Turkish Breakfast is popular, I expect Turkish tea parties will soon follow. This savory pastry prepared with semolina and potatoes is a member of Turkish breakfast and tea-time parties. Absolutely delicious, crunchy on the outside and gooey in the inside. Enjoy!
What is Poğaça
Donut is a kind of small bread. It is said that the word was transformed from the Italian word “focaccia”, which means “small pastry baked in ash” into “poğaça”(poe-ah-cha) in Turkish.
On the other hand during the 16’th century it is noted that important guests where offered a savory pastry called “bohça” – meaning bundle in English, in the Ottoman Palaces. In my opinion it is more likely that the word “poğaça” has been derived from the word “bohça”.
Different Fillings
Here is the top 10 list of different poğaça fillings:
- Cheese and parsley
- Potato and parsley
- Ground beef
- Kaşarlı (cheese similar to Mozzarella and Provolone)
- Olives
- Sausages
- Spinach
- Mushrooms
- Leeks
- Clotted cream and walnuts
Shaping the Poğaça
As in the fillings, there are many shapes you can give your poğaça. For this recipe the bundle / ball shape is the best. Here are the steps of giving this shape:
- Start with cutting a lemon size dough
- Make the piece of dough first round, then flat your hands.
- Add a teaspoon of the filling in the middle.
- Curl it to look like a “D”.
- Then curl it inwards again to have a ball shape.
Baking this pastry
Once you shape it dip each ball into the milk & egg mixture, then into bowl of semolina. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 190° Celsius (375° F) until golden brown. The end result is as in the picture.
Hope you will try and enjoy.
If you like poğaça, check out other poğaça types in my blog:
Semolina and Potato Pastry
Ingredients
Dough
- 130 grams semolina
- 200 +/- grams flour
- 2 tablespoons butter at room temperature
- 10 grams baking powder
- 5 grams bicarbonate of soda
- 75 grams plain yogurt
- 2 eggs one egg yolk should be saved to spread on top
- ½ lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon salt
Filling
- 2 potatoes boiled and mashed
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion chopped
- 2-3 cloves garlic chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 5-6 stalks dill chopped
- 1 pinch red pepper flakes
- 1 pinch ground black pepper
On top
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons semolina
- 100 millilitres milk
- 1 tablespoon nigella seeds optional
Instructions
Dough
- Put all the dough ingredients, except the flour, into a mixing pot and mix. Add the flour gradually and stop adding as soon as the mixture starts looking like a dough ball. It is fine if it is still soft and sticking to your hands a little bit.
- Cover and set aside, while preparing the filling.
Filling
- Boil and mash the potatoes.
- Add olive oil to a skillet and heat it slightly.
- Add a chopped onion. Sauté until translucent. You can choose to add two chopped garlic cloves if you like and sauté for an additional minute.
- Remove from heat and add all the remaining filling ingredients, including the mash potatoes. Mix well.
Preparing for baking
- Take a lemon sized dough in your hand.
- If the dough is still sticky and you have difficulty in shaping the dough. Wet your hands with some olive oil.
- Make the piece of dough flat and round in your hand.
- Add a teaspoon of filling in the middle. Curl it to look like a “D”.
- Then curl it inwards again to have a ball shape.
- In a bowl mix milk with 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk. And have two tablespoons of semolina in another bowl.
- First, dip the ball-shaped dough into the milk mixture and then to the semolina bowl.
- Continue until the all the dough and filling is finished.
- Sprinkle some nigella seeds on top.
- Place all the dipped balls on to a non-stick baking sheet on an oven tray.
- Bake in a pre-heated oven at 190° Celsius for about half an hour, until slightly brownish on top and bottom of each bun.
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