Turkish Lahmacun Recipe
Lahmacun is a traditional Turkish flatbread that is also known as the Turkish Pizza. It is topped with with beef mince, tomatoes, peppers, spices and herbs.
Servings 6 pieces
Calories 160kcal
Ingredients
Dough
- 500 grams all-purpose flour
- 150 millilitres milk
- 200 millilitres water
- 5 grams instant yeast
- 1 teaspoon salt
Filling
- 300 grams ground beef medium fat, about 12%
- 2 onions unpeeled 250-300 grams
- 2 garlic cloves optional
- 2 tomatoes 250-300 grams
- 40 millilitres olive oil 2½ tablespoons
- 1 pepper 100 grams
- 6-7 sprigs chopped parsley
- 1 teaspoon tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon pepper paste
- 1 teaspoon isot
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
Instructions
Dough
- Start with making the dough, as it needs to rest for an hour.
- Add the milk and the warm water in a measuring jug.
- Put in the yeast as well and whisk until the mixture is bubbly and the yeast is dissolved.
- Cover and set aside for yeast to activate for 10 minutes.
- Then add ¾'th of the flour in a large mixing bowl make a well in the middle and pour in the yeast liquid. Also add the salt on the flour at this stage. Do not put the salt into the yeast liquid as it might stop activation.
- Start kneading with your hands or using the dough hook attachment of your stand mixer. If using the stand mixer use it at medium/low speed if kneading spead is not indicated. Add the remaining flour gradually. With both kneading methods knead about 10 minutes.
- When you obtain a soft dough, that is a bit sticky make one large dough ball.
- Coat with olive oil all around and cover (do not wrap) with a clean kitchen towel or a cling film.
- Set aside in a warm place for about an hour to let the dough grow. If you do not have a warm place, cover with an additional larger towel.
Filling
- You can chop everything using a knife or a food processor. Make sure everything is tiny but not pureed.
- Chop the tomatoes. No need to peel.
- Take out the seeds of the pepper. Chop.
- Peep the onions. Chop. If the onions are too watery squeeze it out to avoid the bitterness.
- Peel the garlic. Chop.
- Rinse and chop the parsley.
- Combine everything into a bowl. Add the spices and the meat. Keep in the fridge until the dough is ready.
Assembly
- When time is up, the dough will be doubled in size. Take the dough onto your worktop. Knead for a minute curling it inwards to get the air out.
- Start pre-heating the oven to 245° Celsius (475° F).
- Cut into 6 equal-sized pieces, make balls and keep covered with a clean kitchen towel. If you choose to make smaller lahmacuns cut accordingly.
- Then one by one grow the dough balls into either round or oval shaped sheets using a rolling pin. Make the sheets thin and equal sized as possible. Sprinkle your hans, the workplace, your dough and your rolling pin with flour if necessary.
- On top spread about a tablespoon and a half of the filling mixture all around in a thin single layer. Do not put too much of the filling, or else it will be difficult to transfer to the baking tray and the dough will become soggy.
- Lay an oven sheet on the baking tray and place the lahmacun into it as a single layer. Lahmacun will not grow much while baking, so they touch each other.
- Place the oven tray on the very bottom rack of the oven. Bake for about 10 minutes until the lahmacun starts getting brown patches on the bottom and crispy on the sides.
- When ready take out of the oven and place the lahmacun with meaty sides facing each other in another pot/dish, keep it covered with a kitchen towel to keep warm. Move on to the next batch.
- While the first batch is cooking prepare the second batch on another baking sheet while waiting to speed up the process.
- Continue until the dough balls and the filling is finished.
- Enjoy while warm. Serve with additional parsley, lemon wedges, sliced onion with sumac and chopped parsley.