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
Simit: Turkish sesame ring bread
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
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 1/2 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
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This is Swathi ( Ambujom Saraswathy) 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.
Delicious braided bread, perfectly done as always..
Simply awesome and delicious looking Turkish bread. Lovely pics as well.
Deepa
love these have fond memories of eating it in Istanbul
simit looks so tempting and delicious.Love the photos.
They make a perfect satisfying breakfast. I had tasted Simit in a bakery here in Oslo thought I did not know what and it was heavenly! Your pics make me go for it again. Thanks for the recipe Swathi.
What a lovely twist my friend, this ring bread looks delicious 😀
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Looks beautiful am sure it taste yum:-)
beautifully made dear,lovely one 🙂
So beautifully explained,great rings
Thoroughly enjoyed reading your post and this bread is looking so pretty.
Looks beautiful and perfect!! would love to try that.
This is a great looking bread that may be classic yet looks not old to me! Thanks for bringing us this Turkish delight!
Gourmet Getaways
Delicious n thks for introducing us to this bread!!!
Lovely pictures swathi. Simit tasted awesome. Thank you for this month’s challenge. 🙂
Glad you liked it Divya
Your Simit bread looks perfect! Thanks for this month’s challenge Swathi, I am now more confident about baking my own bread at home 🙂
Glad you liked simit and this challenge gave you confidence to bake your own bread.
Wow, simit looks gorgeous. Love the step by step pics.
Nice step wise pics n lovely bread.ur an awesome baker
Great recipe and pictures! Pinning immediately!
These are so beautiful! You have such a talent with bread baking! I bet they were very delicious. I am feeling a little sad I missed it!