Kids love this folded and filled Turkish flatbread recipe, which adds yoghurt to an ordinary bread dough and will have you feeling the Mediterranean sun on your back
On holiday in Northern Cyprus last summer we stopped for lunch at a place in the sleepy village of Büyükkonuk. I could see the chef, a Turkish Cypriot woman, kneading the most enormous pile of dough. Curious to see what she was making, I asked to watch. She added a quantity of plain yogurt into the dough – not an ingredient I had ever seen added to a bread dough. The yogurt, she explained, would stop the flatbreads – which she called gözleme – from going too brittle.
She laughed when I asked the ratio of yogurt to flour to yeast to water. She couldn’t and wouldn’t tell me exact quantities. Back in the UK my flour would be different, my yeast might be older/younger, she was using goat’s milk yogurt, most probably I would use cow, it was much warmer in that kitchen in late August than it is in mine on a chilly February morning. You need to try a recipe. And then make it your own.
With the dough proven for an hour or so until doubled in size, she pulled off satsuma sized pieces and rolled them vigorously until cardboard thin and oval shaped. Onto one half she grated halloumi and sprinkled dried mint. Folding the oval together and squishing the seams tightly shut, she put the flatbreads to cook on a hot dry cast iron griddle pan.
Her gözleme was memorable. I think the children probably ate their own body weight in those crisp, warm flatbreads that afternoon.
Back home, I couldn’t wait to make my own. Substituting 250ml of water for plain yogurt from my usual bread dough recipe, I feel pretty happy with these gözleme. With my eyes tight shut I can almost feel the sunshine on my back when we eat these for tea.
Gözleme
(Makes about 8-10)
For the dough
500g strong white bread flour
150g plain yogurt
225g water
4g dried yeast (about 1 level tsp)
5g salt olive oil for kneading
For the filling
1 large leek, diced and cooked in a little olive oil
Halloumi cheese to grate for each gözleme
Dried mint to sprinkle for each gözleme
Turkish red pepper paste (optional – a very spicy pepper paste that can be smeared lightly onto each gözleme)
Add the flour, salt and dried yeast to a mixing bowl. I like to use an electronic scale here – measure the water and yogurt carefully on to the flour mixture. Mix with a large spoon – it will feel very wet. Cover with a tea towel and stand for 10 minutes.
Give the dough another vigorous mix in the bowl. Oil your hands and also the work surface, turn the dough out and give it a good knead with for a couple of minutes. Put the dough back in the bowl and leave for 1 hour.
When ready to cook the gözleme pull balls of dough off measuring roughly 100g and roll out on a lightly floured surface. You want the gözleme to be cardboard thin, oval shaped and roughly 9in (small pizza-like) in size.
On to one half of the oval, grate about a tablespoon of halloumi, a teaspoon of dried mint and a 2 teaspoons of the cooked leek. If using, lightly smear blobs of the pepper paste onto the dough. Fold the other half over the filling and pinch the seams of the gözleme shut.
Cook the gözleme in a dry frying pan over a moderate heat until the skin begins to blister and turn nut brown in some spots. Turn over and cook the other side of the gözleme. When ready, turn out onto a chopping board, cut into strips and serve immediately.
Source:theguardian.com