Suhoor Recipe: Turkish Pide Bread

Ingredients

• 1 tsp sugar

• 1.5 tsp instant or active dry yeast

• Pinch of salt

• 1.5 cup patent flour

• ¾ cup water, lukewarm

• ¾ cup milk, warm

• 1 olive oil

• 1 egg yolk

• ½ tsp each black and white sesame seeds

Preparation

Activate the yeast (if you are using dry yeast).

Mix the yolk and olive oil to make a nice flowy paste to brush on the dough before baking.

Take a clean bowl.

Add flour, salt, sugar, and yeast. If you are using dry yeast, kindly activate the yeast by adding lukewarm water to the yeast-once it turns frothy – your yeast is activated and ready to be added to the flour.

Combine all these ingredients well together.

Now gradually add warm water and milk to make sticky and gooey and elastic dough.

Once the sticky and elastic dough is ready, sprinkle very little flour on the compartment and knead for 1 minutes, keeping it still a bit sticky and elastic.

Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl and cover with a towel or greased plastic wrap. Let the dough rise until doubled, about an hour or so, depending on the warmth of your kitchen.

Once the dough is doubled up, using oil greased fingertips, first pinch and scrape of the dough from the sides.

Turn the dough onto a lightly greased surface and knead for 2-3 minutes, sprinkling little flour.

Now roll the dough into a thick diameter.

Place the circled dough over the baking tray and press on the dough using your fingertips to enlarge the shape of the diameter to the desired size.

Cover with a kitchen towel, and let the bread rise until puffy and nearly doubled in size for about an hour or two.

Once doubled, grease your fingers with olive oil and make the traditional pide bread impressions over the dough.

Now brush the olive oil and egg yolk mixture over the dough and top it up with some white and black sesame seeds.

Preheat the oven to 200*c and make sure an oven rack is in the centre position. You must ensure that both the grills – top and bottom grills -- are on with fan* rotation mode.

Bake for 30-40 minutes at 180*C until the breads puff up and bake through.

Remove from the pan and let the bread warm before serving.

Serve with BBQ or grills, chicken, meat or beef along with hummus or garlic paste, salads or hot soups.

Firdaus Noorain is a food vlogger, entrepreneur, food columnist and recipe creator by hobby and Managing Director of Bake'In by profession.