Gluten Free Sfeeha or Lahm Bi Ajeen – Gluten Free Mediterranean Meat Pies

These meat pies are one of the most famous food items in Lebanon. As a child, they were my favorite type of “Pizza”. I still have fond memories of this one time when my father took me and my mom with him to Jbail and got us the most amazing meat pies that I have ever had from this little tiny shop by the side of the road. Ever since I was determined to achieve the same taste that my memories always take me to whenever I think of meat pies. I believe that I came pretty close to the taste. The secret is in the meat mixture, and the exciting thing is that these ones are gluten-free.

Ingredients

– 1 ½ pounds ground beef

– 3 large onions minced and squished by hand to soften them or processed in a food processor until they have a slightly minced texture

– 3 large tomatoes minced

– 2 tablespoons olive oil

– 1 ½ tablespoon sumac

– 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper or ½ teaspoon depending on how spicy you like it to be

– 1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon

– 1 ¼ teaspoon 7 spices or allspice

– 1 tablespoon kosher salt

– Twice the amount of the Multi-purpose gluten-free dough

– 1 to 2 lemons for serving (optional)

– Extra cayenne pepper for serving (optional)

Utensils

– Spoon

– Measuring cups

– Measuring spoons

– Medium size muffin pan

– Mixing bowl

– Parchment paper

– Rolling pin

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 F.
2. Place all ingredients (except the dough) in a large mixing bowl.
3. Using your hands, mix all the ingredients until well combined.
4. Place a parchment paper on a clean counter. Take about a golf size piece of the dough. Roll into a ball between the palms of your hands. Place on the parchment paper. Press down with the palm of your hands. Using the rolling pin, roll the dough into a circle of a ¼ inch thickness, and a diameter that is appropriate for your muffin tin cups (approximately about 6 inches in diameter)
5. Spray the muffin pan with a cooking spray. Place each circular dough into each muffin cup and press into the muffin cup in order to create the shape of the muffin cups. Make sure that you have enough dough to reach the top of the muffin cups (you are lining the muffin cups with the dough).  Repeat the process until all the muffin cups are lined with the dough.
6. Fill each muffin cup with enough stuffing to reach the top.
7. Bake at 400 F for 15 – 20 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and the ground beef stuffing is fully cooked.
8. To serve, squeeze a little bit of lemon juice on the meat pie that you are about to eat, and you can also sprinkle some extra cayenne pepper on top if you like it extra spicy. If you do not like lemon juice or spicy food, you can skip this step altogether. You do not want to squeeze your lemon juice on all the meat pies all at once because they can and will get soggy.

Note: You probably can roll the dough to minicircles, place it on an oiled cookie sheet, spread the filling on top and bake it, but I have never personally tried it this way. Maybe next time.

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