Sambousik Pastry with Shankleesh Filling

OH.MY.GOSH.
If there is one thing my partner and I love it's Shankleesh!!..
Proudly introduced to me by my Lebanese workmate!!..
She made me breakfast one morning when I headed over to her place to do some "wedding" things and she had gotten out the sandwich press, Lebanese bread, and this what I thought at the time was some weird looking cheese.. she promised me that I would like it.. and she was right..!!! There's this little pizza shop/ bakery place in Bankstown and "the man" LOVES IT!! especially fresh!.. they make this doughy bread and it has shankleesh in it.. so I thought I might give it a try and see how it goes..

When making this .. I think I got everything right..except that I overcooked it..:s.. my bad.. and I didn't use enough pastry for each one.. so NOTE TO SELF... use more pastry..and do not over cook but I should ask my friend if I made the right pastry..
You can buy the shankleesh at any Lebanese, Arabic supermarket.. it's in the fridge section.. I got the one that is already in oil this time.. but you can get one that has been air tight sealed.. I prefer that one over the one in oil.. but I wanted to try out the difference for future reference....
I remember when I first bought shankleesh the guy in the store was like put a little bit of olive oil, some onions, and tomato and its ready to go.. IT IS SOO GOOD.. I prefer Spanish onion rather then the normal brown onion.. it just makes that little bit of a difference!!..
Its a must try!!!

Here's the Recipe for the Sambousik Pastry:

Ingredients
1 Cup (150g) self raising flour
1 Cup (150g) plain flour, plus extra for dusting
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup (60ml) olive oil
2/3 (160ml) water

Method

• Preheat oven 180degrees
• Sift the flours into a bowl and add the salt, sugar and oil.
• Gradually mix in the water (you may not need it all) until the mixture comes together to form a rough dough.
• Knead for a few minutes until smooth and elastic, the return to the bowl.
• Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and leave the dough to rest for 15-30 minutes.
• Dive the dough in half and roll out one piece at a time on a lightly floured surface until about 3mm thick cut out 35-40 rounds using a 6-7 cm cutter
• Place a teaspoon of the filling in the centre of each dough and seal the sides together.
• Place on baking tray and put in the over for about 15 minutes or until it looks ready.. (sorry I'm not to sure on the time since I over cooked mine) but it shouldn't be too hard.. and still a bit doughy..

GOOD LUCK!