This easy Turkish flatbread recipe is similar to focaccia with the addition of crunchy black sesame seeds.
Table of Contents
Save this recipe by clicking on the ❤️ heart on the right-hand side of the screen or in the recipe card.
🗝️ Key takeaways
- Quick and easy with a simple prep plus no kneading required!
- This mild-flavored bread is perfect with many different dishes— not just Turkish food! Try it with chili, stews, soups, and even dips!
- Egg wash helps the seeds stick to the top during baking and gives the bread a beautiful golden-brown sheen.
This Turkish bread recipe, technically called Pide Ekmek, uses simple ingredients like instant yeast and bread flour for a quick and easy flatbread that's hard to stay away from.
🧾 Ingredients
This is an overview of the ingredients. You'll find the full measurements and instructions in the green recipe card (printable) at the bottom of the page.
📖 Variations
- I've used a mixture of bread flour and whole wheat flour before and it is a little heavier but tastes great. Use up to ½ whole wheat flour with ½ bread flour.
- Feel free to use white sesame seeds or nigella seeds instead of black sesame seeds.
- Sprinkle fresh herbs over the bread before baking for a different flavor.
- Make Turkish pizza using feta cheese, red peppers, spinach, and your favorite tomato sauce.
🔪 Instructions
This is an overview of the instructions. Full instructions are in the green recipe card at the bottom of the page. Click on the image to see it full size.
Mixing
Mix dry ingredients.
Add water.
Form into a ball.
Cover and let rise until double.
Shaping
Pat out.
Let rise on an oiled baking sheet.
Form the pattern.
Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with seeds.
🤫 Cook's secrets -
We love to rip off small pieces of the fluffy bread and dip them into a little olive oil, hummus, soft cheese, or, for a more authentic taste, baba ghanoush. It's a great way to fill everyone up while the rest of dinner cooks.
🍴 Equipment
- large
mixing bowl - heavy baking sheet or cast iron skillet
- plastic wrap
🎥 Video
🥫 How to store leftover Turkish bread
Unlike store-bought bread that's loaded with preservatives, homemade Turkish bread tastes best the same day you make it. If you've got some left over, though, here's how to make it last.
Be sure to let the bread cool to room temperature before storing it away. Then, place it in a plastic bag and squeeze out as much air as you can.
If you don't like to use plastic, any other reusable storage bag or airtight container will work fine.
Store at room temperature up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.
Keep homemade bread at room temperature for up to three days or freeze it for up to 3 months.
Warm the Turkish bread on a baking sheet in the oven for a few minutes, or simply pop it in the toaster.
Marye's Tip
Try to work quickly when sprinkling the seeds onto the bread. If the egg wash dries up, the seeds will fall off!
💭 Things to know
- Bread flour has more protein than all-purpose flour. Though you can sometimes swap the two without major changes, this Turkish pide bread recipe is tastiest with bread flour.
- If using an electric mixer, remember to use the dough hook attachment. Even a wet dough like this one is too thick for the whisks to handle.
- Don't want to use your fingers? The end of a wooden spoon works great to make the indentations around the edge of the fluffy Turkish bread.
- You can use a bench scraper to easily transfer the bread from your work surface to the prepared baking tray.
- Easy Turkish bread is great with homemade gyros, kebabs, or plain grilled meats and veggies!
👩🍳 FAQs
Pide is a delicious Turkish bread. It's similar to (but not the same as) pita bread from other Mediterranean countries. Fun fact: though sometimes referred to as a type of flatbread, pide and pita both use a leavening agent (yeast.) Flatbread typically is unleavened.
Sure thing—that's one of my favorite ways to have "fresh" bread available in a jiffy! To freeze Turkish flatbread, wrap it tightly with two layers of plastic wrap. Frozen, it'll keep for about three months.
Dry bread is usually caused by one guilty culprit: too much flour. Be sure to measure your flour carefully, and don't use too much on the work surface.
First things first: make sure your yeast is fresh, not nearing its expiration date. If that's not the problem, try letting the dough rest in a warmer spot. Your kitchen may simply be too cold, which just means the dough will take longer to rise.
Nope! Feel free to get creative and serve whatever you like. This bread has a mild yeast flavor, similar to other kinds of pita. It'll go well with any meat or vegetables you like to make.
📚 Related recipes
🍽️ Repurpose leftovers
Leftover flatbread? No problem. Here are some ways I use mine on those rare occasions there's some left over.
- Cut it into squares, brush with olive oil, sprinkle with some dried herbs if desired, and bake it at 400F on a cookie sheet to make crackers.
- Use a food processor or blender to make into breadcrumbs.
- Use it in chicken pot pie instead of noodles or biscuits.
📞 The last word
Experimenting with the foods from other cultures is one way to experience the world without leaving your home. This Turkish bread is so good with so many things that it's one of those recipes I turn to again and again.
I bet you will, too.
If you click on the number of servings in the recipe card you can adjust the measurements up or down for the exact number of servings you need.
If you love this recipe please comment below and give it 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
📖 Recipe
Turkish Bread
Print Pin Recipe Save Recipe Rate RecipeIngredients
- 2 cups bread flour
- 2¼ teaspoons rapid rise yeast
- 5 ounces 110℉ - 115℉ water, ¾ cup + 4 teaspoons
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Egg wash
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon water
Topping
- ¼ cup black sesame seeds, or sesame seeds, optional
Instructions
- Mix the flour, sugar, yeast, and salt in a large mixing bowl.
- Pour the water into the well and mix everything together. Dough will be very wet and sticky.
- Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap.
- Let rise in a warm place until doubled, about an hour.
- Sprinkle a little flour on the counter.
- Remove the dough from the bowl and place on the floured countertop.
- Shape the dough into a flat circle.
- Grease a heavy baking sheet with olive oil.
- Carefully add the dough to the baking sheet.
- Cover and let rise 45 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 450F.
- With your finger tips, make indentations in the dough 1 inch from the edge all the way around.
- Use the back of a butter knife to make diagonal indented lines within the circle.
- Do the same thing in the opposite direction so that you now have diamonds.
- Brush the egg wash over the top of the bread.
- Quickly sprinkle with sesame seeds.
- Bake the bread for 8 minutes at 450F° and then turn the oven down to 375F F and bake for another 5 - 7 minutes (or until golden brown).
Egg wash
- Beat the egg with 1 tablespoon water until well blended.
Notes
- Bread flour has more protein than all-purpose flour. Though you can sometimes swap the two without major changes, this Turkish pide bread recipe is tastiest with bread flour.
- Don't want to use your fingers? The end of a wooden spoon works great to make the indentations around the edge of the fluffy Turkish bread.
- You can use a bench scraper to easily transfer the bread from your work surface to the prepared baking tray.
- Add the sesame seeds quickly once you brush the dough with the egg wash. If it dries the seeds will slip right off.
Nutrition Facts
Nutrition information is estimated as a courtesy. If using for medical purposes, please verify information using your own nutritional calculator. Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
This recipe has been tested several times. If you choose to use other ingredients, or change the technique in some way, the results may not be the same.
Save this recipe!
Turkish Bread
Pin it now so you'll be able to find it easily when you're ready to make it..
Comments
No Comments