Sorry for my long silence, folks 🤗 I hope you will not hold it against me, I simply had no time to cook. But… Here I am again!

For Muslims it is now the time of the holy month of Ramazan, and it inspired me to make one of the best known dishes connected to this month of fasting, praying, doing charity. It is Ramazan pidesi, a special type of Turkish flatbread which you can enjoy any time of year. It is easy to make, looks pretty, and – especially warm out of the oven – oh so yummy! Some veggies and cheese on the side, and you are in heaven.

Throughout my 5 years of improving my Turkish cooking skills, I made this bread a few times, and so far I loved my last version, made this morning, the best. Don’t be afraid, even if you are a beginner in making bread at home, it is really not too much work!

⌚ Ca. 30 min preparation, 1 hour waiting, 30 min baking

Suitable for: This is halal and kosher, without soy, nut (you can omit the sesame seeds if you have an allergy) or shellfish, but it is neither glutene-free, egg-free nor lactose-free.

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PDF-recipe for collecting and printing

Ingredients 🛒 (for one Ramazan pidesi)

1/3 cube of fresh yeast, 1 tsp sugar, 150 ml tepid water, 1 tsp salt, ca. 300 g soft white flour, 1 egg yolk, 1 tbsp Turkish or Greek yoghurt, 1 tsp sesame seeds, 1 tsp nigella seeds

How to

Whisk a third of a cube of yeast (crumbled) and a teaspoon of sugar in 50 ml of lukewarm water, Leave it for about 10 minutes, until it froths. 

Add another 100 ml of lukewarm water and a teaspoon of salt.  Then gradually add flour, first stirring, then kneading (generally, when it gets hard to stir you have used about half of the necessary flour, at least that is my experience) until you get a smooth, slightly sticky dough. 

Cover and leave in a warm place for an hour to rise. 

Re-knead and form into a ball, place it on a baking sheet covered with baking paper and flatten slightly.  Cover and leave for another 15 minutes. 

Preheat the oven to 225 C.

Stir the egg yolk with yogurt.  Dip your fingers into it and spread the dough into a circular disk with a thickness of approx.  1 cm. 

Then use your fingertips to impress the design: a circle near the edge, and a checkerboard grid inside it.  Sprinkle with sesame and nigella.  Impress the design once more and insert into the oven. 

After about 10 minutes, lower the temperature to 200 C, bake until golden brown.  While still hot, wrap in a clean kitchen towel to keep it soft.