Turkish Lahmacun

Name: Turkish Lahmacun
Prep time: 2 h
Cook time: 30 min
Yield: 8-10
Cuisine: Middle Eastern

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roubashahin.com.au

Mains

Thin, spiced and baked fast on a hot stone — this Turkish lahmacun is one of my favourite ways to feed a crowd.

PREP TIME

2 hours (includes resting)

COOK TIME

30 minutes

SERVES

8-10

About this recipe

This Turkish lahmacun recipe came to me from a Turkish chef who was living here in Australia, and I’ve been making my own version of it ever since. He shared his dough and filling with me years ago, and over time I’ve tweaked his ingredients here and there until it felt like mine. The biggest change for me was the filling itself — after looking into how other people made theirs, I wanted less meat and mine to be smoother and a little runnier than his, so I process everything together until it’s completely blended rather than leaving it coarse. That’s the beauty of a good recipe, isn’t it? It gets passed from hand to hand, and each person leaves a little of themselves in it.

What makes this Lahmacun so satisfying is how thin and crisp the base gets. As a result, it bakes in only a few minutes once your oven and stone are properly hot — much like my authentic mana-eesh dough, which also relies on a hot stone rather than a tray to get that same thin, blistered result. It’s a close cousin to Lebanese sfiha too — while this one is Turkish through and through, sfiha takes the same idea of a spiced meat topping on dough and turns it Lebanese, with a softer dough and a coarser, more piled-up filling rather than something thin and flat. That’s a recipe I’ll have to share properly one of these days.

Best of all, this Turkish lahmacun is genuinely simple once you get the rhythm of it — roll, top, bake, and move on to the next one while the last is still in the oven. It’s the kind of recipe that turns into a production line once you get going, which makes it perfect for feeding a crowd. If you’d rather bake something in a tray instead of on a stone, my homemade tray pizza is another great one to have in your back pocket for the same kind of easy, crowd-feeding cooking.

Ingredients

For the Dough

500 grams plain flour
2 teaspoons instant yeast (6 grams)
2 teaspoons sugar (11 grams)
1 teaspoon salt (3–4 grams)
1⁄2 cup warm water
3⁄4 cup natural yogurt
120 ml olive oil (about 6 tablespoons)

For the Filling

1 large onion
2 tomatoes
1 medium green capsicum
1 packed cup chopped parsley
2 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon sweet pepper paste (capsicum paste)
1 teaspoon chilli
1 teaspoon paprika
Salt and black pepper, to taste
250 grams beef mince
100 grams lamb mince

Notes from Rouba

Heat bricks in the oven work well, but they can be hard to source and a bit fiddly to fit in properly. A pizza stone is a better option — it’s just a flat slab you can buy online, and it does the job much more simply. An electric pizza oven is another great alternative, and it heats up so quickly that by the time you’ve rolled out your dough, it’s already ready to go.
Don’t skip straining the filling — it keeps everything from going too wet to spread thinly on the dough.
Because the stone stays so hot, each lahmacun only takes a few minutes to bake, so keep rolling and topping the next one while the last is in the oven.

Equipment

For this recipe I actually used an electric pizza oven rather than a stone — it sat right on the bench next to me, and by the time I’d rolled one lahmacun out, the last one was ready to come out and the next one was already going in. I found it so convenient for a recipe like this one, and you can find the one I used over in my Amazon Shop. If you’d rather go with a stone, that’s in my kitchen accessories — heated bricks also work, though they can be a bit fiddly to source and fit into your oven.

Method

Step 1. Preheat and Make the Dough

If you're using an electric pizza oven, switch it on now — it only takes 5 to 7 minutes to get up to temperature. If you're using a conventional oven with a pizza stone or heated bricks, preheat it to its highest setting, at least 230°C (preferably no fan) (250°C conventional) (450°F), with the stone or bricks inside, and give it a full hour to heat through properly before you start baking

In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, add the flour, instant yeast, sugar, salt, warm water, yogurt and olive oil. Mix on a low-medium speed for about 5 minutes, until you have a smooth, soft dough.

Cover the bowl and rest the dough for 30 minutes. Weigh the dough, then divide it into 100 gram portions, rolling each into a smooth ball. Cover again and rest for a further hour.

Step 2. Make the Filling

Add the onions, tomatoes, capsicum, parsley, tomato paste, pepper paste, chilli and paprika to a small or medium food processor, along with salt and black pepper. Pulse a few times until everything is coarsely chopped. Add the beef and lamb mince and process again until the mixture is smooth, soft and well combined — it will be a little runny at this stage. Tip it into a strainer set over a bowl and leave to drain briefly so it isn't too wet to spread.

Step 3. Roll and Top

On a well-floured bench, roll each dough portion out thinly into a round. Spread a thin, even layer of the filling over each round using the back of a spoon, right out to the edges.

Step 4. Bake

Slide the topped rounds onto the hot pizza stone and bake for 5–7 minutes, until the base is cooked through and the edges are golden. Keep rolling and topping the next one while the last bakes.

A FEW THINGS YOU'LL WANT TO KNOW

Can I make the dough ahead of time?
Yes — you can portion and rest it as directed, then keep it covered in the fridge for a few hours if you need to get ahead, just bring it back to room temperature before rolling.

What if I don't have an electric pizza oven?
A pizza stone in a very hot conventional oven is your next best option, with heated bricks as another alternative, though they can be a little fiddly to fit in properly. You do need something like a stone or bricks for that crisp, golden base — a nonstick tray won't get you the same result. If you're really stuck, you can bake it in the oven as normal and then finish the base in a hot pan on the stovetop to crisp it up, but a stone is really the way to go if you can.

Why do I need to strain the filling?
The mixture comes out of the processor quite wet once the meat is blended in, and straining off the excess liquid stops the topping from making the base soggy as it bakes.

Can I use only beef, or only lamb?
Traditionally it's mostly beef, with some people adding a bit of lamb in for extra fat and richness, which is the approach I've taken here. I wouldn't go all lamb though — that's not really traditional and it can end up too heavy.

How long does it take to cook in the electric pizza oven?
Only a couple of minutes once it's in there, though you might need to turn it around partway through, even in a small oven, so the base cooks evenly all over. It really depends on how hot your particular oven runs — mine can get so hot that I'll leave the lid open between bakes to let it cool down slightly, so the next one goes in and cooks through evenly rather than burning on the bottom before it's ready. You'll get to know your own oven quickly enough and can adjust from there.

Why isn't there more meat in the filling?
It really comes down to personal taste — some people like a heavier meat filling, others prefer less. I've found that when I use a lot more meat, the filling tends to separate on top as it bakes, so I like to keep mine on the lighter side. If you'd prefer a meatier filling, feel free to add another 100 grams of mince.