Turkish women who are house wives often join regular tea parties with their neighbours. This savory pastry called poğaça (pooo/a/cha) is a very common treat for such gatherings. Pogaca is also common in Hungry and Albania. Every country and even every house has its own version. In Turkey many bake pogaca with yeast and use margarine, I find this recipe much healthier and easier. You can check for another version of pogaca here.
For the filling there are many options too, below I have added two of them one with parsley and cheese and the other with minced meat and onions. You can use both fillings at the same time as I did. You can help your guests to choose by garnishing them differently; such as nigella seeds for cheesy ones and sesame seeds for the ground meat. You can also prepare other different fillings such as potatoes and spices.
Another good thing about pogaca is after you bake them you can keep them in the freezer and heat them up and serve as fresh. It will be heat them up for 8-10 minutes at 100° Celcius.
If you did not finish all at once and do not want to freeze, I suggest to keep them in the fridge and heat up slightly in microwave, or in a skillet – or eat cold, which I prefer.
I have given measurements in grams, so everything should work out fine. Nevertheless the amount of flour needed may differ depending on the size of the eggs and how watery the yogurt is so after adding 450 grams of the flour, check the texture of the dough before adding the rest. The dough should be soft but should not be too sticky.
If you want to want to prepare half the amount. You should use 2 eggs (spare the yolk of one for the top), 125 grams yogurt, 10 grams salt, 20 grams baking powder, 75 millilitres olive oil, 400 grams flour. However, I do suggest you go with the complete amount as you will be able to keep it for a long time anyway.
Hope you try and enjoy. It is a great treat for breakfast, after school and ofcourse tea parties.
Turkish Savoury Pastry / Poğaça
Ingredients
Pastry
- 2 eggs
- 1 egg white
- 350 grams yogurt
- 150 grams olive oil
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 20 grams baking powder
- 600 grams flour
Meatmince Filling
- 1 onion chopped
- 1 garlic clove chopped
- 200 grams ground meat
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes optional
- 4-5 stalks parsley chopped
Cheese Filling
- 200 grams feta or white cheese chrumbled
- 6-7 stalks parsley chopped
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes optional
Garnish
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
- 1 teaspoon nigella seeds
Instructions
Pastry
- In a large mixing bowl slightly whisk the eggs.
- Add and mix first the yogurt and then the olive oil.
- Sieve salt, flour and baking powder together. If the yogurt is too dry you might need to reduce the amount of flour, so add the flour slowly.
- Knead adding the flour gradually. You will – in a short time – obtain a soft dough.
- Then make small-walnut sized balls. Flatten in your hand and add ingredient of your choice in the middle and close. Do not push too hard for joining, a gentle push will be enough.
- Spread some oil with an egg brush on your oven tray or lay a baking sheet. Place each savory pastry (called pogaca from now on) on the oven tray. The pogaca should not touch each other and should have some space to expand.
- In a small bowl wisk an egg yolk and add a tablespoon of olive oil. Using an egg brush or your fingers spread this mixture on the top of the savory pastries.
- Then sprinkle with nigella and/or sesame seeds. It might be a good idea to use these to differentiate different fillings if you have used them.
- Cook in an oven at 180° Celsius. You do not need to pre-heat. It will take around 25 minutes, according to your oven's performance. They should be golden on top and on the bottom.
Meat Filling
- Heat a skillet and add the ground meat. Sauté until it changes color on all sides and becomes crumbly. Add all the other ingredients and cook until onions are translucent. Set aside.
Cheese Filling
- Crumble or grate the cheese. Add all the other ingredients and mix until well combined. Set aside.
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