Turkish Bread

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Day two of the school holiday and we were in the shops before 8 and home for morning tea. How is that for efficient? Well we did spend all day yesterday in our pyjamas, so we have balanced ourselves out.

Once morning tea was over I set about making some bread for lunch, because I forgot to buy bread! Not so efficient eh? The problem is I didn't write a list and when you are trying to shop, keep Mr 4 next to the trolley, explain to Mr 7 that 'persons' is an actual real word and drink a coffee, 😳 things get forgotten. Still I did remember milk so at least bedtime will be stress free. I also remembered wine so if it isn't stress free I can de-stress once it is over 🙂

I hadn't planned to blog this bread recipe, my plan for today was to share the chicken and sweetcorn soup that I made yesterday. But when the bread came out of the oven it was a particularly good loaf. It was a perfect (well almost) rectangle and was uniformly golden, which given the oven in our rental seems to prefer to burn the left hand side of my cooking, whilst leaving the right slow cooking, well I decided it was a sign. So I grabbed my camera and snapped away.

I managed quite a few photos before little fingers came picking. All I lost was the very end of the bread.....no idea where that went! *cough cough*

It is probably a good thing I have a nice carb recipe for you, it reaffirms what I was saying in my Peri Peri Chicken post about my love of carbs and the fact they are still going to be ever present on the blog.

I love Turkish bread, it is soft and chewy and versatile. You can eat it dipped into olive oil, slice it and make great sandwiches or cut it open and make great bruschetta style pizzas. I think it is the chewiness I love the most. It might be my favourite type of bread, although it doesn't work as well with thick spread butter as say baguette so perhaps I will stay on the fence. Actually perhaps I should just retype that and say "I love bread".

The other beautiful thing about this recipe is you can freeze your finished loaf and then when you have company and need something to soak up the Christmas drinks, remove it from the freezer, allow to defrost for 20 minutes and then heat gently in the oven for 5 minutes. Delicious homemade bread to serve with oils.

I have frozen this uncooked and then defrosted it fully before cooking as normal. Doing it that way I found the crust was more crisp than chew, but it was still a great loaf and perfect for dipping into soups or dips.

Make sure you cover the dough with something damp during the second rise. This stops the dough drying out and means you will still get the soft chewy texture. I am sure that most people would use a damp tea towel, but that would involve me finding one and then having to wash a damp but almost clean tea towel. Laundry is the biggest pain in my day to day life, so I don't give myself extra work. i just use a couple of pieces of damp kitchen paper. It works just as well and when I am finished I can use them to wipe the flour from the counter tops and place them in the bin.

The boys and I ate this for lunch with some cherry tomatoes, slices of apple and pear and some shavings of cheese. Mr 7 and I dipped it in olive oil and Mr 4 squashed his tomatoes into it. Delicious.

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5 from 1 vote

Turkish Bread

Turkish bread recipe. A delicious authentic loaf that can be frozen making it great to serve to last minute guests. Or enjoy as part of a meze style meal.

Author: Claire | Sprinkles and Sprouts

For more great recipes follow me on PinterestFollow @sprinklessprout

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Ingredients

• 250 g plain flour (plus extra for dusting)
• 1 tsp dried yeast
• ½ tsp sugar
• ½ tsp table salt
• 190 ml warm water
• 1 tsp oil
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 tsp sesame seeds

Instructions

• Sift the flour into a large bowl and mix through the yeast, sugar and salt.
• Make a hole in the middle of the flour and pour in the water.
• Use your hands to gradually push the flour over the water and then mix until combined.
• Generously dust a board or the counter with flour and tip out the dough.
• Knead the dough for 10 minutes until it is smooth and feels elastic.
• Pour one teaspoon of oil into the bowl, add the dough and turn it to lightly cover in oil.
• Place cling film over the bowl, make a couple of holes with a knife and leave the dough for 1 ½ hours until the dough has risen to about twice the size.
• Pre-heat the oven to 230°C/210°C Fan forced/Gas mark 8.
• Remove the dough from the bowl and use your hands to press and pull it into a long rectangle. You are aiming for 10cm x 30cm. But don't get a ruler out, just form it as best you can.
• Line a baking sheet with non-stick cooking paper.
• Sprinkle flour (about 1 tbsp) over your paper and lay out your bread.
• Leave the loaf covered for 10 minutes whilst the oven comes to temperature. This second rise gives you the lovely soft texture. I use damp pieces of kitchen paper for this. But you could use a damp clean tea towel.
• Whisk together the egg and olive oil and brush the top of your bread with the mixture.
• Use your fingers to push some indents into the bread and then sprinkle with sesame seeds.
• Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden.
• Allow the bread to cool before you cut it.

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