warmed - 120 grams
- ¼ cup Olive oil - 53 grams
Instructions
- Mix. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the dry ingredients and stir well to combine. Add the warm water, milk and olive oil. Run the stand mixer until a ball of dough forms, about 5-7 minutes. If the dough is too sticky and doesn’t form into a ball, add flour 1 tablespoon at a time until you have a soft and supple dough ball. See note below for whole wheat.
- Rise. Rub the dough ball lightly with oil on all sides and let it rise, covered with a clean dish towel or plastic wrap, in the bowl of the stand mixer for 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
- Divide and Shape. After the bread dough has risen to about double its original size, divide it into 6 equal pieces (use a scale for precision). Shape each piece of dough into a tight ball and let them rest on your kitchen counter for 5-10 minutes, covered, so that the gluten can relax.
- Flatten. Using a rolling pin, flatten the dough balls into a ⅛-¼ inch (0.3-0.6cm) thick (they should be about 6-8 inches, or 15-20cm, in diameter).
- Dimple. Dimple all over with your fingers by pressing down to create ridges.
- Cook. Place a heavy bottom cast iron skillet on the stove and heat it on medium-high for about 5 minutes. In one quick move, transfer the dough to the hot pan. Cook on one side, without disturbing for 30-45 seconds.
- Flip. Check the bottom of the flatbread using tongs or a spatula. It should be lightly browned. Carefully flip the flatbread and cook for another 30-45 seconds. Don’t burn the bread. If the pan is too hot, reduce the heat, wait a few minutes for the pan to cool slightly and repeat the process.
- Store. Stack flatbreads and store them in a clean kitchen towel to keep them warm.
Melissa
Absolutely loved these!! Making more tomorrow to freeze so I have some stored away! How long can I keep them in freezer?
Luay Ghafari
They should keep for 6 months or so in the freezer.
Elizabeth Sawyer
I have enjoyed making this! I especially enjoyed serving it with olive oil and za’atar, but also garlic dip, and I am excited to try other traditional Levantine foods with it!
Luay Ghafari
I'm glad you liked the recipe, Elizabeth!
Trine
Easy to follow, easy to make really tastefull bread! I substituted some of the flour with whole oat flour, because that was what I had in addition to white wheat. Turned out well😊 Enjoyed with labneh, hummus and cabbage salad👌 Thank you!
Luay Ghafari
I'm so glad you liked it!
Ann
This taboon bread was wonderful! So soft and flavorful. I did the overnight rise in the fridge. Will make again.
Luay Ghafari
That's great to hear!
Maximiliaan Beeldens
Just made these and eating them while typing; these are absolutely delicious !