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DOUGHRISEFOUNDERS
Recipe
6 min read
Sourdough Manakish with Za'atar, Olive Oil & Fresh Spring Herbs
Make sourdough manakish at home with a pillowy, charred base and fragrant za'atar topping. A brilliant spring flatbread recipe from DoughRise.
Photo by Husien Bisky on UnsplashThe smell hits you before the oven door is even fully open: dried thyme, sumac, sesame, all blooming in hot olive oil on top of a sourdough base that's puffed and charred at the edges. Manakish is one of those foods that's been feeding people properly for centuries, and once you've made it at home, you'll understand exactly why it's never gone out of fashion.
If you've never made sourdough manakish before, think of it as a Lebanese flatbread pizza, though calling it that feels a bit reductive. The base is softer and more pillowy than a Neapolitan pizza, somewhere between a pitta and a focaccia in texture, and it's designed to be eaten warm, torn and shared. Spring is genuinely the best time to make these , the kitchen isn't roasting, the fermentation is active but not aggressive, and the fresh herbs you pile on top afterwards (mint, flat-leaf parsley, maybe a little rocket) are actually good right now. It's the kind of bake I find myself doing on a Saturday morning, a round of these on the table by midday with some labneh and cucumber, maybe a bit of leftover roast veg. Honestly, hard to beat.
Dough
- 450g strong white bread flour
- 50g wholemeal flour
- 330g warm water (around 35°C)
- 100g active sourdough starter (100% hydration, fed and at peak)
- 9g (1½ tsp) fine sea salt
- 15g (1 tbsp) olive oil
Za'atar Topping
- 60g dried za'atar blend (thyme, sumac, sesame, marjoram)
- 80ml (5–6 tbsp) good quality extra virgin olive oil
- A pinch of fine sea salt
To Serve
- A handful of fresh mint leaves
- A handful of flat-leaf parsley
- A few slices of ripe tomato
- Labneh or thick Greek yoghurt (optional but excellent)
- Lemon wedges
Baker's Tips
- Your starter needs to be genuinely active for this one. Feed it 6–8 hours before you plan to mix, and use it when it's domed and just starting to fall. If you're tracking multiple bakes and want to save your formula with the exact starter timing that works for your kitchen, DoughRise Pro lets you save unlimited formulas and keep a full bake history so you can actually learn from each attempt rather than starting from scratch every time.
- The dough for manakish is softer than a typical sourdough loaf , around 65% hydration once you account for the oil. Don't be tempted to add more flour if it feels a little tacky; that softness is what gives you the pillowy interior.
- Mix your za'atar topping ahead of time and leave it to sit for at least 30 minutes. The olive oil absorbs into the dried herbs and the whole thing becomes much more fragrant and spreadable. A ratio of roughly 40% herb blend to 60% oil by volume is the sweet spot.
METHOD
- Mix your flours together in a large bowl. In a separate jug, combine the warm water and active starter and stir until loosely combined. Pour the liquid into the flour and mix with your hand until no dry flour remains. Cover and leave to rest for 45 minutes (this is your autolyse period, let the flour hydrate before you add anything else).
- After 45 minutes, add the salt dissolved in a teaspoon of water, and the olive oil. Squeeze and fold everything together until the oil is fully absorbed and the dough feels cohesive. This will take about 4–5 minutes of firm squeezing and folding. It'll look a bit of a mess at first , that's fine, keep going.
- Cover the bowl and leave the dough to bulk ferment at room temperature. In mid-May, most London kitchens are sitting around 19–21°C, which means your bulk fermentation time will likely be somewhere between 5 and 7 hours. You're looking for the dough to grow by around 50–60% and feel airy and jiggly when you shake the bowl gently.
- During the first 2 hours of bulk fermentation, perform 3 sets of stretch and folds, spaced about 30–40 minutes apart. Wet your hand, grab one side of the dough, stretch it upward and fold it over to the opposite side. Rotate the bowl 90 degrees and repeat until you've gone all the way around. The dough will firm up and become noticeably more elastic with each set.
Why this works
Adding olive oil to the dough does more than add flavour. Fat coats gluten strands and interrupts their ability to form long, tight networks, which is exactly what you want here. A tighter crumb, a softer chew, a base that stays pliable rather than snapping. The stretch and fold sets compensate for this slightly reduced gluten development by aligning the structure you do have. It's a balance, and it's why this dough behaves differently to a lean sourdough loaf.
- Once bulk fermentation is complete, tip the dough gently onto a lightly floured surface. Divide it into 6 equal pieces (roughly 155–160g each, depending on how much your dough has grown). Shape each piece into a loose ball by folding the edges underneath and rolling it against the work surface. Cover with a damp tea towel and leave to rest for 20 minutes.
- While the dough rests, mix your za'atar topping. Combine the dried herb blend and olive oil in a bowl with a pinch of salt and stir well. Leave it to sit , this is the step most people skip, and it makes a real difference to the flavour.
INTO THE OVEN
- Place a heavy baking tray or pizza stone in your oven and preheat to 250°C (fan 230°C) for at least 45 minutes. You want serious heat stored in that surface. If you have a baking steel, now is the time to use it.
- Working one or two at a time, flatten each dough ball with your hands or a rolling pin into a rough circle about 20–22 centimetres across and 4–5mm thick. It doesn't need to be a perfect circle. Place on a sheet of baking parchment.
- Spread a generous tablespoon of the za'atar and olive oil mixture across the surface of each flatbread, all the way to the edges. Don't be shy , this is the topping, not a garnish.
- Slide the flatbreads (on the parchment) onto the hot surface and bake for 7–9 minutes, until the edges are charred in places and the base is cooked through and lifted in the centre. You may need to do these in batches.
- Pull them from the oven and serve immediately. Pile the fresh mint, parsley and tomato on top, add a spoonful of labneh on the side, a squeeze of lemon, and eat while they're still warm. This is not a make-ahead situation.
Want to dial in this recipe for different batch sizes or flour types? Use the free DoughRise Baker's Percentage Calculator to scale the formula precisely without the maths.
Happy baking! Find everything you need at doughrise.store
Photo by Husien Bisky on Unsplash