Warm and fluffy Turkish Pide! Turkish cuisine is absolutely delicious and if you’re in doubt you just have to look at the spread of food photos of our most recent trip to Istanbul. I lived off of Turkish pide, Turkish breakfast, and the most delicious wraps! And who wouldn’t fall in love with pillowy soft flour-based dough, topped with a seasoned ground beef filling, or loaded up with a few different cheeses? SIGN THIS GAL UP.
What are Turkish pides?
Turkish pide bread is a type of Turkish pizza made with a simple dough and loaded with a variety of toppings and shaped like a boat. Pide is brushed with a little egg wash and sprinkled with sesame seeds or nigella seeds right before baking. You can go uber simple with the fillings with just a handful of cheeses. Or make my ground beef filling loaded with tomatoes, onions, and a handful of seasonings. Cheese and sucuk (a type of hot or mild sausage) is also a popular filling choice. And if you’re into the veggies, make a sautéed spinach pide or roast up some eggplant, peppers, and onions, and then make a filling out of that! Add a raw egg yolk to a feta cheese pide. The possibilities are truly endless.
Ingredients for Homemade Turkish Pide:
Bread Flour: I like to use bread flour for this recipe instead of all purpose flour as it has better gluten development and gives the bread a better overall texture.Instant Yeast: I like to use instant yeast for this recipe as it cuts down on prep time. For active dry yeast, you would need to bloom the yeast first in lukewarm water with some sugar. But with instant yeast, we can just toss it all in a bowl and add the liquid ingredients. It’s what I use in most of my recipes. I buy this one in bulk and keep it in the freezer! Sugar: To activate the yeast. It doesn’t add much sweetness to the bread, it basically just food for the yeast to wake up and start doing its thing!Kosher Salt: Adds flavor to the bread.Olive Oil: A necessity for many bread recipes.Lukewarm Water: warm water helps the yeast come alive quicker. It jump starts the process. Be sure to use water between 105-110ºF. Any warmer and you do run the risk of killing the yeast.Warm Milk: using a couple tablespoons of milk in the recipe helps give the bread dough a more tender crumb! I have made the recipe with a tablespoon powdered milk as well (and just up the water by 3 tbsps.) and it works well.Egg: We’ll make an egg wash with the egg and a little bit of water and brush the dough with before sprinkling with nigella seeds or sesame seeds. You can omit the seeds if you’d like but I do suggest brushing with the egg wash.Filling of choice: I often like to use Akkawi cheese mixed with mozzarella. But you could also make my ground beef or ground lamb filling loaded with green peppers, tomatoes, garlic, Aleppo pepper (or red pepper flakes) and a few other key ingredients. The filling is prepared raw and then loaded into the pide and cooked in the oven in the time it takes for the pide bread to cook.
How to Make Turkish Pide Bread Recipe:
If you like this recipe, you might also like:
Manakeesh (Zaatar bread with cheese)Frozen Mint Lemonade (Limonana)Easy Zaatar Puff Pastry TwistsHomemade Beef Shawarma (use the meat on a pide!)Luxurious Turkish Lentil Soup (with Potatoes)
Cheese: You’ll need roughly a total of ¾ cup of cheese for each pide. Filling ingredients: combine ½ pound of uncooked ground beef, ½ cup finely chopped onions, 1 chopped Roma tomato, 4 cloves garlic, pressed, 1 deseeded jalapeño (or ¼ green bell pepper), 2 tablespoons chopped parsley, 2 teaspoons Aleppo pepper, 1 teaspoon tomato paste, 2 teaspoons red pepper paste, 2 teaspoons lemon juice, ¾ teaspoon kosher salt, 1 tablespoon olive oil in a bowl until mixed. Add this to the prepared dough in step 4.Meat filling: To make life easier, you can chop the onions, tomatoes, jalapeno, and parsley in a food processor first and then combine in a bowl with the raw ground beef. Note that this makes enough filling for 3 pides, you’ll need to double the recipe for more.
