Name: Pide and Lahmacun Dough
Yield: 10
Cuisine: Turkish
Ingredients: FOR THE STARTER; 300ml water; 300ml Plain (all purpose) flour; 5g dry yeast; 5g Honey; TO FINSIH; 700ml water; 1.25kg plain (all purpose) flour; 3 level tsp salt

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This pide and lahmacun dough will make your pides and lahmacun even more amazing!

You will find both pide and lahmacun recipes on my blog and those recipes call for ready-made pizza dough that you can purchase at supermarkets and specialty shops. Make your own pide and lahmacun dough like this and they will be even better.

This is actually a simplified version of my authentic Neapolitan pizza dough which I have not posted yet. For now, give this recipe a try and use it for pide, lahmacun and pizza recipes if you like.

About this pide and lahmacun dough recipe.

This recipe will get you a delicious sourdough that is perfect for lahmacun, pide and pizza.. This recipe is really just a simplified pizza dough but it works perfectly well for pide and lahmacun.

The sourdough flavour comes from a starter you make before adding the remaining dough ingredients. We are talking amazing flavour here!

You need to be very careful when adding the flour. The idea is to prepare a very soft dough. It should be so soft you could simply use your hands to flatten it but a rolling pin will come in handy.

Is the recipe difficult?

It is a bit fussy but it really isn’t difficult. While you make it, think soft! You want the dough to remain soft! Add too much additional flour and it will become stiff, difficult work with and it won’t cook as nicely.

So you will need to add additional flour but be very careful when doing so and you will be in for an amazing pide and lahmacun dough that you can use for many other things too.

How long can you store the Pide and lahmacun dough balls in the fridge?

You can store your finished dough balls in the fridge for about 4 days. They will become stronger in flavour though. So if you like sourdough you will probably love them. If not, you might want to consider freezing the dough balls.

How long can you freeze these dough balls?

You can freeze them for about 6 months. Be sure to wrap them tightly and store in an air tight container. Label and date before freezing.

To use, allow the pide and lahmacun dough to defrost completely and come to room temperature. Then use as you would when freshly made.

Step by step photographs

Whisk 300ml room temperature water with the dry yeast. Add 300g plain flaour and the honey. Whisk until smooth and place covered in your fridge for 18 hours. The next day it will look like this.

Pouring the starter for the dough into a bowl of water.

Pour 700ml room temperature water into a large mixing bowl and add the starter.

Stirring the dough starter and the water together until smooth.

Stir for about 2 minutes or until smooth and completely dissolved into the water.

Adding about 500g of flour to the starter and water mixture.

Add 500g of the flour. I sieve it.

Whisk this flour in and it will look like this.

The dough in a mixing bowl. Still quite wet.

Then add the remaining flour and stir it up as best you can to combine. The dough will still be very wet and difficult to work with.

The dough on a work surface ready to knead.

Pour the dough out onto a clean work surface and begin kneading as best you can.

Knead the dough for about 5 minutes, only lightly dusted with additional flour to make kneading possible. Do not add too much flour! It should still be quite wet and difficult to work with.

Lightly oil your hands with olive oil and continue working the dough. Begin adding a little flour so that you can knead it.

Stretch and knead the dough for at least 10 minutes. Only add as much flour as needed so that the dough is sticky but not sticking to your hands.

After 10 minutes of kneading, you should be able to work it into a large ball.

Divide the dough into three equal sized pieces. This will make it easier to work with.

Work into soft dough balls. You should be able to get 8 to 10 balls from this recipe.

Allow the individual dough balls to rest for about 30 minutes, covered before using.

If you like your homemade pide and lahmacun dough, you might like to also prepare these Turkish classics.

Have you tried this lahmacun dough recipe?

If so, please give it a star rating in the comments below and leave a comment. I love receiving your feedback and I’m sure other readers of my blog do too. Thank you.

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Yield: 10

Pide and Lahmacun Dough

Ingredients

FOR THE STARTER
300ml water
300ml Plain (all purpose) flour
5g dry yeast
5g Honey
TO FINSIH
700ml water
1.25kg plain (all purpose) flour
3 level tsp salt

Instructions

Pour 300ml room temperature water into a mixing bowl and stir in the dry yeast. Whisk it all together and then add 300g plain (all-purpose) flour and the honey. Whisk well to combine until smooth.
Cover and place in the fridge for 18 to 24 hours. This is your starter and it will make the dough super fluffy and crispy when you cook it.
The next day, take out your starter. You will see that it has doubled in size and is really bubbly.
Pour 700ml room temperature water into a large mixing bowl and add the starter. Stir for about 2 minutes or until smooth and completely dissolved into the water. Then add half of the remaining 1.25kg plain (all purpose) flour and 3 level tsp salt. Stir well to combine. When well incorporated, add the remaining flour and continue stirring until you have a soft dough.
Pour the dough onto a clean work surface, ensuring that you scrape the bowl and not leave any of it behind.
Knead the dough by hand for about 5 minutes. This won't be easy as the dough will be quite sticky but just do your best. No need at this stage to add any additional flour.
Once you have kneaded and worked the dough for about 5 minutes or longer, it will still be sticky. Form it into the best ball you can and cover it with a large mixing bowl to rest for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, uncover the dough ball. The top of the dough ball needs to stay on top while you work the dough some more. Using a dough scraper or spatula, work underneath the dough to ensure it is not sticking to the surface.
Pour about 2 tsp olive oil into your hand and the starting from the middle of the dough ball, lift is up and then place it back down on one of the halves. Continue lifting and placing for about a minute and you will see that the top of the dough becomes really smooth.
Now coat your mixing bowl with about a teaspoon of olive oil and carefully lift the smooth dough ball into the bowl. Rub a little olive oil over the top to coat it too. Cover the dough tightly and let it rest for an hour undisturbed.
After an hour, place your hand lightly on top and then turn the mixing bowl over to release the dough into your hand. Then place it carefully on your work surface by turning the dough over so that your hand it on top.
Divide the dough lengthwise using a knife into three long, equal sized pieces. Pick up one of the pieces toward one end and begin working into a ball shape, keeping the top facing upward. Pinch the dough to break off the ball and place it on your work surface. Continue until you have nine to ten smooth dough balls that are roughly the same size.
Now coat the surface of a deep baking tray or two with semolina and place the dough balls on top, ensuring that you place them a good 2 inches apart so that they don't stick together as they rise.
Rub the top of each ball with a little olive oil and then cover them to rise for two hours.
dip a sharp metal spatula or pizza dough scraper into some semolina and then carefully take out one of the dough balls. Dip both sides of the ball into semolina to coat and then cover your work surface with semolina.
Begin stretching and pulling the dough into a long oblong canoe shape. Pay attention to the side of the dough, making it thicker than the base of the pide.
At any time you can dust the dough with a little flour but be very careful not to add to much. This needs to be a very soft dough if you want the perfect pide or lahmacun. I don't want this to be difficult for you though so add flour as needed or try to leave it out if you can.