Turkish Pide (Turkish Flatbread)
Turkish Pide or Turkish Flatbread is a boat-shaped pastry similar to a pizza, commonly served in Turkey! It's often loaded with a ground beef, sausage, shredded cheese, roasted red peppers or mixed vegetables. Perfect as a main course or an appetizer!
Ingredients
- 3¼ cups 396 grams bread flour, plus more
- 2 teaspoons instant yeast
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 cup warm water 105-110ºF
- 3 tablespoons warm milk
- 1 large egg + 1 tablespoon water
- Sesame or nigella seeds for sprinkling (optional)
- Kesar Akkawi or mozzarella cheese (see notes)
- Sucuk sliced or chopped (see notes)
- Prepared meat filling in notes
Instructions
- DOUGH: In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the dry ingredients and mix to combine. Add the oil, warm water, and milk to the mixing bowl. With hands, a dough whisk, or in a stand mixer set on speed 4, combine. Once mixed, knead the dough for 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic with the mixer, longer if by hand. The dough shouldn’t be sticky when you poke it with your finger. It also shouldn’t be too dry or wet. If it is, you can use 1-3 more tablespoons of flour or water and mix it into the dough well. I usually check if the dough comes together around the 5 minute mark, and if it’s still wet, I’ll add the flour 1 tbsp at a time. And if it’s too dry, you’d just add water.
- REST: Gather and form a dough ball. Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit in a warm place to proof for 60-90 minutes or until doubled in size (see notes.) When 10 minutes are remaining, position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 500ºF. If you’re preparing this on a pizza stone/steel, allow it to preheat in the oven for at least 45 minutes.
- DIVIDE: Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and divide the dough out into 5 equal pieces. Let the dough sit covered for 20-30 minutes. Working with one dough ball at a time, cover the others with a slightly damp tea towel.
- ROLL: Roll the dough out with a rolling pin, into a long oval shape about 18 inches in length about 6-7 inches at the center widest part. Sprinkle a baking sheet with semolina or cornmeal. Place the oval on one side of the baking sheet. We’ll bake 2 pides on a sheet pan at a time.
- FILL: Add the cheese, cheese/sucuk, or ground beef filling (see notes) in the center of the oval leaving a ½ inch gap around the edges. Fold the top and bottom to create the tip and then gently pull and fold the edges over the filling. Brush with a lightly beaten egg and water and sprinkle with nigella or sesame seeds, if desired.
- BAKE: Bake the pides in a preheated oven for 14-17 minutes or until the dough is golden brown. Remove to a wire rack and let cool for several minutes before slicing and serving. Bake remaining pides the same exact way. Discard any semolina on the tray and add new semolina in between batches.
Notes
- Cheese: You’ll need roughly a total of ¾ cup of cheese for each pide.
- Filling ingredients: combine ½ pound of uncooked ground beef, ½ cup finely chopped onions, 1 chopped Roma tomato, 4 cloves garlic, pressed, 1 deseeded jalapeño (or ¼ green bell pepper), 2 tablespoons chopped parsley, 2 teaspoons Aleppo pepper, 1 teaspoon tomato paste, 2 teaspoons red pepper paste, 2 teaspoons lemon juice, ¾ teaspoon kosher salt, 1 tablespoon olive oil in a bowl until mixed. Add this to the prepared dough in step 4.
- Meat filling: To make life easier, you can chop the onions, tomatoes, jalapeno, and parsley in a food processor first and then combine in a bowl with the raw ground beef. Note that this makes enough filling for 3 pides, you’ll need to double the recipe for more.
