Little Spinach Filled Pastries (Fatayer bi sabanickh)

This is one of my all time favorite Lebanese foods! They taste so delicious either right out of the oven or at room temperature. The secret is to get the dough nice and thin without puncturing it. Also you need to get as much moisture out of the filling as possible before stuffing. Make sure to squeeze the spinach really well!

Ingredients:
Note: If you don't have time to make dough from scratch you can buy uncooked pizza dough. I definitely don't suggest using Pillsbury though!
For the Dough:
3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
1/4 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
3 tbsp. olive oil
1 cup plus 1 tbsp. warm water
Note: You can make the dough in a bread machine on the dough setting as well! I always do - it saves you some cramping in your hands!
Combine yeast, water and sugar in a small bowl. Cover and let sit until it foams.(about 10 minutes.) In a seperate bowl mix flour and salt. Make a well in the center of the flour and add the proofed yeast mixture, followed by the olive oil. Mix and knead the flour to form a dough ball. Lift up the ball of dough and lightly flour the bottom of the bowl and then put the ball in the bowl and flour the top. Cover and set in a warm dark place for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Once the dough has risen it's ready to use.

For the filling:
2 pounds frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry (you can use fresh spinach too but make sure to put it in a strainer over another bowl after mixing the ingredients so it doesn't get too wet.)
2 cups chopped onion
1 tbsp. salt
lemon zest from 1 lemon
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup and 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
Nonstick aluminum foil

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425. Mix all ingredients except 3 tbsp. olive oil just before you're ready to make the fatayer. Then roll out half the dough on a floured surface to about 1/8 inch thickness. Cover the other half of dough with plastic until ready to use. Cut the dough into circles with a 3 inch round biscuit or cookie cutter. Spoon about a tablespoon of spinach filling into the center of a circle of dough, then pinch it closed in the shape of a triangle. Try not to pinch any spinach or the pastry might come open when cooking. (Some of them will always open regardless.) Repeat until you use up all the circles, then roll out the other half of dough and repeat the whole procedure. Lay the triangles on a cookie sheet covered with nonstick aluminum foil. (If you don't have any you can sprinkle a bunch of cornmeal on a nonstick cookie sheet.) Brush each pastry with reserved olive oil before baking for 16-20 minutes until golden brown.
These freeze really well! Just keep them in a freezer bag. You can reheat them at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Or, for less crispy fatayer just microwave them for a minute or so. Hope you like these as much as I do!