Gluten-Free Manakish with Cheese and Za'atar

Manakish with cheese and Za'atar are stable in the middle east. You will find them in Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria. Many people tend to call them Middle Eastern Pizza, but I won't do that. They are perfect to have during breakfast, brunch, or dinner. 

Manakish are one of my favorite things to eat. I grew up eating them, especially cheese manakish. Manakish with cheese are one of the most challenging things I had to give up when I started my gluten-free diet. They were what I looked forward to every weekend for breakfast. 

I made it my mission in the last month to come up with a gluten-free manakish recipe. There were many hurdles and tears along the way, but here we are finally. 

This post will be a bit different than my other posts. I will walk you through my experiment trial by trial until you believe that this is a gluten-free masterpiece. 

Recreating Manakish 

Trial # 1 

So here we are, trial #1. 

How hard can it be, right? It's dough only, after all. 

My ingredients for trial one looked like this: 

• 416 grams of Gluten-Free Bread Flour Mix 
• 7 grams of Instant Active Yeast 
• 32 grams of Granulated White Sugar 
• 325 ml of Milk at 49 Degree Celsius 
• 100 grams of yoghurt
• 118 ml of Vegetable Oil 
• ½ tablespoon of Salt 
• 2 teaspoon of Xanthan gum 

As you can see, my ingredients above look reasonable, right? Well, no, looking back at the list now, I realize how naive I was at thinking that the manakish could work. 

So I mixed the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients and let the dough rise for 2 hours. Guess what… it rose but was so watery that I couldn't physically handle it or even shape it. 

However, I was determined to put that dough in the oven. So I used all the tricks I know to shape the dough into a circle, and in the oven, it went. 

It came out looking decent but tasted awful. Here are the results of the first trial: 

1. The dough has no structure. It was falling apart. 
2. It was too dense and contained a lot of liquid. 
3. The dough has no taste; it is almost bland. Also, it is too yeasty for my liking. 

Trial #2

For trial number 2, I used the same ingredients to make the manakish but with a slight variation and some additions. So here is what changed: 

• Added: 
  • One Egg: to provide the dough with structure and make it easier to shape
  • 1 teaspoon of Baking Powder and 1 teaspoon of Apple Cider Vinegar: to leaven the manakish and reduce the denseness. 
• Variations: 
  • Increased the salt to 1 tablespoon to provide the dough with taste 
  • Reduced the yeast to 5 grams to eliminate the yeasty flavor. 
  • Reduced the yoghurt to 75 grams to reduce the denseness of the dough and reduce the amount of water that is in it. 

The results for trial number 2 were great. I have eliminated the issue in trial number 1, but I was not completely satisfied. Here is a short video of trial #2.

 The manakish looks good, but the dough was a bit grainy. Something is not right… 

I decided for trial number 3, I'm changing the flour. 

Trial #3 

I used to roll my eyes at anyone who said you need to make your own gluten-free flour mix because the ones on the market don't work for every recipe. I'm the kind of person that always wants a shortcut, and it's much easier to just buy what's in the market. However, making this recipe made me realize that making your own gluten-free flour mix is actually not so hard, less expensive, and tastes so much better. Don't get me wrong, I still like shortcuts but no shortcuts in this recipe. 

So I made my own mix for this manakish recipe that consisted of the following gluten-free flours: 

• 250 grams of White Rice Flour 
• 125 grams of Tapioca Flour 
• 42 grams of Brown Rice Flour 

I used white rice flour as the leading gluten-free flour for this recipe. Then added Tapioca starch and brown rice flour. The rest of the ingredients remain the same as those used in Trial #2. 

Trial #3 was the most successful. The manakish were the right texture and structure.

I'm not going to tell you the results for trial 3 because I would not have shared this recipe with you guys if they weren't good. 

I also decided to make a short recipe tutorial as I think this manakish recipe really deserves it. 

Manakish Video Tutorial

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5 from 8 votes

Gluten-Free Manakish with Cheese and Za'atar

Easy gluten-free manakish to make at home. You can choose to make a Za'atar or a cheese filling, or you can combine both in one.

Prep Time30 mins

Active Time10 mins

Resting Time2 hrs

Total Time2 hrs 40 mins

Course: Breakfast, Main Course

Cuisine: Mediterranean

Keyword: gluten free manakish, manakish

Yield: 4 Servings

Ingredients

Flatbread

• ▢ 325 ml of Full-Fat Milk at ( 49 – 55 °C)
• ▢ 32 grams of Granulated Sugar
• ▢ 5 grams of Instant Active Yeast
• ▢ 250 grams of White Rice Flour
• ▢ 125 grams of Tapioca Flour
• ▢ 42 grams of Brown Rice Flour
• ▢ 1 teaspoon of Baking Powder
• ▢ 2 teaspoon of Xanthan gum
• ▢ 1 tablespoon of Salt
• ▢ 118 ml of Vegetable Oil
• ▢ 75 grams of Sour Cream or Yoghurt
• ▢ 1 Large Egg
• ▢ 1 teaspoon of Apple Cider Vinegar

Cheese Filling

• ▢ 120 grams of Kashkaval Cheese
• ▢ 120 grams of Akkawi Cheese
• ▢ ⅛ teaspoon of Salt (Optional, only if the cheese is not salty)
• ▢ 1 tablespoon of Fresh Oregano or Dried Oregano

Za’atar Filling

• ▢ 12 grams of Za’atar
• ▢ 4 tablespoon of Virgin Olive Oil

Instructions

Cheese Filling

• In a bowl, mix together the cheese, salt, and oregano.

Za'atar Filling

• In a bowl, mix together the Za'atar and olive oil.

Manakish

• First, prepare the yeast mixture by adding sugar to the warm milk. Then add the yeast and gently mix the mixture. Cover the yeast mixture and set it aside for 10 minutes.
• In a bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, xanthan gum, and salt. Then make a small hole in the middle and add in the egg, apple cider vinegar, yoghurt, and vegetable oil. Then add the yeast mixture created in step 1.
• Using a stand-alone mixer with the paddle attachment or a hand-held mixer, beat the ingredients together at medium speed until combined.
• Then, apply vegetable oil to a separate bowl and move the dough to the bowl. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and let the dough rise for 2 hours.
• After the dough had risen, divide it into 4 separate sections. Then shape each section into a ball.
• Preheat the oven to 180°C and move the rack to the bottom of the oven.
• Using a rolling pin, flatten the dough to a 9-inch diameter circle. Ensure that the circle's thickness is no more than 2 mm (See notes below).
• Bake the dough on the bottom rack for 7 minutes. Then remove the manakish from the oven and apply the topping (Cheese or Za'atar). Then bake the manakish for another 2 minutes at the bottom rack.

Notes

• Apply some flour to your rolling surface and rolling pin to prevent the dough from sticking.
• When shaping the dough, you have the option of making the manakish thin or thick. For thin manakish, make sure that the dough is not more than 2 mm in thickness.
• Tip: Thin manakish are tastier than thick manakish.