Poğaça, easy cheesy bread
Begin at the beginning: with bread. A recipe for poğaça.
For the dough
250g unsalted butter
1 cup yoghurt
3 tbs olive oil
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
3 egg whites, 1 egg yolk (keep the other yolks aside for brushing)
5 cups self raising flour
Nigella seeds for sprinkling
For the cheese filling
250g feta, grated
3 generous handfuls chopped parsley
Method
Preheat the oven at 180C and line a large baking tray with baking paper.
Melt the butter and leave to cool while you combine the yoghurt, oil and salt in a bowl. Add the egg whites yolk one at a time, mixing as you go. Finally, add the cooled butter and combine.
Working the batter, add one handful of flour at a time and knead into a dough. Grandma says that the dough is ready once it matches “the texture of an ear lobe”. Set aside to rest for 10 minutes covered with a tea towel.
Roll the dough into golfball-sized rounds. Flatten with fingers into a palm-sized circle (no need for a rolling pin here) and put one teaspoon of cheese filling into the dough and fold the dough over onto itself to form a semicircle.
Line your poğaça on the prepared tray and brush with the remaining egg yolks. Sprinkle with a couple of nigella seed and bake for 25-30 minutes or until the cheesy pockets are a golden.
Eat warm out of the oven, and for a moment you’ll swear you were in heaven.
This recipe makes around 30 poğaça and can be stored in the fridge for up to a week or in the freezer for a couple of months. Defrost by leaving in the fridge overnight and either microwave them for 30 seconds or put in a sandwich press until warmed through.
