Markouk
Form: Leaf of bread
Country of origin: Lebanon and Syria
What distinguishes it from other methods of bread making: Cooked on a convex metal plate called a “saj” big enough to hold it
Category of bread: (1 and 7) In the family of extra-thin griddlecakes, markouk has for ages made its mark because of its extra-large diameter
Particularity: The only way to eat it is to fold it in two or four; it is referred to as a “paper handkerchief.
Ingredients: Whole-grain wheat flour; T55 white flour; oil; salt; warm water
Lebanon and Syria
A dough roll can be rolled out to practically infinity. You stop rolling when the dough reaches the thickness you want, which depends on what you are going to use it for. But you even can go a little further.
This idea must have crossed the mind of woman grappling with her kneading. She just kept kneading until she obtained a circle of dough one meter in diameter. What nationality was she, where did she come from? That’s open to question. Today we like to say that markouk is the result of the “bread handkerchiefs” started in Lebanon. Why not? Nonetheless, it is also found in Syria.
Once the circle of dough is put on the saj -- a metal plate licked by the flames of the fire – it only takes seconds for the “adventure” of the markouk (meaning literally in Arabic “flattened out into a thin layer”) to begin. But how does one deal with such a large surface of dough? How do you get the bread out of the shop so you can take it home with you? It’s rather like carrying home wall hangings, large bundles of cloth or large carpets. You just fold the markouk like you do a sheet, like a large handkerchief.
This gauze-like bread can be used in an endless variety of ways. Above all, the delicacy of the dough thrown onto the saj means that it is promptly and completely dried out, and this can be a disadvantage and an advantage at the same time. Markouk dries out very quickly, but once it is hard, the leaf can be kept for nearly two weeks with no problem.