Turkish Simit Recipe
Turkish simit is a delicious sesame crusted bread that you can have for breakfast and street food staple in Istanbul and much of Turkey.
Ingredients
For the bread dough
- 325 g Flour approximately 2 and 1/2 cups loosely packed
- 195 ml Water 3/4 cup +1 tbsp
- 1 tsp Salt
- 12.5 g Sugar 1 tbsp
- 3.2 g Instant Yeast 1 tsp or 1 and 1/4 tsp if using active dry yeast
For topping
- 100 g grape molasses (üzüm pekmezi) 1/3 cup
- 60 ml water 1/4 cup
- 150 g roasted sesame seeds approximately 1 cup
Instructions
1.Prepare the Turkish simit bread dough
- Into a bowl add in the water which is around 90F or lukewarm and then add in the sugar, salt and yeast.Stir and dissolve all the ingredients.Add the flour and combine them all together.This Simit Bread dough is not a very sticky dough;It is more of a dry dough than many bread recipes.We need to get a tight dough just like how we made our panini bread dough.Knead the dough for six minutes or until we get a soft dough.The surface may not look smooth..don’t worry that’s the way it should be.
2.Divide the simit bread dough into 4 equal parts
- Divide the dough into four equal parts and then roll in to cylindrical shape of approximately 12 cm in length.
3.Rest the simit bread dough for 10 minutes
- Cover and let them sit and rest.
4.Pre shape the dough
- After 10 minutes,Divide each of the portion into 2 equal parts.Then Roll and elongate each one into a dough strand of 30-32 cm in length.Take two dough strands and place them alongside one another.Roll the ends in opposite directions, causing both strands to braid and intertwine. Squeeze the two ends together to form a ring. Repeat with the remaining dough strips.
5.Coat the shaped simit with molasses and sesame seeds
- Dip the simits into the grape molasses mixture until covered all over. Cover with sesame seeds.Place the simits on a baking sheet.
6.Final proofing for 30 minutes
- Cover and let them sit and rise in a warm environment for 30 minutes.
7.Final Shaping
- After 30 minutes of proofing the simit rolls will be slightly puffed up.Stretch the dough a little as you do this to ensure the simit is as even as possible. Place the ready simits on a baking tray.
8.Bake the simit
- Bake them in a 450 F or 230C preheated oven for 10 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 400 F or 200 C and Bake for another 8-10 minutes.After Baking we will get beautiful and flavorful sesame ring breads or simit rings which are golden brown in color.