Turkish Pide
500g white bread flour
1 tsp sugar
10g dry yeast, 1 tsp
350ml water, room temp
10g salt
1 tbs olive oil, plus extra on top
za’atar. to top
kosher salt, to top
fillings
potato, diced and boiled
diced white onion
mozarella cheese, grated
2 eggs, whisked with a fork
feta cheese, crumbled
4 sliverbeet leaves, washed and finely shredded
1 tomato, deseeded and diced
mint and parsley and perhaps dill leaves, washed and finely chopped
large cherry tomatoes, washed and halved
kosher salt
chilli flakes
nigella seeds
Blooming the yeast.
Mix 350g flour, the sugar, yeast and water into a wet dough using the handle of a wooden spoon. I do this because it replicates the motion of a electric dough hook. Place the bowl inside a plastic bag in a warm place and leave it until the mixture starts to bubble (around 30 minutes).
Finishing the dough mixture
Remove the bowl from the plastic bag. Mix in the olive oil and briefly stir with a spoon and then pour in the rest of the flour (150g) and the salt. Place the mixture into a bread machine and knead until elastic, about 10 minutes. If you don’t have a bread machine you can use my favourite no-fail method for creating dough and that is a technique known as the folding technique. Pide dough is highly hydrated which is why it cooks so well but being highly hydrated makes it challenging to knead in the traditional way.
Kneading the dough
Folding technique
Wet your fingers in a bowl of water or under the running tap.
Gather underneath a portion of the dough and fold it up and over itself towards the centre of the bowl. Rotate the bowl 1 quarter turn (90 degrees) and repeat. Keep repeating until you have worked your way around the bowl and each portion of dough (more or less) has been folded towards the centre of the bowl.
Place the bowl back in the plastic bag and leave in a warm place to sit for 5 minutes.
Repeat the folding described above (remember to use wet fingers).
Place the bowl back in the plastic bag and leave in a warm place to sit for 5 minutes.
Repeat the folding described above (remember to use wet fingers).
Place the bowl back in the plastic bag and leave in a warm place to sit for 5 minutes.
Repeat the folding described above (remember to use wet fingers).
Place the bowl in a plastic bag and leave in a warm place for two hours or until the dough has roughly doubled in size. If your dough has doubled and you do not need to use it yet, place the bowl in the plastic bag in the fridge. This dough can be left in the fridge for up to 24 hours.
Once the dough has doubled in size, push it back down by folding the edges towards the middle and rotating the bowl. Do this with slightly wet hands to prevent the sticky dough from sticking to your hands.
Tip the dough out onto a floured surface. Using a dough scraper, cut the dough into 5-6 equal lengths.
Working with one piece of dough at a time, roll the dough on a floured surface into a ball. Once all balls of dough have been created, place in a bowl or on a floured tray. Place the bowl or tray in a plastic bag and leave to sit for 20 minutes. If you don’t have a plastic bag for this purpose, you can place a slightly damp tea-towel over the dough to prevent it from drying out.
Preheat the oven to its maximum temperature (no fan) and place the baking trays that you will be using in the oven.
Working with one ball of dough at a time, sprinkle flour over the ball of dough and place it on a floured work surface. Roll the dough into a drop shape, (ie the shape of a drop or tear or a large egg (asymmetrical tapered oval ). To do this, make sure there is flour on the rolling pin. Place the pin on the dough. Roll the pin away from and towards yourself a few times to create some length. Then rotate the dough 90 degrees and again roll the pin away from and towards yourself to create some width. It can be helpful to gently pin down with your hand, the portion of dough that you are not rolling over. Rotate the dough again 90 degrees and roll the pin away from and towards yourself to create some additional length. The dough should be rolled to a thickness of 1cm.
Place the rolled out dough onto a sheet of baking paper, dusting off the flour from both sides of the dough while you do this.
Fill the pide as desired. Favourites of ours are (these fillings are listed in the order in which they should be placed): mozarella and halved cherry tomatoes, mozarella mixed with feta, a small pinch of sliverbeet, onion, a tiny pinch of diced tomato, feta cheese, a small amount of gently spooned egg mixture (make sure the mixture is drizzled to ensure that it seeps into the mixture of fillings and not out the side of the dough and perhaps a sprinkle of chilli and or za’atar. I like to spread the filling out over the length of the dough and I leave a margin along the length of the dough. 1.5cm margin on each of the two sides is fine.
Pull each of the long sides of dough over the filling and lightly press or pinch the dough flaps of dough together to create a seam. Pinch the ends of the dough to form a surfski shape.
Remove a tray from the oven and gently lift the pide, grab the ends and gently support the middle to hold it all together and place on the tray.
Spray with olive oil spray and sprinkle some nigella seeds and a pinch of salt.
Place the tray in the oven and bake until brown and the egg is cooked. If the seam opens up, halfway through the cooking, I like to gently mix the visible mixture to assist in the cooking of the egg. I also like to spray the pide with olive oil at this point in time.
Remove the tray from the oven and place the cooked pide on a chopping board. Sprinkle with fresh herbs (parsley, dill, mint) and cut into slices.
Be careful not to overcook or undercook. You will see when your pide is cooked to your preference but you must keep monitoring after the initial 6 minutes of baking.
Note. you can use a spatula sprayed with olive oil to do the folding with rather than using your hands.
Try this as plain za’atar pide by placing the rolled tear shaped dough on the hot tray, press on the dough to dimple it, spray some olive oil spray and sprinkle some za’atar. Bake for 6 minutes or until brown and crisp.
You can create a slightly softer result by brushing the prepared and filled pide with egg wash (milk and egg whisked together) rather than olive oil.
Eat pide 5 minutes after they are removed from the oven. Any shorter and they are too hot, any longer and they become soggy.