Mushroom and Cumin Sfiha
Substantial savory tart. Great paired with a light salad or soup for lunch or dinner. If you aren't a cumin lover, please see my notes below.
Servings: 4 servings
Ingredients
Dough
- ½ cup (120 ml) warm water
- 3 ½ teaspoon active dry yeast
- 1 heaping teaspoon sugar
- 1 ½ cups (190 grams) pastry flour
- ½ cup (65 grams) whole wheat flour
- pinch of salt
- 1 large egg beaten
- 3 tablespoons (50 grams) butter diced and softened
Filling
- 3 large onions peeled and diced
- 3 cloves garlic peeled and sliced thin
- 1 small leek sliced
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 tablespoons (50 grams) butter
- 1 ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 cinnamon stick
- generous 1 pound (500 grams) mushrooms sliced*
- 2 heaping tablespoons ground cumin** or Baharat spice
- 1 heaping teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Cheesy layer
- 7 ounce (200 grams) ricotta or curd cheese***
- 1 large egg
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
Filling
- Saute the onions, garlic, and leek together with the oil, butter, salt, and cinnamon stick over medium heat until soft -- about 10-15 minutes.
- Once onion mix starts sticking to the pan bottom, add the sliced mushrooms and continue stirring occasionally another 15-20 minutes as they let out water and decrease in volume.
- Add the cumin (or your alternate spice) and black pepper, continue cooking until there is no liquid left in the pan (this took me another 30 minutes). Taste and adjust seasoning as preferred. Remove the cinnamon stick and allow to cool completely before filling the dough shell.
Dough
- Mix water, sugar, and yeast in small bowl. Let sit for 10-15 minutes, until bubbling up.
- In a larger bowl, add flours, salt, egg, and butter, stir with a wooden spoon to roughly combine, then pour in the foamy yeast mix. Mix to combine and knead into smooth-ish dough. Form into a ball, place in bottom of bowl, and cover with plastic wrap (or clean dish towel). Set in warm place until doubled in size (about 1-2 hours).
Cheesy layer
- Mix cheese with egg and pepper until combined.
Assembly
- Preheat oven to 425 F.
- Line a pie plate or any ovenproof 8 ½- 9 ¼ inch pan with parchment paper, such that sides of paper hang over edge of pan. Remove paper and put on counter.
- Spread dough over parchment paper, pat and push dough until it covers the parchment paper all the way out to the edges.
- Lift dough and paper together, lay into pan (okay that edges are overhanging the sides).
- Fill the base by evenly spreading the cheesy layer across the bottom. Top with the cooked mushroom filling. Fold the overhanging dough edges down over the filling (basically you are making a free-form galette).
- Let rest in warm place for 20-30 minutes to proof.
- Bake in center of oven for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 F. Bake another 10 minutes.
- Serve hot or at room temperature. This keeps well for several days in the refrigerator and it also freezes well for longer-term storage.
Notes
*The authors recommending thickly slicing the mushrooms, but I actually prefer my mushrooms thinly sliced. I sliced mine using my food processor's slicing disk attachment. You could use a mix of mushrooms if you like, I used all cremini.
**This was way too much cumin for me, but I am not a great lover of cumin. Instead, I used the same amount of the Baharat spice mix I made for the lamb siniya.
***Most cheeses would be good here, but if you elect to use something like gouda or cheddar, grate it and make sure you pick a spice mix that will work well with the cheese flavor.
**This was way too much cumin for me, but I am not a great lover of cumin. Instead, I used the same amount of the Baharat spice mix I made for the lamb siniya.
***Most cheeses would be good here, but if you elect to use something like gouda or cheddar, grate it and make sure you pick a spice mix that will work well with the cheese flavor.