Have you ever heard of simit before? It is a traditional Turkish bread in a form of a ring, which has a very crispy crust covered with sesame and is soft and fluffy on the inside.
If you like bread, you should try these extremely tasty and wonderful bagels, richly coated with sesame seeds. What gives them a really great taste and creates a crispy crust is molasses. If you don’t know what molasses is and haven’t tried it yet, now is the right time to incorporate it into your diet. It is a very thick syrup that is a by-product of sugar refining process and is very healthy, unlike sugar. It contains a lot of vitamin B6 and various minerals, especially iron, calcium, magnesium and manganese.
Traditional Turkish bread
We discovered simit on our trip to Turkey. It is simply impossible to visit Turkey without trying simit. It is sold by street vendors, who have a cute red simit
trolley, which can be seen all around the city. Unique look and wonderful smell make simit irresistable. It’s exceptional taste is quite addictive and you can never have enough. We ate them practically every day, because they are so divine!
This is the most common bread in Turkey and is usually served for breakfast, most often plain (without any spreads, fillings …) with a cup of tea. It is really the best plain, as sesame and molasses create a wonderful flavour and there is no need for extras.
Ingredients and process
Ingredients
You only need 7 simple ingredients to make the most delicious bread. It is also quite simple to make. The dough is almost identical to bread dough, what is different is the shape and sesame coating on top.
All you need is:
- flour – we used semi-white flour, but you can also use all purpose flour,
- yeast,
- salt,
- water,
- sugar,
- molasses and
- sesame seeds.
Forming simit
When you have the dough ready, it’s time for the best part: forming simit. Prepare each simit by forming two long rolls, intertwining them, and joining the ends to form a ring. Then just soak it in a mixture of water and molasses and cover with sesame seeds. The process is also shown step by step in the photo below.
Recipe
Simit - traditional Turkish bagel
Ingredients
Dough
- 500 g semi-white flour
- 7 g dry yeast
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 300 ml lukewarm water
- 1 teaspoon sugar
The rest
- 30 g molasses
- 120 ml water
- sesame seeds
Instructions
Dough
- In a bowl, mix flour, yeast, salt and sugar, then add water.
- Slowly mix ingredients together with a wooden spatula from the center outwards, then knead well with your hands.
- Cover the dough and let it rest in a warm place for at least 45 minutes.
- When the dough is ready, cut it into 6 equal parts and form simit from each part according to the following procedure.
Simit
- Cut into two equal parts.
- Form each part into a long roll (30 cm).
- Intertwine rolls with each other.
- Combine both ends to get a nice ring.
Topping
- In a bowl, mix molasses and water so that the molasses dissolves completely.
- Prepare sesame seeds in another bowl.
- Dip each simit into a mixture of water and molasses so that it is all covered, then immediately put in a plate with sesame seeds and completely cover with sesame seeds. Place on a baking sheet lined with baking paper.
Bake
- Bake for 20 minutes in a preheated oven at 200°C.
