Almost Turkish Recipes

Cheese Pastries (Peynirli Poğaça)













Although there are tens of different kinds of poğaça (savory pastry), none resembles anything like Italian focaccia, where the term poğaça derives from. There are two main ways of preparing savory pastry dough: with or without yeast. Non-yeast pastries are favored by many for their rich-in-butter-nature; yet, most people make pastries with yeasty dough because it requires less amount of oil. Since I don't bake poğaças very often, I see no harm in indulging myself with feta and butter.










makes ~25 cheese pastries
2 sticks of butter, melted
1 egg, white for the dough, yolk for brushing the tops of pastries
3 cups of flour
~1/2 plain yogurt
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup white cheese or feta crumbles
1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped
sesame seeds

-Mix cheese and parsley in a small bowl.
-Put flour in a bowl. Pour butter, egg white, and salt. Mix well.
-Start kneading and add yogurt as much as you need to make slightly soft, easy-to-shape dough.
-Roll walnut-size pieces in your hands to make balls. Press the ball between your palms to make a flat round, ~3-3.5 inches in diameter.
-Place a small amount of cheese+parsley filling in the middle of the flat round dough. Make it in to a ball by bringing the edges into the middle and covering the filling.
-Place on a cookie tray. Brush the tops with egg yolk and sprinkle sesame seeds.
-Bake in a preheated oven at 350F for 20-25 minutes.
-Traditionally poğaças are served with tea, but you can also serve them for dinner as a side. Although there are tens of different kinds of poğaça (savory pastry), none resembles anything like Italian focaccia, where the term poğaça derives from. There are two main ways of preparing savory pastry dough: with or without yeast. Non-yeast pastries are favored by many for their rich-in-butter-nature; yet, most people make pastries with yeasty dough because it requires less amount of oil. Since I don't bake poğaças very often, I see no harm in indulging myself with feta and butter.


18 comments:

  1. Very interesting, Burcu. I will soon write apost on focaccia. Your take on poğaça looks appetizing, with the parsley peeking out in the middle.

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  2. Anonymous1:24 AM

    Hi,

    Congratulatiosn for your blog, it's awesome. Can you please tell how much a stick of butter weighs?
    Thanks
    Meryem

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  3. burda çok güzel tarifler var, hepsi birbirinden lezizler, bu poğacada nefis, çayın yanınada pek yakışır;) ellerine sağlık....

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  4. Since my new philosophy "nothing is off limits" for the holidays copious amounts of feta and butter are on the menu. These pastries sound wonderful!!

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  5. this seems like it will charm my husband!

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  6. I have a serious addiction to quick breads, and will for sure be trying this.

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  7. These look delicious. Could you post some other recipes for these later on, maybe the different fillings as well as a recipe for the yeast dough? Thanks so much. I will try these this weekend. I just got back from the grocery store where they had a very good sale on real butter, so I stocked up. (I bought 10 pounds, but of course a lot will go into the freezer, and the rest is to finish up my Christmas cookies...I'm SO far behind!

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  8. Meryem, here is some onfo that might be helpful:
    1 stick of butter = 1/4 pound
    1 stick of butter = 1/2 cup
    1 stick of butter = 8 tablespoons
    1 stick of butter = 4 ounces
    1 stick of butter = 113 grams

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  9. Carolina, I will post more pogaca recipes soon, but here's another way of making pogaca: http://almostturkish.blogspot.com/2006/10/dill-feta-poaa-dereotlu-peynirli-poaa.html

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  10. I just love both the color and texture of that dough, Burcu.

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  11. Wow, two sticks of butter!! I believe I could indulge in these too, maybe for New Year's or sooner if I have time!

    Molly

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  12. Anonymous12:26 AM

    Thanks very much for your reply and help. Really very kind of you.

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  13. The link you posted for the other pogaca recipe didn't work...the last part was cut off, so copy and paste didn't work. Could you post a clickable link for that? Thanks so much. Dill is one of my favourite herbs, so I am intrigued.

    Carolina

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  14. Carolina,
    On the right side bar click on "breakfast and tea-time specialties" under the "recipe categories." 9th from the top is "dill feta pogaca"

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  15. And the holidays would not be the same without a little indulgence! :)

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  16. Caroline,
    Yes, there was a comment like that and I deleted it. You can e-mail me at almostturkish(at)gmail(dot)com

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  17. Anonymous2:53 AM

    Thanks a lot. This is an interesting recipe. At last I have found something interesting and unique to serve to my guests during the holidays. I am sure that they'll love this savory pastry.

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  18. Anonymous7:53 AM

    Woke up this morning with cravings for these, those i buy in Trabzon to be exact... but this recepite is really good. Made them, with little bit extra cheese. Thank you!

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