Ramazan Pidesi

Dimpled all over with the fingertips before it bakes, which is what stops it doming into a balloon.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (yoghurt).

Ingredients

• 600 g strong white flour
• 350 ml warm water
• 100 g thick yoghurt
• 7 g fast-action dried yeast
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 12 g salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 egg yolk mixed with 2 tablespoons yoghurt, for glazing
• 2 teaspoons nigella seeds
• 2 teaspoons sesame seeds

Method

1. IT IS DIMPLED ALL OVER WITH THE FINGERTIPS BEFORE IT BAKES, which is what stops it doming into a balloon. A round of well-proved high-gluten dough put into a hot oven will inflate: the steam has nowhere to go, the top lifts away from the bottom, and what comes out is a hollow shell with a thin crust and no crumb. Pressing the fingertips right down through the dough in a close lattice -- a hundred dimples, not a dozen -- pins the top to the bottom all over, so the bread rises evenly as a flat loaf with the characteristic quilted pattern. That pattern is not decoration; it is the dimples.
2. THE DIMPLES GO ALL THE WAY DOWN AND LEAVE A BORDER. Pressed firmly enough to feel the tray through the dough, across the whole surface except a two-centimetre rim, which is left plump and rises into a raised edge. Timid dimples spring back during the final prove and the bread domes anyway.
3. IT IS DIMPLED AFTER THE SECOND PROVE, NOT BEFORE. The dough is shaped, proved until puffy, and THEN dimpled immediately before it goes in. Dimpled early, the prove fills them back in.
4. THE GLAZE IS EGG YOLK MIXED WITH YOGHURT, NOT PLAIN EGG. The yoghurt keeps the glaze from setting hard and glossy like a brioche; it gives the soft matt sheen the bread should have, and it browns more gently so the top does not darken before the inside is cooked.
5. IT IS BAKED VERY HOT AND BRIEFLY. 240°C for twelve to fifteen minutes. The whole point is a soft pillowy crumb, and a long moderate bake dries it. Hot and short sets the crust fast and leaves the inside tender.
6. The flour, yeast, sugar and salt stirred together.
7. The warm water, yoghurt and olive oil added and mixed to a soft slightly sticky dough.
8. Kneaded 12 MINUTES until smooth and strongly elastic.
9. Covered and risen 1 HOUR 30 MINUTES until doubled.
10. Divided in two and each shaped into a flat round about 25 cm across on a lined tray.
11. Covered and proved 40 MINUTES until puffy.
12. The oven heated to 240°C.
13. The yolk-and-yoghurt glaze brushed over.
14. ONLY NOW: DIMPLED all over with the FINGERTIPS, pressed right down to the tray, in a close lattice -- leaving a 2 cm rim undimpled.
15. The nigella and sesame seeds scattered over.
16. Baked 12 to 15 MINUTES, until deep golden.
17. TESTED: it should be FLAT with a quilted surface and a raised rim. A dome means the dimples were too shallow.
18. Cooled a little on a rack and torn rather than cut. Best within hours.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Turkey · All recipes