Poğaça Anyone?

Wednesday, 14 November

In the midst of packing, and moving stuff to storage and the motorhome, Mui has been practicing making a Turkish savory pastry called poğaça.  This pastry, sometimes made in bread form, is popular in most of the Balkan countries.  It can be leavened or unleavened; and can be made with a variety of fillings, though feta cheese is probably the most popular in Turkey.

We’re freezing this batch to eat with our four o’clock tea when the urge hits on the road.

The problem with every poğaça I’ve ever eaten — and I’ve eaten a good number of them — is that they are soft and taste great the day they are made; not so much in subsequent days.  The solution we’ve found is to freeze them after they’ve been baked, and take out one or two as we need them.  If frozen, about 40 seconds in the microwave restores them to yummy perfection; if pre-thawed, 15-20 seconds does the trick.  They make a great treat with afternoon tea; and you can also have them for breakfast!

The unleavened poğaça recipe that Mui uses is in Turkish, and it only gives a list of ingredients for the dough (on the assumption that you already know how to make it).  So, if you want to try your hand at making a batch, here’s a similar recipe in English (with yeast) and another recipe (without yeast); a quick web search will reveal many other recipes. 

A few tips from Mui’s recipe:

• knead the dough with milk or yogurt instead of water;
• the dough should be the consistency of an ear lobe;
• add yogurt to the crumbled feta cheese filling to keep the pastries soft and moist for a longer period after they have been baked.

As they say in Turkish, afiyet olsun … or bon appetit!