Best Lebanese Fatayer Recipes
Feb 15, 2022, Updated May 09, 2023
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Here are my best Lebanese fatayer recipes so you can bake and enjoy this special tradition. Lebanese fatayer (fuh-TIE-uh) are savory little hand pies with delectable fillings. Fatayer are found in bakeries everywhere in Lebanon and in Lebanese bakeries in our communities around the U.S.
Growing up, my mother and grandmothers used various techniques to bake their fatayer, the little Lebanese hand pies everyone–and I mean ALL!– goes crazy for. They used including frozen Rhodes dough balls for quick-fatayer. Those become puffier than we’d like–fatayer is not meant to be bread-y, but they were still soooo delicious out of the oven.
Enjoy fatayer as an appetizer (make them smaller!), as part of a meal, or a light meal with a salad.
Here are my best recipes for fatayer, making the process simple and fun!
The Secrets to Perfect Fatayer Dough
Click here for the tips, tricks, and dough recipe we need to make fatayer that stays closed and has a delicate texture.
How to Shape Fatayer
We’ve got this! Fatayer that stays closed and beautiful through baking. Read more here.
Lebanese Spinach Fatayer
Spinach fatayer is a family favorite. The filling is lemony and fabulous. Get the my Lebanese Spinach Pie recipe that includes all kinds of tips and info for success.
Lebanese Meat-filled Fatayer
Mouth-watering! That’s the best way to describe the marriage of highly seasoned meat filling (beef or lamb) wrapped in a joy of thin pastry. Find the meat pie recipe here.
Koosa Fatayer
Beautiful flavors here: summer squash with onion and sumac. Use zucchini, koosa (or kusa/kousa, light green, small summer squash), or yellow summer squash. All delicious. Get the recipe here.
Lebanese Cheese Fatayer (rounds!)
These are so easy to shape! And so delicious with a topping of labneh, cheese and mint. They still fall into my fatayer category, since there are many shapes to adore in the world of fatayer. Get the recipe here.
Where have you been all my life?! 🙂
Love love love your recipes…
My grandmother being Lebanese passed many years ago. Ohh, do I miss her kitchen on Sundays. The pots were on every burner of the stove and the aroma that filled her kitchen was nothing short of culinary paradise.
I have an old cookbook that was passed down and it is a treasure to me. I dig through the pages and I wish I could cook every single recipe in it.
Your website is amazing and your recipes flood my memories back to my grandmother’s kitchen. Thank you so much, I am passing this along to my daughter & son for their cultural reminder of Sitho’s kitchen! (even though they were wee little at the time)
Oh Karen, what a wonderful note. Thank you so much for sharing, it seems our memories are such a huge part of why we cook these dishes! I’m so glad you are passing the legacy on to your children too.
Hi Maureen,
I’m an old Lebanese cook who just discovered your website, though I’ve had your cookbook for years. I rarely ever use recipes, but when I do, they are always my Aunt Mary’s and Aunt Kate’s. I was reading your suggestions for keeping spinach pies from splitting, but I’ve accepted that mine will always split a little. That means the filling is pretty moist, just the way I like it, very lemony. It’s just a matter of accepting that each pie looks a little different and never perfect. My family never used canola oil, and I’ve always come back to their recipes. I only use extra virgin olive oil. My mother kept huge cans of it, and for a while when nutritionists were suggesting other types of oil, I let myself be persuaded. But now I’m a purist again. I love your recipes, commentaries and stories. How wonderful that you are passing on this food tradition. I hope my daughter and grandchildren will find their way to your website and continue the Lebanese way with food. Thank you.
Barbara how special. Thank you so much for your wonderful note and your advice about the fatayer too! I’ll keep an eye out for your daughter and grandchildren!