Tahinli Pide

The tahini is swirled onto the shaped dough with the fingertips, never rolled up inside it.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (milk).

Ingredients

the dough

• 500 g plain flour
• 280 ml warm milk
• 7 g fast-action dried yeast
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 8 g salt
• 3 tablespoons olive oil

the topping

• 250 g tahini, well stirred
• 150 g caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Method

1. THE TAHINI IS SWIRLED ONTO THE SHAPED DOUGH WITH THE FINGERTIPS, never rolled up inside it. The round is shaped and proved, the sweetened tahini is dropped on in spoonfuls, and then the fingertips are dragged through it in loose spirals so it is pushed into the surface and down into the dimples rather than sitting on top. What bakes is a flat round with tahini in visible swirls through its upper layer, part caramelised where it is exposed. The Cypriot tahinopita takes the same two ingredients and rolls them into a coil so the tahini is laminated between dozens of layers -- a quite different object. Here it is on the surface and that is the whole point.
2. THE TAHINI IS STIRRED THOROUGHLY IN ITS JAR FIRST. A jar separates into stiff paste at the bottom and oil on top, and which part is spooned out changes everything: the oil alone soaks in and vanishes, the paste alone is too stiff to swirl and tears the proved dough. Stirred back to an even cream it spreads under a fingertip without dragging.
3. THE SUGAR IS BEATEN INTO THE TAHINI, NOT SCATTERED ON TOP. A hundred and fifty grams into two hundred and fifty of tahini, beaten until smooth. Scattered over the surface, sugar melts and runs off the edges into the tray and burns there; beaten in, it is carried in the paste and caramelises in the swirls.
4. THE FINGERS GO RIGHT DOWN INTO THE DOUGH. Not a light smear -- the fingertips press through the proved surface as they drag, which both distributes the tahini and dimples the round so it bakes flat rather than doming. One action doing the job the ramazan pidesi page does with a separate dimpling step.
5. IT IS BAKED MODERATELY, NOT FIERCELY. 190°C for twenty minutes. The topping is a third sugar and will scorch at the 240°C a savoury pide wants, and burnt tahini is distinctly bitter. Moderate and longer lets the dough cook through while the swirls just caramelise.
6. The flour, yeast, sugar and salt stirred together, then the warm milk and oil added.
7. Kneaded 10 MINUTES to a soft dough and risen 1 HOUR 30 MINUTES.
8. The tahini STIRRED THOROUGHLY in its jar until the separated oil is fully worked back in.
9. Beaten with the caster sugar and cinnamon until smooth.
10. The dough divided into 3 and each shaped into a flat round about 22 cm on a lined tray.
11. Covered and proved 30 MINUTES until puffy.
12. A third of the tahini mixture dropped on in spoonfuls.
13. SWIRLED with the FINGERTIPS in loose spirals, pressing RIGHT DOWN into the dough as they drag.
14. Baked at 190°C for 18 to 20 MINUTES, until the dough is golden and the swirls have darkened.
15. TESTED: the surface should be flat with visible swirls, not domed, and the tahini should be caramelised rather than black.
16. Cooled a little and cut in wedges. Best warm; keeps 2 days.

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