This pastry dough is perfect for any hand pies and turnovers and is extremely easy to work with. In most of the Arab world you would call this pastry—sambousek. Sambousek can be filled with ground beef, cheese, and spinach and can be fried or cooked in the oven.
Almost every Arab grandma has a version of this dough. This one happens to be Teza Hiyam’s recipe—my grandma’s neighbor! The fact that my grandma passed her neighbor’s recipe down to us is so funny to me. Where I live, I would ~never~ expect my neighbors to give me their recipes (because I’ve never really had a conversation with them).
I hope you enjoy!
Savory Pastry Dough
flaky pastry dough
Ingredients
- 3 1/4 cups flour (390-410 grams)
- 1/2 cup karoun plain yogurt, laban (plain yogurt)
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1 egg
- 1.5 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix together yogurt, canola oil, and egg with a wooden spoon.
- Add in 1-2 cups of flour, the baking powder, and salt while mixing with a wooden spoon. Once the mixture starts to form into a ball, add in the remaining flour and mix by hand.
- Once all the ingredients are fully incorporated, wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Take the dough out of the refrigerator and begin kneading and rolling the dough out into desired thickness and shape.
- Follow other recipe instructions for oven cooking time and filling instructions.
Notes
*This dough is extremely forgiving and is very stretchy (think pizza dough consistency).
*When cooking, brush an egg yolk wash on top of the pastry to create a nice golden crust and glossy top (it also makes it easier to tell when it is done cooking).
