The easiest and tastiest Turkish pide dough, with a beautiful cheese filling, that’s very customizable and so quick to throw together!
What is Turkish Pide?
Pide is basically a Turkish version of a yeasted olive oil based bread, like a flatbread or a pizza. They usually come in elongated oval shapes, that look like little kayaks. They are stuffed with filling in the middle, everything from cheese, to meat, to vegetables.
What do you need to make pide?
For the dough, the ingredients are very basic. You need regular all purpose (plain) flour, olive oil, salt, sugar, instant yeast and lukewarm water.
The water should be warm to the touch, but comfortable enough to be able to keep your hand in it, like tepid bath water. If it’s too hot, it’ll scald the yeast and the dough won’t rise.
Although the recipe calls for instant yeast which doesn’t technically need to be activated with the sugar and the water, it’s a good way to check if your yeast is still valid. When bubbles form, you know that the yeast is fresh and that the dough will rise!
What to fill the pide with:
Here, I opted for a cheese version which is so easy. You just mix together your cheese of choice with an egg to bind the cheese.
I opted for a blend of mozzarella and kashkaval cheese and feta cheese. I also used some fresh parsley for seasoning, and just a sprinkle of black pepper.
Delicious blend, because the mozzarella and kashkaval are both mild and melty and stretchy, and the feta is tangy and creamy so it’s a beautiful contrast.
There are many versions out there for a minced meat pide, if that interests you. I would love to do a version of these with egg. Maybe sojuk and egg!
Vegan Turkish Pide:
Since the dough itself is vegan, with no egg or milk in sight (intentional from my part!), it’ll be very easy to do some vegan variations.
You can fill these with spinach, with vegan cheese, with eggplant, or red pepper dip (muhamarra). The possibilities are endless!
How to make the pide dough:
Mix together the dough ingredients (first, by mixing the sugar, salt and yeast together, and adding the lukewarm water, then by adding the oil and the flour.
The best part is that it’s a very easy to mix dough, and you don’t need a stand mixer or anything of that type. I mixed everything together with a spatula, and at the very end used my hands to just knead together any flour patches until the dough was cohesive. Less than 30 seconds of kneading!
The dough should rise in a warm place for an hour until about doubled. Some suggestions would be to turn on the oven for a couple minutes, turn it off, and have the dough rise in the turned off but slightly warm oven.
Another good place to have dough rise is the laundry room or on top of a washing machine, or even on top of your refrigerator.
Assembling the pide:
After the dough has risen, divide it into 8 equal sized balls. Roll each ball out into an oval shape, then pinch the ends together to make that oblong kayak like shape.
Once all the dough has been shaped, you can fill it with your filling of choice. I like to roll the edges of the dough back over the filling a little (you can see this demonstrated in the video under the nutritional facts).
How to bake turkish pide:
Traditionally, these are baked in a wood or clay oven, but they bake up beautifully in a regular oven. Just make sure the oven has heated up to temperature before placing the pides inside. I like to brush the edges of the pastry with an egg wash for a golden color, but this is completely optional.
Bake until edges turn golden, the cheese is melty and bubbling. This will take around 20-25 minutes at 200 C (390F). Enjoy warm, preferably with a cup of tea!
Storing leftover pide:
Pide will keep well in the fridge for 2-3 days tightly covered, and they freeze beautifully for 2-3 months. You can thaw out individual ones for a light meal or snack.
Turkish Pide
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 3 cups all purpose flour 375g
- 1 cup lukewarm watr
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp instant yeast
- 3 tbsp olive oil
For the cheese filling:
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, or a mix of mozzarella and kashkaval
- 6 oz feta cheese 200g
- 1 egg
- 3 tbsp chopped parsley
- pinch black pepper
Egg wash:
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp cold water
Instructions
For the dough:
- Mix the sugar and salt with the yeast in a small bowl. Add the lukewarm water and stir to dissolve. Set aside 5-10 minutes until some bubbles form.
- Add the oil to the water mix and stir, then add all this mix to the flour and mix to combine. Use your hands to knead briefly if you have to until the flour patches disappear.
- Set dough aside, loosely covered, in a warm place until it rises nearly double in size.
For the filling:
- While the dough is rising, prepare the filling by mixing together all filling ingredients until well combined and storing in the fridge until ready to use.
To assemble:
- When the dough has rise, preheat the oven to 200C (390F).
- Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces and form each into an oval kayak type shape. Add 1-2 heaped tbps of the filling to the middle of each, and pinch the ends of the dough to make elongate the kayak shape. Roll the side edges of the dough towards the filling to contain it (check the recipe video below the nutritional facts to see this visually)
- Once all the pide have been formed and filled, brush the edges with the egg wash (combine the egg and water together), and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and bubbly.
Your embed Jumprope code:
Turkish Pide by everylittlecrumb on Jumprope.
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