Lahm bil ajeen or Lebanese minced beef flatbread is a staple food in every Lebanese house. A special spiced minced beef mixture spread over a soft dough and baked till a crispy perfection. Once you try a bite you will be hooked for life!
Servings 8medium flatbreads
Prep Time 15 minutesmins
Cook Time 15 minutesmins
resting time 1 hourhr30 minutesmins
Equipment
Panasonic automatic bread maker
stand mixer
Ingredients
For the flatbread dough:
1cupwarm milk
1tbspinstant yeast
1tspsugar
5cupsall-purpose flour
1tbspnigella seedsoptional
1/2tspsalt
1/3cupolive oil
2tbspbutter melted
4tbspLaban
For the minced beef spread:
250gminced beef
250gminced lamb
1batch(1 cup) minced parsley
1onion diced
1/3cuppomegranate molasses
1/3cuptahini
1lemon fresh juice
4tbspolive oil
2 mediumtomatoes, finely diced
1tspsalt
1tbsppaprika
1tsp7 spices
1/2tspblack pepper
1tspsmoked paprikaoptional
1/2tspchili powderoptional
Instructions
For the dough:
Add the yeast and salt to the warm milk and let it sit for 10 min to activate.
Mix the dry ingredients together (flour, salt, nigella seeds) than add the yogurt, olive oil and butter and mix it through.
Add the yeast milk mixture and mix it. You can knead with your hands or use a hand mixer with kneading attachment. Or you can use like me the Panasonic bread maker (see notes to check the method)
After kneading or program is done. Let the dough rest covered for 1 hour.
Divide into balls after one hour and let the dough balls rest for half hour covered.
For the filling:
While the dough is resting, start preparing your filling.
Add all your filling ingredients in the food processor and pulse until you have a smooth mixture. Pour into a bowl with the minced meat and mix until everything is covered with the sauce. transfer to a strainer and let it sit in the fridge until some of the liquid is drained you can leave it from an hour up to overnight.
Assembly:
Preheat your oven on 220 C°.
Spread the balls with your hands into a flatbread. spread generously some of the filling on top. Bake for 10 minutes until edges start to get lightly golden crispy. Turn on the broiler and cook from top for 4 extra minutes.
Once you remove from oven, arrange in a large tray. let them cool for only 5 min and immediately cover with a clean towel to ensure that the heat keep them soft and moist.
Drizzle some extra pomegranate molasses in top and squeeze of lemon and enjoy with some Laban airan on the side!
Notes
For the dough: you can knead your dough a day before and let it slowly rest covered in the fridge until the next day. You can also form them into smaller balls, wrap them in cling film and store them in the freezer to use later on.
For storing after baking: you can prepare these flatbreads into smaller mini pizza sizes, bake and store them in the freezer to serve as appetizers at your parties. After baking, let the flatbreads cool for 5 minutes before laying in a Ziplock bag and freeze for up to 3 months. Same procedure for the bigger size flatbreads.
For storing in the fridge: the lahm bl ajeen can stay fresh and good to eat for 4 days stored in the fridge in an airtight container.
keep a close eye while baking: each oven temperature is different so I recommend that the first time you are preparing those flatbreads to keep checking with a spatula the bottom of the flatbread once it is golden brown. Turn off the heat and turn on the broiler to cook the meat layer until fully cooked and you start to see little bubbles and the edge f the flatbread is golden crispy.
Laban airan: it is a very delicious drink to serve with those flatbreads. Just for each 1 cup of thick Laban or yogurt add ½ cup of ice-cold water and whisk till smooth. Then add salt and dry mint and adjust to your taste.
Kneading the dough: I always use for the dough my Panasonic bread maker. I just mix the yeast with milk and sugar. Add the dry ingredient in the bread maker bowl mix it little add the remaining ingredient on top. And pour the yeast mixture on top. Close and set it to program 28 (pizza dough) let it rest for 45 min in the machine. Then form it into smaller balls of dough and let it rest cover for extra 30 minutes.