Turkish•budget

Turkish Simit

Simit is a crunchy, ring shaped, braided street bread with an amazing nutty flavor of toasted sesame seeds.

Ingredients

Quantities are shown as originally provided.

1
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, yeast and salt.
2
Gradually pour in the water and mix it with your hand. Knead it for 5 minutes or until you get a smooth and non-sticky, elastic dough.
3
Alternatively, you can use a stand mixer with a dough hook for this step.
4
Cover it and let it rise for about 1 hour, until it doubles in size.
5
In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the molasses, water and flour. Set it aside.
6
Put the sesame seeds in another bowl. Put it aside. If the sesame seeds are raw, toast them in a pan beforehand.
7
When the dough doubles in size after 1 hour, punch it down and transfer on a floured surface. Shape it into a log and cut it into 6 equal pieces. And then cut each piece into two. You will have 12 pieces in total.
8
Grab two pieces and roll them into a rope, 20 inches/50cm in length.
9
Put these side by side and stick the ends by pinching.
10
Twist in opposite directions to make a braid.
11
Combine the two ends by pinching them together and make a ring.
12
Repeat this for the remaining dough balls.
13
Preheat the oven at 425C/220C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and put it aside.
14
Soak the simit ring into the molasses mixture first and then put it into the sesame seed bowl. Transfer onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden.