Simit: Turkish sesame ring bread

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.

Mix , flour, yeast, sugar and salt 

Yeast dough is made 

After fermentation 

Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces 

With each dough ball make two rope like this 

Twist the rope like this 

Once you finished twisting pull both ends together to form and circle 

I used molassess if you find pomegranate molasses use that  for dipping simit 

White seasme seeds

Dip the dough into the molasses like this 

Coat them with  seasme seeds

Set aside for 20 minutes and then bake 450 F for 20-25 min. 

After baking 

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Simit: Turkish sesame ring bread

Delicious Turkish sesame seeds ring bread great with cheese and olives.

Prep Time2 hours hrs

Cook Time20 minutes mins

Total Time2 hours hrs 20 minutes mins

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: Turkish

Keyword: Simit

Servings: 6

Calories: 582.06kcal

Author: Swathi (Ambujom Saraswathy)

Ingredients

• 3.5 cups 325g Bread Flour or use unbleached all purpose flour
• 1 cup + 2 tablespoon of Water
• A pinch of sugar
• 2 teaspoon 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

Instructions

• If using active dry yeast, then dissolve yeast in 100 ml warm water and let it stand for 3 min.
• In a bowl add flour, yeast, salt and pinch of sugar and mix well. Then gradually add water to form smooth dough, knead well about 10 minutes until the dough is no longer sticky.
• Cover the dough and leave it in a warm place for 1.5 hours or until doubled in bulk.
• Turn out the dough into a lightly floured surface and punch down. Knead for 2 min.
• Divide it into 12 pieces (about 45g each) and shape them into long rolls.
• Take two rolls and form a twisted rope like this
• Then form this twisted rope into 15 cm ring by pressing and sealing the ends together
• Dissolve the molasses in ½ cup water .
• In a plate add sesame seeds.
• Dip each ring in molasses water first, then in the sesame seeds.
• Set aside for 20 minutes so that simit plumb up little
• Bake them in 450 F pre-heated oven for 20-25 min or until brown.

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 582.06kcal | Carbohydrates: 71.24g | Protein: 19.22g | Fat: 26.36g | Saturated Fat: 3.7g | Sodium: 499.06mg | Potassium: 442.72mg | Fiber: 8.73g | Sugar: 5.36g | Calcium: 512.11mg | Iron: 8.33mg

Tried this recipe?Mention @nidhinikhil or tag #zestysouthindiankitchenrecipes!

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Swathi

This is Swathi ( Dr. Ambujom Saraswathy Ph.D) from Zesty South Indian Kitchen who loves to explore cuisines from all over the world. Whenever possible I try to to give an Indian touch to several of the world cuisine, and has weakness for freshly baked bread.  All the recipes you see here are created by me and approved after taste-test by my family.