Recipe: Turkish Bread Twists

For my birthday a few weeks ago, my daughter bought me a copy of "Snackistan" by Sally Butcher. It is a fascinating collection of recipes for snacks and street foods from around the Middle East and Central Asia. I've already cooked a few recipes from it and been impressed by them, with unusual and unfamiliar dishes and interesting twists on more familiar ones, all given in the form of easy to follow recipes using accessible ingredients.

However I was in two minds about the "Turkish Milk Bread with Sesame" recipe - it LOOKED very much like the delicious freshly baked bread served for breakfast in our favourite hotel in Turkey, yet it had lots of sugar in it and was flavoured with cinnamon - neither of which was a feature of the bread I remembered.

So, inspired by Sally's recipe, I set about creating my own recipe for the breads I remembered.  And of course, being a fan of making the dough in the bread machine, I adapted it to suit that method.

This recipe will make 4 rolls, but each roll is really a "mini loaf" that can be sliced to serve two.

Ingredients

150ml water
5 tbs dried milk powder
1 tbs caster sugar
1 tsp salt
150g softened butter or soft margarine (I tend to use Flora Buttery for baking)
2 beaten eggs
450g plain flour
1½ tsp dried yeast

to finish: 1 beaten egg
1-2 tbs sesame seeds
1 tsp black sesame seeds (sometimes called nigella)

Put all the ingredients except those marked "to finish" into the bread machine and switch on, using the dough setting.

When the dough is ready, turn it out onto a floured board, knead lightly and cut into 8 pieces. Take two of the pieces and roll each one out with your hands (remember making plasticine sausages at school?) to about 20cm long. Pinch together at one end then twist together loosely, to allow the dough room to rise, all the way to the other end and pinch together again. Tick the ends under to neaten and place on a baking sheet lined with non-stick paper. Repeat with the remaining dough, leaving plenty space between them. I used two sheets for four rolls.

Set aside to rise for around 30-45 minutes, until doubled in size. Pre-heat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas mark 5.

Brush the rolls with beaten egg and sprinkle with the seeds, then bake for about 25 minutes  until well risen and browned. As usual, test for doneness by tapping the base, it will make a hollow sound.

Delicious served warm for breakfast with butter and preserves or honey and a soft, salty cheese. They make blooming good ham subs too!

And did it replicate the bread we'd eaten in Turkey? Mark's comment, on tasting it, was "This is just like being on holiday." Job done.

I am sharing this with Bready, Steady, Go at Utterly Scrummy Food For Families and Jen's Food