Pogaca - Turkish Savory Pastry

Yes, this will be my fist recipe in this blog.

I cannot tell you how much I like to eat pogaca. It is very common food in Turkey for breakfast or tea time in the afternoon. To be honest I preferred to buy them from pastry shops when I used to live in Turkey. But here I have to do it by myself. It is definitely healtier.

The more you do it the better it gets. This is a main rule for yeast recipies. Please do not give up if your first or second trial did not work. The quality of flour and yeast are important to have fluffy pogaca. Here comes pogaca ingredient list;

For the dough
- 2 cups of lukewarm milk
- 1 cup olive oil/sunflower oil (these are the ones that I use)
- 2 eggs (whites are for dough and yolks are for brushing)
- 1 tbs sugar
- 2 ts yeast
- 1 ts salt
- 4 + 2/3 cups of all purpose flour (it depends of your egg's size.I would not pour the last 2/3 cup of flour at first)

If you are using mixer which is definitely time saving put lukewarm milk and add yeast and sugar than mix them 3-4 minutes. (I take milk from fridge and pour it to a container and warm it up in microwave for 1 minute before I use) Than add two egg whites and oil. So liquids are first to be combined together well. Than add 4 cups of flour. You can put the salt in this step. (salt should not be used the same time with sugar and yeast) If you still need more flour than you can add by using a spoon. There should not be remaining dough pieces in the container when the mixer is on. Total kneating time is around 4 minutes.
If you are doing it by your hand follow the steps as above. But kneating time would be double. You will have a soft dough which could be a little sticky as well. Cover the container or the dough itself and let it rise. It should double itself. It depends on the room temperature. I usually wait 45 minutes.

For the filling (potato)

- 4 medium potatoes
- 1 medium onion
- 2 tbs olive oil
- 2 tbs tomato/pepper paste
- salt and spices according to your taste

Boil the potatoes first and mash them in a bowl. In a pan heat the oil and add the chopped onions. Stir them from time to time.When onions get soft and started color change add the paste and stir it one more minute. Than pour them to the bowl over the mashed potatoes and add the spices and mix them well.

For the filling (cheese)

- 1 cup of crumbled feta cheese
- 1 handfull chopped parsley if you like
or
- 1 cup of shredded kashkaval cheese

For the filling (ground beef)

- 1/2 pound ground beef
- 1 medium onion
- 2 tbs oil
- salt and spices ( black pepper, red pepper flakes)

Put the ground beef in a pan with medium heat and add oil in it. Cook it around 5 minutes by stirring frequently. Than add chopped onions to the pan. Let them soften and turn the heat. Add salt and spices and mix them well.

When the dough is ready just kneat it one more time in order to get rid of bubbles. Than feel free to give what kind of shape you would like to give. Take an egg size dough and make it circle in your palm. Put the filling at the center and close the rounds.And reverse it on to the baking pan. Or give them "D" shape like the original or roll a bigger piece of dough on the countertop. Put the filling in one side and roll it. It needs to be cut into small pieces after that.
My son's favourite one is the plain. You can try some plain ones with olive spead ones as well. It is all your imagination ;-)

You may have around 25 pogacas with this recipe. Let them rest like 15 minutes in baking tray while the oven gets heated. Temperature might differ for the oven type. I use 420F for electric oven. Before placing them to the oven brush egg yolks over pogacas gently. If you like you can sprinkle some sesame seeds or nigel seeds. Try not to open the oven while they are being baked. Control them after 15 minutes. They should be ready to take from the oven in 20 minutes at most.

I take fresh baked yummy pogacas to a cooling rack and cover them with a kitchen cloth for 10 minutes. Than of course try one of them may be two ;-))
I freeze them after they get cooled. So that we can have fresh fluffy pogaca whenever we want.
I hope you like it after giving a try.

Here is a photo of my potato filled rolls with this recipe;

These are the ones that I baked last Friday. Round ones are with feta cheese filling the others are with black olive spread shaped like "acma"