Mushroom and Cumin Sfiha

Mushroom sfiha, the second recipe I chose from Honey & Co., is defined by the ever-helpful Wikipedia as a type of open-faced savory pie (aka a pizza) originating from the Eastern Mediterranean. Historically lamb-based, Honey & Co.'s version is within their vegetarian mains section and features mushrooms as the main topping. I picked this recipe for two reasons - well, maybe three. I love bread-based dishes, I like pretty much any dish that includes mushrooms, and most importantly, Itamar and Sarit write that if you only cook one dish from their cookbook, it should be this one.

Unfortunately, several things went wrong the first time I baked this. The recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of cumin, so it is the dominant spice note and I am not a cumin lover. Feeling like I needed to at least try the sfiha with the original spice profile once, I stuck with that massive amount of cumin. Also, I had a surfeit of zucchini, and I thought what harm could there be.... it would be nice to have some color, so I used a mix of zucchini and mushrooms. The result wasn't particularly visually appealing, I didn't love the zucchini overpowering my mushrooms in texture, and the cumin level was tolerable but not my favorite. Certainly, I didn't find my first-round mushroom sfiha to be "best recipe in the book" praiseworthy. In fact, I worried that if this was as good as the recipes got, I would definitely not be keeping Honey & Co.

Happily, I do have this three-recipes-per-cookbook testing scheme, besides adding the zucchini was my poor choice. When I found that I really liked the other things I made from Honey & Co., I revisited the mushroom sfiha, this time using only the vegetables called for, but substituting the cumin for the same amount of Baharat spice, which I already had from the lamb siniya.  This time around, I really liked it. It's the kind of dish that doesn't seem that special initially, but you can't stop going back for a little more, and then maybe a little more, and before you know it, a quarter of the tart is gone!

Slightly adapted from Honey & Co.

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.

5 from 1 vote

Print Pin Rate

Course: Vegetarian

Cuisine: Middle Eastern

Keyword: Honey and Co

Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Proofing time: 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Total Time: 3 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

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.