Sfiha Baalbakiya: The Small Open Meat Pies of the Beqaa

There is a moment in a Baalbek bakery when the tray comes out and the pies are still moving slightly, the meat bubbling in its own fat inside four folded corners. That fold is the whole design. It turns a flat disc of dough into a shallow dish, and the juice that would otherwise run onto the tray stays where it belongs.

Sfiha is a Levantine dish of flatbread baked with a minced meat topping, usually a mix of sheep and veal, seasoned with onion, tomato, pine nuts and spice, as the reference record on the dish sets out. It dates to roughly the fifteenth century and first appears in what is now eastern Lebanon.

The Baalbek version, sfiha baalbakiya, is its own thing: smaller, square, with the sides folded up, and finished with additions like pine nuts and lemon juice. It shows up at weddings and occasions rather than as everyday food. 196 Flavors traces the wider lahm bi ajin family across the Levant, and The Matbakh covers the Lebanese method.

Ingredients

Makes about 24 small pies, serving 6. Total time: 2 hours 30 minutes, including a 90 minute rise.

• 500 g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 7 g fast action dried yeast
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 1 tsp fine salt
• 300 ml warm water
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 400 g minced lamb, not too lean, around 20 percent fat
• 2 medium onions, very finely chopped
• 2 medium tomatoes, deseeded and finely diced
• 2 tbsp pomegranate molasses
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1.5 tsp ground allspice
• 0.5 tsp ground cinnamon
• 0.25 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 0.5 tsp black pepper
• 60 g pine nuts
• 1 lemon, cut into wedges

Method

1. Whisk the yeast and sugar into the warm water and leave 10 minutes until it foams. If nothing happens, the yeast is dead and starting again now saves two hours later.
2. Combine the flour and salt, pour in the yeast liquid and the olive oil, and bring together into a dough. Knead 8 to 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Cover and leave to rise 90 minutes, until roughly doubled.
3. While it rises, make the topping. Combine the lamb, onion, tomato, pomegranate molasses, tomato paste, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly with your hands rather than a spoon, which distributes the fat properly.
4. Leave the mixture in a sieve set over a bowl for 30 minutes. Onion and tomato release a surprising amount of water, and draining it is what keeps the base from going soggy.
5. Heat the oven as high as it will go, at least 240C fan, with a baking tray or stone inside. The pies need fierce bottom heat to set the base before the topping overcooks.
6. Knock back the dough and divide into 24 pieces. Roll each into a thin square roughly 9 cm across, thinner than feels right, since the dough puffs.
7. Spread about a tablespoon of the meat mixture over each square, leaving a narrow margin. Fold the four corners up and pinch them lightly so the sides stand and the centre stays open. Press a few pine nuts into the meat.
8. Bake in batches for 8 to 12 minutes, until the dough is golden underneath and the meat is cooked through and bubbling. Serve hot with lemon wedges to squeeze over at the table.

Notes, swaps and keeping

Use lamb with real fat content. Lean mince produces a dry pie and no amount of pomegranate molasses rescues it, because the fat is what keeps the meat moist during a very short, very hot bake.