Cheese Sambousek | Cheese Borek | A restaurant-style recipe for professionals

Those popular cheese sambousek/ cheese borek that hail from Lebanon and the Middle East are wonderful to eat out of the fryer! They feature a cheese filling encased in pastry and deep fried to flaky perfection. The incredible savory bites are crispy on the outside with a stretchy oozy cheese inside. For some reason, they have a reputation for being difficult. I have to admit, it takes time make these little cheese morsels from scratch, but they are really so worth it. The process involves making a buttery dough from scratch and cook the cheese filling on stovetop. Classically, they are are formed into a crescent shape like empanadas or a rectangle much like ravioli, and pan-fried to perfection. The crowd-pleaser cheese sambousek can be made ahead of time too!
Link to the printable recipe: hadiaslebanese...
Makes: 40 mini sambousek
Cuisine: Lebanese and Middle Eastern
My love of those cheesy oozy sambusek knows no bounds. Frying them guarantees a shatteringly crispy result, and the oozy, stretchy cheese filling makes them more so appealing - keep this recipe in mind, it is a total winner!
Ingredients:
For the dough
500 grams / 1 lb. 2 oz / 3 1/4 cups all-purpose-flour
1 teaspoon mahlab, optional
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
2 tablespoon sugar syrup or granulated sugar
100 grams/ 3.5 oz butter, room temperature
Water as needed, start with 1/2 cup or more to create a dry dough
For the cheese filling:
500 grams 1 lb 2 oz cheese, a mixture of mshallaleh, majdoola and mozzarella (you can use mozzarella alone, or a mix of mozzarella and Swiss cheese)
3 tablespoons sunflower or canola oil
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
a pinch of nigella seeds, optional
1//4 teaspoon mahlab, optional
To make the flour slurry:
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 water

[@mouhamadkhanafer381]

🙂👍👍it looks delicious! Thanks so much Mme hadia for tasty recipes👍🌹

[@Hadia983]

Thanks, Mouhamad, they are out of the world good, xoxo

[@Hadia983]

The ingredients are in the description box.

[@beverlysmith2640]

This is Home !

[@adamolsan]

Hello i am from Turkiye and i am trying this recipe now. But is 100gram butter is too much ? My dough is little bit sticky, i put it in fridge hopefully i can do it

[@Hadia983]

@adamolsan , yes refrigerate the dough as you mentioned and add a pinch of flour to the dough, and sprinkle the counter with a generous amount of flour before stretching it. I hope you enjoy it