This story was inspired by a simple email from Mike Minassian who resides in Cordoba, Argentina. (Little did he know what his request would involve!)
Mike, an avid cook, was searching for a lahmajoun dough recipe to match one made by an elderly woman in his native land. Mike said her lahmajouns were absolutely delicious – in fact, the BEST he’d ever eaten!
Mike tried to recreate the dough, but his results were never quite like hers. While others may have given up, he was – and still is – determined to achieve lahmajoun dough perfection.
Mike said the key to successful lahmajoun is the dough.
“It should not be a bit dry; it should be well toasted but at the same time very flexible and a bit greasy. The borders should be a little burnt like an old scroll. When you roll it up to eat it you should notice that the folded dough doesn´t have any cracks; it’s magic! I´ve heard from some people that this lady puts some fat in the dough, or some butter, I don’t know, I’ve tried
a few things but I can´t get it right, and of course she won´t tell me the secret (after all, she does this for a living!).
So, Mike contacted me asking if I had any clue as to how this lady prepares her lahmajouns. He was familiar with my lahmajoun ‘short cut’ version, but he says he’s old-school and prefers making the dough from scratch. Bravo, Mike!
I sent him four different recipes for homemade lahmajoun dough. The first uses olive oil; another uses vegetable shortening; one uses shortening plus whole milk and evaporated milk; and the last one uses no fat at all.
With the recipes in hand, Mike has vowed to try each recipe and send his results to
The Armenian Kitchen. I promised him I’d share his experiments with you.
After all, we can’t let Mike’s hard work go unnoticed or unappreciated.
I hope you’ll follow along as I post Mike’s efforts in ‘The Great Lahmajoun Dough Experiment’!
Stay tuned for Experiment #1 … coming soon!!
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Good luck Mike! I'll be keeping a watch out for this one. That always comes up in conversation - the dough isn't raw of course, but even cooked, it has that nice soft-pliable texture as though it was. Seems like magic to me. ;)