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DOUGHRISEFOUNDERS
Recipe
6 min read
Sourdough Lahmacun with Spiced Beef, Pomegranate & Fresh Herbs
A sourdough lahmacun recipe with crispy thin crust, spiced beef topping, pomegranate molasses and fresh herbs. The Turkish flatbread pizza you didn't know you needed.
Photo by Davey Gravy on UnsplashThe smell of cumin and allspice hitting a screaming hot oven does something to a kitchen that no candle company has managed to bottle yet. It is the kind of thing that pulls people out of the living room mid-conversation, glass in hand, asking what on earth you are cooking. Sourdough lahmacun , the Turkish flatbread pizza , has that effect every single time.
Lahmacun is often described as Turkish pizza, which is both accurate and a bit reductive. It is thinner than any Neapolitan base you have thrown on a stone, the topping is cooked directly into the dough rather than sitting on top of it, and you eat it rolled up with parsley and a squeeze of lemon. It is fast, it is loud with flavour, and it is exactly the kind of thing that suits a warm April evening when you want something a bit different without making life complicated. Using a sourdough base here adds a gentle tang that plays beautifully against the sweetness of pomegranate molasses in the meat mixture. Once you try it this way, a yeasted version will feel like a step backwards.
Dough
- 400g strong white bread flour
- 80g active sourdough starter (100% hydration)
- 220g warm water
- 8g (1.5 tsp) fine sea salt
- 10g (2 tsp) olive oil
Spiced Beef Topping
- 300g minced beef (15–20% fat works best)
- 1 medium onion, very finely grated or blitzed
- 2 medium tomatoes, deseeded and finely chopped
- 1 red pepper, deseeded and finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 15g (1 tbsp) pomegranate molasses
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp sweet smoked paprika
- 0.5 tsp ground allspice
- 0.5 tsp dried chilli flakes
- 5g (1 tsp) fine sea salt
- Black pepper to taste
To Serve
- A large handful of flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
- Half a red onion, very thinly sliced
- 1 lemon, cut into wedges
- Sumac, for sprinkling
Baker's Tips
- The dough needs to be rolled extremely thin, around 2–3 millimetres. Thicker than that and you lose the characteristic crispness that makes lahmacun what it is. Do not be shy about getting it really flat.
- Squeeze as much moisture as possible out of your grated onion and chopped tomatoes before mixing the topping. Excess liquid will make the topping steam rather than caramelise, and you will end up with a soggy base.
- If you are still dialling in your starter timing or finding fermentation confusing, the DoughRise Coach is genuinely useful here. You can send a message describing exactly what your dough is doing and get personalised guidance back, which is much faster than trawling forums at midnight wondering if your bulk is overproofed.
METHOD
- Mix the flour, water, and active starter together in a large bowl until no dry flour remains. Cover and leave to rest for 45 minutes (this is your autolyse). After the rest, add the salt and olive oil, and work them into the dough by squeezing and folding until fully incorporated. The dough will feel a little tacky but should come together smoothly.
- Perform four sets of stretch and folds over the next two hours, spaced roughly 30 minutes apart. After the final set, the dough should feel noticeably more elastic and hold its shape better when you pull it. Cover and leave to bulk ferment at room temperature (around 20–22°C) for a further 4–6 hours, until it has grown by around 50–75% and feels airy and light. In spring temperatures the timing should be fairly predictable, but use your dough as the guide rather than the clock.
- While the dough is in its final hour of bulk, prepare the topping. Combine all the topping ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly with your hands until everything is evenly distributed. It should look almost like a coarse paste rather than loose mince. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Cover and refrigerate until needed.
Why this works
Blitzing the onion and tomato finely and squeezing out the liquid means the topping has much less free moisture going into the oven. When lahmacun hits a very high heat, you want the meat mixture to roast and caramelise onto the dough, not steam it. Less moisture in the topping means the base stays crisp and the flavours concentrate rather than dilute. It is the same principle as salting aubergine before frying: controlling water changes everything about the final texture.
INTO THE OVEN
- Place your baking stone or a heavy upturned baking tray on the top shelf of your oven and preheat to the highest temperature your oven will reach, typically 250–280°C (fan). Give it at least 45 minutes to fully heat through. This is non-negotiable for a properly crisp base.
- Once the bulk is done, tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into six equal pieces, each around 120g. Shape each piece into a rough ball and cover with a damp cloth while you work through them one at a time.
- Take one dough ball and roll it out on a lightly floured surface into a thin oval or round, roughly 25–28 centimetres across and about 2–3 millimetres thick. Do not worry about a perfect circle. Transfer it to a piece of baking paper.
- Spread a thin, even layer of the meat mixture over the entire surface of the dough, right to the edges. Use the back of a spoon or your fingers to press it gently but firmly into the dough. You want a thin, uniform coating rather than a thick layer in the middle.
- Slide the lahmacun (still on its baking paper) onto the hot stone or tray. Bake for 6–8 minutes until the edges are crisp, the topping is cooked through and starting to colour, and the base has a few golden-brown spots underneath. Repeat with the remaining pieces.
- Serve immediately. Scatter parsley and red onion over the top, hit it with a pinch of sumac and a good squeeze of lemon, then roll it up and eat it with your hands. That is the only correct way.
Want to dial in this recipe? Use the free DoughRise Hydration Calculator to calculate exactly the right ratios for your flour and batch size.
Happy baking! Find everything you need at doughrise.store
Photo by Davey Gravy on Unsplash