Usually, I try to avoid eating carbs. This is not an easy task, because I really love pastries. Bourekas, pizza, empanadas, eggrolls, dumplings, cakes, cookies...I like almost anything wrapped with, baked or fried dough. The biting aroma of baked goods that fills the house makes my taste buds tingle and throws me back to my childhood Fridays and to my mom’s homemade bourekas, cakes and cookies that we used to eat while they were still warm.
If I dared to eat all these goodies today, I wouldn’t pass through the door. So as not to be tempted, I generally don’t bake. But since I enjoy baking so much, almost every time we host or are invited for a meal, I put the oven to work. I discovered Lachmajoon late in my life, it wasn’t part of my childhood menu; but I believe that, if they knew of it, my parents would have definitely embraced it.
Ingredients
3 ½ cups flour
2 tsp dry yeast
1 TBS sugar
1 ½ cups lukewarm water
3 TBS olive oil
½ tsp salt
Filling
1 lb ground beef
½ onion finely diced
2 garlic cloves minced
½ cup parsley chopped
2 TBS tomato paste
3 TBS pine nuts
1 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp paprika
½ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
Mix yeast with sugar and half cup of lukewarm water. Ferment for 5-6 minutes. Place flour, yeast mix and olive oil in a mixer bowl with kneading hook and mix a little. Add salt and water and knead for 7 minutes to form an elastic dough. Place dough in a greased bowl covered with plastic wrap and let rise for two hours until double it’s size.
Meanwhile prepare the filling. Place the filling ingredients in a deep bowl and mix well. Chill for 1 hour.
Heat oven to 400 F (200 C). punch dough to take out the air and divide to 8 pieces. Roll each piece to about a 4 inch disk. On each disk pour a little olive oil, spread a thin layer of the filling and squeeze it into the dough, leaving a ½ inch margin uncovered. Sprinkle with sumac, and bake for 15 minutes. Serve warm.
