If you’re looking to make the perfect sweet bread or cinnamon roll, this isn’t the dough for you. If your dinner plans include Meat Pies, Spinach and Lemon Pies, Zahtar Bread, or Lahmajoun, on the other hand, you’ve found the perfect recipe. Go ahead and bookmark this page now—this versatile dough for savory dishes is one you’ll use again and again.
BASIC DOUGH
Ingredients
- 2 ½ lbs all-purpose flour
- ½ cup canola oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 ½ cups room temperature water
- 1 TBL yeast (can use active yeast packets—make sure not to use rapid rise)
- 1 pinch sugar
- ¼ cup warm water
Directions
In a clean bowl, combine yeast and sugar with ¼ cup warm water. Set aside to allow yeast to activate. Once yeast is activated, agitate the mixture with a fork until fully dissolved with no remaining chunks of yeast
Combine the flour and salt in the mixing bowl of a stand mixer with dough hook attached. Without turning the mixer on, add canola oil, activated yeast, and 2 cups of room temperature water to the flour mixture.
Turn stand mixer to a low speed setting. Gradually add remaining ½ cup of room temperature water to ensure that the dough hook continues to turn. Watch dough carefully as it mixes. When it has formed together and begins to pull cleanly from the sides and bottom of the bowl, it’s finished mixing.
Pull dough from the hook and transfer to another bowl. Sprinkle the top with a bit of flour then cover with plastic wrap and set aside to rise (approximately 1 hour).
Directions: For Pies
Have a bowl of all-purpose flour handy to flour your hands and any surface as needed. Portion out 1 ½-oz balls of dough, rounding with your hands and dipping lightly in flour to prevent stickiness before placing in rows on a clean surface. Cover loosely with plastic to prevent air from drying out the dough, and allow to rise for 10-15 more minutes. One batch of dough makes approximately 36 individual portions.
