Poğaça #BreadBakers

May 9, 2017mayurisjikoni
Blog post

Happy Mother’s Day— Everyday should be Mother’s Day

Poğaça are cheese and herb filled Turkish savoury bread or pastries. Bread if you’ve used yeast to make the dough and pastry if you’ve used baking powder or baking soda as the leavening agent. I wasn’t exactly planning on making this famous Turkish breakfast bread/pastry as my hunt on the wide web world was for flower shaped breads. Found quite a few, some simple and some complicated. It was during my search that my eyes fell on this beautiful shaped bread. It was a potato filled poğaça (pronounced as poh-ah-cha). This led to my research for this delicious Turkish breakfast or tea treat and got to know that the original usually has a cheese and herb filling. Poğaça can be shaped the way you want, simple like pies, or as roses (my were disastrous after baking), squares, rounds well basically any shape you want as long as it has a cheese herb filling.

You must be wondering why I was searching for flower shaped breads and not any particular bread type recipe. Well, for the month of May fellow baker at Bread Bakers group, Julie Menghini, blogger at Hostess At Heart suggested we bake Mom’s Day or Flower bread. Julie has put together Spring Inspiration, 72 spring inspired recipes, spring craft , spring beauty, spring decor, spring party ideas and spring gardening tips.Check her blog out. Am sure you’ll find something that you’ll be interested in. I was left oogling and drooling at the spring recipes.

For Mother’s Day, as a food blogger I wanted to make something that my mum loved. Frankly she was not a bread person at all. When she fell sick and couldn’t do much in the kitchen, she would grumble away if my sister in law would give her toast and tea for breakfast, she would want her roti or paratha. So I really couldn’t think of a bread that she would have loved.  As a tribute to all the beautiful, hardworking, strong, selfless,considerate, loving, caring super heroes aka Mothers, Moms, Mamas, Mas, Mums I decided to bake flower shaped bread.

Poğaça are made into dainty bite size pastries or are chunky. Served usually with Turkish tea for breakfast or tea, they are filled with Turkish white cheese, herbs, olives or can be filled with potatoes or with minced meat.You can warm them under the broiler or grill as warm ones taste the best. They are usually topped with sesame seeds or nigella seeds.

 Wishing my fellow bakers, readers and followers a Happy Mother’s Day.

 

 

Poğaça – Turkish Savoury Pastry
Makes 12
Recipe source: Ozlem’s Turkish Table

For the dough:
3 cups plain flour (all purpose flour)
2¼ tsp instant active dry yeast
½ cup thick plain yogurt, at room temperature
1 egg, beaten
½ cup mild olive oil or sunflower oil
½ cup warm milk
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

Filling:
1-1¼ cup Turkish white cheese, or feta or any soft white cheese (crumbled)
½ cup finely chopped fresh parsley
⅓ cup chopped olives

Topping:
1 egg yolk beaten or 2 tbsp milk
2 tbsp black or white sesame seeds or nigella seeds

extra oil for greasing
extra flour for dusting

Preparation of the dough:

  1. Mix flour, yeast, salt and sugar in a big bowl.
  2. Mix yogurt, milk, oil and beaten egg together.
  3. Add the liquid mixture to the flour.
  4. Bring the flour together into a dough.
  5. Tip the dough out of the bowl onto a lightly floured surface.
  6. Knead the dough till it is smooth and silky.
  7. Shape the dough into a ball.
  8. Grease the bowl with oil. Put the dough into the bowl.
  9. Rub oil over the dough and cover with a tea towel or cling film and let it rise for an hour or till it is double the size.
 

Preparation of the filling:
  1. Mix cheese, parsley and olives together in a small bowl.
 

Shaping the dough:
  1. Gently deflate the dough by flattening it and gently bringing it together.
  2. Divide the dough into 12 equal parts.Roll each part into balls.
  3. Take one ball and using your fingers create a small cup or basket.
  4. Fill it with 1 tbsp of the filling.Bring the edges of the dough over the filling and pinch it to seal.
  5. Roll gently into a ball.
  6. Roll the ball into a 4″ diameter circle using a rolling pin or patting it with your fingers on a lightly floured surface.
  7. Cut slits in 4 directions (North,South, East and West) about 1½” long. Then make slits of the same size in the middle of each quarter.
  8. You should have 8 divisions or parts. Turn 2 each towards each other.Press the tip of each down gently with your finger. These will look like petals. I found it easier to put the flattened bread on the baking tray and then cutting the slits  in order to keep the shape of the flowers.
  9. Repeat steps 3-8 with the remaining balls.
  10. Brush the tops with the egg yolk or milk.
  11. Sprinkle some sesame seeds or nigella seeds in the middle.
  12. Let the bread rest for 20 minutes.
  13. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Bake the bread or pastry for 25-30 minutes or until light golden brown.
  14. Remove from the oven and serve it warm.
 

Tips:
  • I prefer to divide the filling into equals parts before I stuff the bread.
  • To get the nice yellow colour I used milk with a ¼ tsp turmeric mixed into it.
  • You can mix feta with cottage cheese if you don’t like feta alone.
  • Check here to make rose shapes.
  • As I mentioned, you can shape the bread any way you like.
 

Pin for later:


A little request:

If you do try this recipe then please either

  • add a comment below,
  • send a picture to my email mayuri.ajay.patel62@gmail.com
  •  tag me as #mayuri_jikoni on Instagram
  • or tag me on Twitter as #Mayuri1962
 
 

Check out what fellow bakers have made to celebrate Mother’s Day or May Day:


#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our of lovely bread by following our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated after each event on the #BreadBakers home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send Stacy an email with your blog URL to foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com.

BreadBakers
 

14 Comments

  • Namita Tiwari

    May 9, 2017 at 4:40 pm

    Hello Mayuri, Can't take my eyes off your bread. Such cute cheesy delicious flowers. You've shaped them so perfectly! And yes, even I agree that everyday should be mother's day

  • Wendy Klik

    May 9, 2017 at 6:02 pm

    I love that you added olives to the filling, YUM

  • Karen Kerr

    May 9, 2017 at 7:15 pm

    I love these! They are beautifully shaped and the flavors sound amazing! Great research!!

  • Eileen (Baking Sense)

    May 10, 2017 at 5:18 pm

    These are absolutely beautiful, Mayuri! I'm surprised at how easy they are to make.

  • Julie

    May 11, 2017 at 2:41 am

    Wow, those rolls are just gorgeous Mayuri. I'd love them on my Mother's Day table! Thank you for participating this month and bringing such a delicious recipe!

  • Jagruti

    May 11, 2017 at 2:19 pm

    I have never heard of this bread..you've done good job, so creative !

  • sneha datar

    May 13, 2017 at 2:20 pm

    This bread looks so amazing and is a beautiful gift for a mother…. yes as you rightly said every day should be Mother's day.

  • Nayna Kanabar

    May 13, 2017 at 9:56 pm

    Wow this bread looks so pretty , you have shaped it beautifully. I am going to book mark this recipe and try it.

  • Sharanya Palanisshami

    May 14, 2017 at 5:38 am

    wonderful flower bread Mayuri…….

  • Tea and Catchup

    May 17, 2017 at 5:01 pm

    This bread looks amazing. The little flowers are too good to eat. Your mum would have been proud of your creation.

  • Smruti Shah

    May 17, 2017 at 8:10 pm

    Wow these breads look gorgeous!! Perfect for any event!

  • Shobha

    May 19, 2017 at 4:48 am

    These really look so cute.. I had made a larger version.. a flower bread.

  • Pavani N

    May 22, 2017 at 9:41 pm

    Wow, such pretty bread flowers Mayuri. You chose a perfect recipe for this month's Bread Baker's theme. Awesome.

  • Anonymous

    September 24, 2017 at 10:19 am

    This is my first time go to see at here and i am genuinely pleassant to
    read all at alone place.

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