Recipe: Poğaça
Poğaça are cheese and herb filled Turkish savoury bread or pastries. Bread, if you’re using yeast to make the dough and pastry if baking powder or baking soda are used as the leavening agent. Generally enjoyed as part of a breakfast platter or as a tea time treat. Poğaça (pronounced as poh-ah-cha), can be shaped the way you want, simple like pies, dainty ones or big, or as roses, squares, rounds well basically any shape you want as long as it has a cheese herb filling. I opted for the flower shape. They usually are filled with Turkish white cheese, Beyaz peynir, herbs and olives. You may find some that are filled with potatoes or minced meat. And they usually are topped with sesame or nigella seeds.
Sharing Poğaça Recipe With The Bread Bakers Group
This month our host is Julie Menghini. Check out her blog Hostess At Heart . I was left oogling and drooling at the spring recipes. Julie suggested that we bake Mom’s Day or Flower Bread.
#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.
Mother’s Day
Frankly, my mum would have preferred hot paratha or roti for breakfast. She wasn’t much of a bread person. When her began to fail, cooking was not option. She hated it when my sister in law would occasionally give her toast and tea. She would rather have left over roti or paratha. So, she probably wouldn’t have enjoyed Poğaça. If my mother in law was with us in Mombasa, she would have probably enjoyed the bread. She loves trying out different types of foods.
This post is dedicated to all the mamas, moms, mummy, ma, ba. I decided to make the flower shaped bread anyway as a tribute to all the mums out there. Super heroes, juggling so many roles all the time. Mums never get to rest. Even when kids are grown up you are constantly worrying about them, helping them out any which way you can. Happy Mother’s Day.
Some Recipe Ideas For Mother’s Day Celebration
Check Out What Fellow Bakers Have Baked For Mother’s Day
- Almond Rose Bread by Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
- Banana and Chocolate Chip Flower Cake by Sneha’s Recipe
- Beetroot Cinnamon Rolls by Herbivore Cucina
- Cherry Almond Kugelhopf by Hostess At Heart
- Cheesy Pizza Roses by Food Lust People Love
- Lemon Poppyseed Muffins by A Day in the Life on the Farm
- Orange Marmalade Rolls by Ambrosia
- Peynirli Cicek Pogaca/ Turkish Cheese Flower Bread by Gayathri’s Cook Spot
- Pogaca -Turkish Breakfast Bread by Mayuri’s Jikoni
- Sfoof by Karen’s Kitchen Stories
- Sunflower Crumb Muffins by Baking Sense
Ingredients Required For Poğaça Recipe
All Purpose Flour
Also known as plain flour, maida. I wouldn’t recommend using bread flour for this recipe as you don’t want it to be chewy or glutinous. We need flour for the dough and some extra for dusting.
Yeast
I have used Instant Dry Yeast. This means I don’t have to proof the yeast before adding to the flour. If you use regular dry yeast then you need to proof it. Add the yeast to some warm milk, about ¼ cup from the measured amount. Add a tsp of sugar and mix well. Sprinkle the yeast over it. Allow it to proof for 10 minutes. It should become all frothy. You add that to the flour.
Plain Yogurt
We need plain thick yogurt for this recipe. Leave the yogurt out so it reaches room temperature before you add to the flour. Cold yogurt will prevent the yeast from fermenting.
Egg
We will add one whole egg to prepare the dough. And one egg yolk to brush on top before baking. Mix the egg yolk with 1 tbsp milk before brushing it over the shaped bread.
Olive Oil
This bread recipe requires good quality olive oil. We need a little extra oil for greasing the baking trays and when working with the dough.
Milk
We will need warm dairy milk for the dough. Need 1 tbsp extra to whisk with the yolk for brushing on top of the shaped poğaça.
Salt
I have used normal table salt (iodized).
Sugar
Need a some to balance the flavours.
White Cheese
Usually Turkish white cheese, Beyaz Peynir is used as a filling. If you don’t Turkish White Cheese then replace it with feta cheese. I prefer using Greek Feta cheese. Crumble the cheese.
Parsley
I prefer using flat parsley. Chop it finely to get about ½ cup.
Olives
Any olives of your choice. Chop them. Pat them dry with a paper kitchen towel so that the filling does not become watery.
Seeds
For the topping you can use either white, black sesame or nigella seeds. Mixing white and black sesame seeds is an idea.
Turmeric Powder
I added a little to the egg yolk to get that bright yellow colour. If I make normal pies I don’t add it. Since I shaped the dough into flowers, I wanted them to appear like yellow flowers, a reminder of spring time.
POĞAÇA | TURKISH SAVOURY BREAD
Ingredients
FOR THE DOUGH
- 3½ cups plain flour all purpose flour
- 2¼ tsp instant active dry yeast
- ⅓ cup thick plain yogurt at room temperature
- 1 egg room temperature
- ½ cup olive oil
- ½ cup warm milk
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp sugar
FOR THE FILLING
- 1 cup feta crumbled 150g
- ½ cup fresh parsley finely chopped
- ⅓ cup olives chopped
TOPPING
- 1 egg yolk
- ⅛ tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tbsp milk
- 2 tbsp nigella or sesame seeds
EXTRA
- extra oil for greasing
- extra flour for dusting
Instructions
PREPARATION OF THE DOUGH
- Mix flour, yeast, salt and sugar in a big bowl.
- Mix yogurt, milk, oil and beaten egg together.
- Add the liquid mixture to the flour.
- Bring the flour together into a dough.
- Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured surface.
- Knead the dough till it is smooth and silky.
- It might be a bit sticky.
- Pull the edge of the dough and fold towards the middle.
- Shape the dough into a ball using lightly greased fingers.
- Grease the bowl with oil. Put the dough into the bowl.
- 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 FILLING
- Mix crumbled feta cheese, chopped parsley and olives together in a mixing bowl.
SHAPING THE DOUGH
- Gently deflate the dough by flattening it and gently bringing it together.
- Divide the dough into 12 equal parts.Roll each part into balls.
- Take one ball and using your fingers create a small cup or basket.
- Fill it with 1 tbsp of the filling.Bring the edges of the dough over the filling and pinch it to seal.
- Roll gently into a ball.
- Roll or pat the ball into a 4" diameter circle. Make sure the surface is lightly floured.
- 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.
- 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.
- Repeat the above steps with the remaining balls.
- Whisk egg yolk, milk and turmeric powder lightly.
- Brush the tops with the egg yolk mixture.
- Sprinkle some sesame seeds or nigella seeds in the middle.
- Let the bread rest for 20 minutes.
BAKE THE POĞAÇA
- Preheat the oven to 180°C.
- Bake the bread or pastry for 25-30 minutes or until light golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and serve it warm. Goes well with some Turkish tea.
Notes
- I prefer to divide the filling into equals parts before I stuff the bread.
- To get the nice yellow colour I added ⅛ tsp turmeric powder to the yolk mixture. If you don't like the egg smell on top then replace it with milk.Add turmeric powder.
- You can mix feta with cottage cheese if you don't like feta alone.
- As I mentioned, you can shape the bread any way you like.
Pin For Later
A Small 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 comment on Pinterest @mayuri62