Peynirli Poğaça (Turkish pastry with cheese filling)

Selam.... Merhaba from Turkey...

Poğaça (read: po a tja, with "a" vague). In Turkey it's savory pastry with various filling, start from cheese, meat, potatoes, olive and more. Mostly eaten for breakfast or brunch with hot Turkish tea. 

But I often find this food during afternoon aile toplantı(*) together with bulgur salad, couscous salad, potato salad, pasta salad and more.

(*) Casual family gathering which sometimes Turkish women (or family) do in afternoon. They talk and share news/ story among them or family, drink tea, with light lunch such pastry ( börek poğaça çörek, etc) with salad ( like kısır, potato salad) and more. and close the gathering with turkish coffee.

In Turkey there are few type of Poğaça... some use yeast (they call mayalı Poğaça) and some use baking powder. 

And my today post is Poğaça with baking powder, so the texture is more to shortbread. Different with Poğaça with yeast which has texture to bread, but I like them both.... They just perfect for quick and light breakfast/ brunch.

For yeast version you can visit my post here and here

And here my recipe base on asking around and observed some my relatives, neighbors and friends. Mostly they never measure exactly ingredients they use especially the flour. They usually just put the flour and mix just until they get right dough consistency (they always say: alabildiğince  / as needed ^,^ )..Yes, it's so homemade typical ... same as me when make Indonesian food with "Not so exact amount" of spices (^,^)

But for you my readers who live out of Turkey and never know exactly how "the right consistency" of this Poğaça dough.. I made and write this recipe according how local people here to make it. Try it and tell me how you like them..

Ingedients:

Make about 25 pieces

• 425 gr all purpose flour + 50 gr
• 1 large egg, room temperature (separated white from yolk)
• 100 gr butter, soften at room temperature (cut into pieces)
• 70 gr olive oil
• 250 gr thick yogurt, room temperature (I drain my yogurt few hours before to separate it from it's whey/ water, I find it make more yummy & creamy Poğaça)
• 5 gr/ about 1 +1/4 tsp salt
• 1 packet (10 gr) baking powder
• 1/2 tsp mahlep (mahaleb/ rock cherry spice), optional, skip if you don't purchase one
• Black & white / poppy seeds for sprinkle

For filling:

You may vary the filling according to your liking. Here I use lor peynir* mix with chopped parsley.

(*)lor peynir is uncured cheese similar to cottage cheese. Or you can use feta cheese

How to make:

1. In big mixing bowl sift together 425 gr flour, salt, baking powder and mahaleb (if use). Make a well in the middle and start to mix in egg white, olive oil, yogurt and soften butter.
2. Start to knead them from the wet ingredients until they combine well. In this stage you might add additional 50 gr flour to get right consistency like picture below. It should not sticky in your fingers, soft and not too hard (almost like cookie dough). note: Some people  cover with plastic wrap and rest the dough for about 30 minutes while some didn't. 
   
3. Pre-heat oven at 160~170 deg C. Take the dough (I weight my dough about 45 gr each), round and flat it with your palm of your hands, fill with filling mixture, then fold into half circle and sealed the edge. Do to all the dough 
4. Arrange onto baking tray lined with baking paper. Beat egg yolk with 2 tsp olive oil, then brush it onto your Poğaça then sprinkle with black/ white sesame seed or poppy seed. Bake for about 35~40 minute until they golden brown.

Afiyet Olsun..Enjoy your Poğaça... (^,^)

Pogačice (diminutive of pogača) is a type of puff pastry. Pogača, Poğaça or Pogacha (Cyrillic: Πогача) is a type of pastry eaten in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Republic of Macedonia, Serbia (in Serbia, traditional in Belgrade bakeries), Montenegro, Hungary, Greece (where its called Bogatsa Μπογατσα) and Turkey (where it is called poğaça) with variations. It is called pogatschen in Austria. Pogača is sometimes served hot as an appetizer instead of bread. Hot pogača filled with sour cream (or feta cheese in Turkey and Bulgaria) is considered a particularly delicious specialty.

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