Turkish Simit Recipe

Turkish simit bread is one of the best and favorite bread found in Turkey. Turkish simit recipe is an easy-to-make recipe as you can bake this bread at your own house. Although it’s a local type of bread only popular in Turkey, if you have tasted it you will be craving for more. Turkish bread simit recipes found online, help you how to make Turkish simit at home, no matter where you are. This article will guide you about the Turkish simit recipe and tell you the ingredients and steps to follow for making it.

What is Simit?

One of the best Turkish street foods, simit is a ring-shaped, soft, and crunchy Turkish bread. It becomes more delicious when topped with sesame seeds. In Turkey, it is commonly consumed as a breakfast meal and is known as a common man’s food. Being very cheap street food, almost everyone can afford to buy it. Served with Turkish tea or Aryan (Turkish yogurt), it makes your breakfast meal complete. 

Simit is the best meal for people who are always looking for a grab-and-go routine. Working people, as well as students, can have it while traveling to work or school. If you live in Turkey, then you can find it almost on every corner of the street, beach, or town. Simit recipe is widely common in Istanbul. If you still can not make it, you can find a local store that makes and sells simits known as, Simit Sarayi. Although it is worth trying to learn how to make Turkish simit at home. 

Turkish Bread Simit Recipe:

To make you simit tastier you will be needing a simple bread dough as well as some coating to add taste. Here are some ingredients you’ll need and steps to follow for baking a simit.

Ingredients:

For Dough:

• 300ml container containing warm water
• 2 tablespoon dry and instant yeast
• 3 ¼  cup of flour
• 1 teaspoon of salt

For Coating:

• ¼ cup of water
• 1 tablespoon of flour
• 1 ½ cup of sesame seeds (toasted preferred)
• ½ cup of either date or grapes molasses

You can also find a simit recipe without molasses. Molasses add sweetness to the simit which makes it tastier and delicious when eaten. Hence it is preferred this way but if you are not a fan of molasses then you can omit it from the recipe. Other ingredients are the same.

Steps and Instructions:

The Turkish simit recipe is divided into 4 parts which are, making the dough, preparing the coating, shaping the dough, and lastly dipping the dough in the coating and baking it. 

1. Make the Dough:
   1. Take a large mixing bowl and mix the yeast, flour, and salt together.
   2. Pour water slowly and mix it using your hand. Keep doing it until you get a non-sticky dough.
   3. Now cover it with a transparent sheet and let it rise for at least 1 hour. Let it be there until it gets double in size.
   4. Now the dough is made.

2. Preparing the Coating:
   1. Take a medium-sized bowl and mix together the flour, water, and molasses and set it aside.
   2. Take the sesame seeds and toast them in a pan, if they are raw. Then put them in another bowl.

3. Shaping the Dough:
   1. After a time of 1 hour, the dough doubles in size. Punch it and put it on a floured platform. 
   2. Shape it into a log, then cut it into 6 pieces of equal sizes. 
   3. Then cut these 6 pieces into 2 to get 12 pieces all together.
   4. Take two pieces and roll them to form a rope of size 50cm in length.
   5. Now put them side by side to stick the ends. Pinch them with fingers to ensure they are properly stuck together.
   6. Form a braid by twisting them in opposite directions.
   7. Now combine the two ends of the braided dough to make a ring.
   8. Repeat the process for the remaining balls of dough.

4. Coating the Simit and Baking:
   1. Preheat the oven up to 220C. 
   2. Dip the simit ring into the mixture of molasses and then insert it into the sesame seed’s bowl to cover it with the roasted seeds. 
   3. Transfer it onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. 
   4. Repeat this process for all the simit rings and bake them for at least 20 minutes until they become brownish golden in color.

All done! Enjoy your simit.

How to Eat Turkish Simit:

If you are wondering about how to eat these Turkish simits, then you will be glad to know that simit can be consumed as your daily snacks. You can have them with Turkish tea, coffee, or Ayran. You can have them as an appetizer before dinner or lunch. Mostly this Turkish bread is eaten for breakfast. You can also eat simit with a dip of your choice or as a topping on your soup.