Name: Simit: Turkish sesame ring bread
Prep time: 120 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 140 min
Ingredients: 3.5 cups 325g Bread Flour (or use unbleached all purpose flour); 1 cup + 2 tablespoon of Water; A pinch of sugar; 2 tsp 6g Instant yeast (use active dry yeast if you don’t have instant yeast in hand); 1 ¼ teaspoon 6g Salt; 2 tablespoon Molasses (use concentrated jaggery or brown sugar water); ½ cup Water; 2 cups white Sesame seeds

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Delicious Simit : Turkish sesame seed ring bread great with cheese and olives. A famous street food.

This weekend came and went very fast as we had party at my hubby’s colleague’s house, it was Colombian food fare. I was curious to learn a few recipes from the party menu. Today is also 16th of September and yesterday 15th was the Baking partners challenge reveal date, I couldn’t finish the post. Yes for that this month it is Simit- Turkish sesame seed ring bread which I suggested. I fell in love with this immediately when saw them in a picture.
Simit is in fact a classic Turkish food; these sesame-encrusted bread rings is a popular snack. Simit for breakfast is with a cup of cay (tea), sliced cucumber, tomatoes, feta cheese and olives. When comes to brunch or afternoon snack Simit is taken with cheese or simply plain. Turks likes savory accompaniments to Simit; you can also have them with some butter and jam. Their flavor and deeply satisfying texture are quite unique.
Simit is one of the favorite foods from Macedonia to Syria, Greece to Serbia or from Izmir to Istanbul or Ankara with a little difference and different names. Simit in Istanbul has been prepared from 16th century as mentioned by historians. There were 70 Simit bakeries in Istanbul during 1630 mentioned by 17th century traveler Evliya Celebi. Read from here. In earlier days Simit sellers usually bought freshly prepared Simit from these bakeries and took them to different parts of the city to sell them there.

Simit are usually sold in small food cart by street vendors. They are made fresh every morning and afternoon. Nowadays, there are also Simit Houses opened all around the country, where you can enjoy Simit with various fillings; cheese, olive paste, sucuk (Turkish spicy sausages made from dried cured beef) in a small café or fast food restaurant set up. I think will visit Istanbul one day and enjoy warm freshly baked Simit.

Anyway for the time being, without any flight ticket, enjoy a batch of Simit which is freshly baked from your kitchen. These are chewy, sesame-crusted, braided ring bread that is sort of a mix between a pretzel and a bagel. It’s very simple dough to make, and is very easy to shape them. The dough is dipped in Pekmez, grape molasses, and then coated with sesame seeds. I don’t have Pekmez in my hand so used molasses. If you want to taste authentic Simit then grab a bottle of pekmez from Middle Eastern or Turkish grocery stores, and it gives the dough a little sweetness that makes the flavors so distinctly Turkish. Bake at 450 °F pre-heated ovens for 20-25 min or until brown.
Here comes the recipe. Give it try it will a new delicious breakfast dish, if you are bagel fan you will love it. Please visit other baking partner’s creation too. If you want to bake with next month shoot an e-mail.

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