This month I participated in a foodblogswap, an initiative of Dutch foodbloggers to cook from eachother's sites. The sites are distributed randomly, for this month I received the task to cook from Mijn mixed kitchen, a blog in Dutch run by Eslem, who focuses on Turkish and Dutch kitchen recipes (hence the "mixed"!).
I raced to her website when the list with blogs was posted, and didn't have to search long for a recipe of my liking, as these flatbreads were on the top of the first page. I've been wanting to bake Turkish bread for a while now so this seemed as good an opportunity as ever. A big plus is that you don't need an oven for this recipe - yes students you read that right, NO OVEN! You bake these in a small skillet pan, I used the cheapest one from IKEA (the one most students will have).
These breads go great with a bit of hummus and salad, and they make excellent sandwiches. Traditionally, these are eaten with butter, salt & pepper and pul biber - I had to look up this last topping, apparently they are chilli flakes! Sounds pretty good.
Since I'm on my own and didn't want to waste any bread, I halved the original recipe. You'll get a pretty tough dough, I added a bit more water than called for. Interestingly, this recipe calls for carbonated water - pretty unusual for bread. According to Google this makes the bread fluffier, but I still got a bit of a chewy bread so I'm curious if this is actually the case. The dough rose beautifully however! Eslem's post noted her dough didn't rise as well, I suppose this might have to do with her mixing the water with the yeast and the salt, bringing the yeast in more or less direct contact with the yeast. That is why I opted to mix the dry ingredients first and then add the liquids. I also used sesame seeds for the topping because I am somewhat of a sesame seed fanatic, this is absolutely optional though!
Turkish Flatbreads (Bazlama)
Yields 4 flatbreads
Tools: small skillet pan, a bowl, rolling pin (or empty (wine) bottle) and a pair of hands
Ingredients:
350gr white bread flour
200ml carbonated water
1 tbsp vegetable oil
3gr instant yeast
1 tsp sugar
5gr salt
sesame seeds (optional)
1. Take a large bowl and measure your flour into it. On one side, add the yeast, on the other add the salt. Add the sugar and mix until the ingredients are evenly distributed. Then add the oil and carbonated water, stir with a wooden spoon until the dough starts to come together. If the dough is very dry, add more water a tablespoon at a time.
2. Knead for about 10 minutes, adding more water if necessary.
3. Cover the dough and leave it to proof for an hour until doubled in size (approx.). Then knock back the dough and leave to proof for another hour.
4. After proofing, divide the dough into four equal pieces, shape each piece into a ball. Leave them on a plate, covered with a kitchen cloth for an additional 15 minutes.
5. Roll each doughball out into a circle that is the size of your (small) skillet pan. If topping with sesame seeds, slightly wetten the surface of each circle, sprinkle with sesame seeds and push the seeds into the dough using your rolling pin. Do the same for the other side.
6. Place your skillet pan on your stove, medium heat and place your bread into the skillet pan, one at a time. You'll see the bread puffing up in the skillet pan, flip the bread once the bottom has browned sufficiently. Bake until the sides of the bread aren't soft anymore (this took about 7-8 minutes in total for me, turning the bread at regular intervals, making sure it didn't blacken).
7. Once cooked, place the breads between kitchen cloths to cool down. This will prevent them from hardening or softening (and will keep them nice and warm if you're cooking these just before dinner). You can store these breads for up to 2 days in a sealed plastic bag, or you can freeze them. To reheat, pop them in the microwave for 2 minutes on 600W.
Labels: Bread, Easy, Foodblogswap, Turkish
