Khubz tannour

Ingredients

Dough

• 700 gplain flour
• or half wholemeal
• 10 gdried yeast
• 2 teaspoonssalt
• 1 teaspoonsugar
• about 450 ml warm water
• 2 tablespoonsoil

To bake

• a very hot oven
• with a baking stone or steel
• or a heavy cast iron pan
• flour, for dusting

Sometimes on top

• sesame seeds
• nigella seeds

To serve

• hot from the oven
• with stews and grills
• before iftar in Ramadan

Directions

1. Warm the water to blood temperature. Stir the yeast and the sugar into it. Let it stand until it foams up. Give it about ten minutes to foam. Put the flour and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the middle of it. Pour in the foaming yeast liquid. Add the oil into the well as well. Bring it together into a soft dough. This dough should be quite wet and soft.
2. Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead it for a good ten minutes. It should become smooth and elastic. Put the dough in an oiled bowl. Cover it and leave it somewhere warm.
3. Let it roughly double in size. Give it an hour or a little more. Divide it into even sized pieces. Roll each one into a smooth ball. Cover them over with a clean cloth. Let them rest for twenty minutes. Put the stone or pan in a cold oven.
4. Heat it to the very highest setting. Give it at least forty-five minutes. Flatten each ball on a floured surface. Press it out with your fingertips. Work from the centre outwards. Aim for a round about five millimetres thick. Press rather than roll where you can. Brush the top lightly with water.
5. Scatter sesame or nigella seeds over it. Press them down lightly to stick. Baking them takes speed and care. Work quickly so the oven stays hot. Give it about two minutes in there. Take it out as soon as it puffs. A thin spot lets the steam escape. Heat a heavy cast iron pan until smoking. Lay one bread into the hot dry pan. Give it about a minute on one side.
6. Turn it and press it with a cloth. Pressing helps it puff in the pan. Stack the baked breads as they come out. Wrap the stack in a clean cloth. That steam keeps them soft and pliable.
7. Wrap them the moment they leave the oven. Serving it is done immediately and hot. Tear it by hand rather than cutting it. Serve it with stews and grilled meat. It keeps a day in a sealed bag. Warm it briefly to soften it again.

Technique

• A tannour is a clay oven with the fire at the bottom and an opening at the top, running at four hundred degrees and above; the baker presses the dough onto the hot inner wall where it sticks and bakes in a minute or two. A domestic oven cannot reach anything like that, and the atlas says so rather than pretending otherwise.
• The bread balloons because water in the dough turns to steam faster than it can escape, forcing the two surfaces apart; it collapses as it cools, leaving the pocket. Not every bread puffs, since a thin spot lets the steam out, and those are still perfectly good.
• Stack the breads as they come out and wrap the stack in a cloth: the trapped steam is what keeps them soft and pliable, and uncovered bread goes stiff within minutes.

Substitutions

• A baking stone or steel gets closest to a tannour at home.
• A smoking hot dry cast iron pan bakes them well on the hob.

Variations

• Sesame or nigella seeds are scattered on top in some bakeries.
• Half wholemeal flour gives a fuller flavoured bread.
• The same oven and method run right across the region under other names.

History

Bahraini tannour bakeries bake to order all day, and queues form outside them before iftar.

Frequently asked questions

What is Khubz tannour?

Khubz tannour is a bread & pastry from Bahrain: flatbread slapped onto the wall of a clay oven and eaten hot. Bahraini tannour bakeries bake to order all day, and queues form outside them before iftar.

How long does Khubz tannour take to make?

Khubz tannour takes 20 minutes plus rising of preparation and 20 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes about 10 breads. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Khubz tannour?

Yes, within limits. A baking stone or steel gets closest to a tannour at home. A smoking hot dry cast iron pan bakes them well on the hob.

What is the most important thing to get right in Khubz tannour?

Heat it to the very highest setting. Give it at least forty-five minutes. Flatten each ball on a floured surface. Press it out with your fingertips. Work from the centre outwards. Aim for a round about five millimetres thick. Press rather than roll where you can. Brush the top lightly with water.