Hawawshi
Flatbread stuffed with spiced minced beef and baked hard until the bread crisps and the fat soaks into it. Alexandria claims it; every Egyptian city sells it.
Photograph credit: Hawawshi Main 1 Mohamed Moheyeldin by Mohamed Moheyeldin · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
Like arayes, the meat goes in raw so its fat renders into the bread rather than being lost in a pan first — but hawawshi is baked rather than griddled, and that means the oven has to be genuinely hot. At 240°C / 465°F the bread crisps in the same fifteen minutes the thin layer of beef needs; any cooler and the bread goes leathery while it waits. Pricking the top lets steam out, without which the whole thing puffs and separates from its filling.
The Method for Hawawshi
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Heat the oven to 240°C / 465°F with a heavy tray inside it.
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Mix the beef with the onion, pepper, chillies, parsley, garlic, spices, salt and pepper. Work it for a minute so it holds together.
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Split each flatbread around the edge into two discs, leaving one side joined.
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Spread a quarter of the raw filling inside each in an even layer no thicker than 8 mm, right to the edges, and press closed.
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Brush both faces with the melted butter and prick the top of each three or four times with a knife tip.
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Bake on the preheated tray 12 minutes, then turn and bake 10 to 13 minutes more, until both faces are crisp and deep brown and the juices run clear.
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Rest 5 minutes, cut into wedges and serve with tahina and lemon.
Related guide: Ingredient substitutions.
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Tips That Matter
- Raw meat, hot oven. Both, or it does not work.
- A thin layer — 8 mm at most, or the middle stays raw.
- Prick the top or it balloons away from the filling.
Swaps and Variations
- Dried chilli flakes can stand in for the green chillies. Heat varies a great deal between chillies and between jars, so start with a small pinch and add more to taste.
- An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.
Serve It With
Egyptian tahina · Torshi · Salata baladi
Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Roz Mermah, Egyptian Rice with Vermicelli, Eish Merahrah.
Keeping and Reheating
Refrigerated for 3 days. Re-crisp at 220°C / 430°F for 8 minutes; a microwave ruins it. It freezes baked for 2 months.
Hawawshi Nutrition Facts
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Dairy-free when made with olive oil rather than butter.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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