Poğaça is a small traditional savory pastry in Turkey that is usually preferred for breakfasts. All pastry shops sell Poğaça as their main product in Turkey. Usually, people stop by these pastry shops early in the morning on the way to work to buy some of these small Poğaças for a quick breakfast.
There are a few versions of it with different fillings like white cheese, cheddar cheese, minced meat, or potato. Some pastry shops are even offering without fillings. Pastry shops, mostly offer both small and big sizes, however, I always prefer small-sized ones.
The Story of Poğaça
When I made a research about it on the internet, I learned that Poğaça word came from the Latin language and was found in Italy in the early 1600s and it was first spelled as foğoça. It makes sense it came from Italy because the main ingredient of Poğaça is flour and Italians are using flour to make pastries for centuries. When I ask both Ottoman and Turkish culture historians where it came from to our cuisine. They said; they don’t have any record for Poğoça.
In Turkey, the other name of this Poğaça, which I shared below recipe of, is called Anane Poğaçası. That means Grand Mother’s Poğaça if you translate it into English. I don’t know who gave it that name but I was using that name too. We call it this because all kids’ grandmothers in Turkey cook this delicious pastry. My grandmother was also cooking below given Poğaça because this recipe belongs to her cooking notes.
How to eat Poğaça?
In Turkey, we like to eat it very hot; I mean right after we take it out of the oven because we put butter on it and let it melt on it before we eat. In pastry shops, we have endless variations of Poğaça. If you look at the below photo that I took in the morning, you can see how many different variations we have.
I know that you may think Poğaça is quite an oily treat to eat, however, once you make it according to the recipe I gave you, you will love it. And you will want to make it every Sunday morning.
Pogaca
Ingredients
- 4 cups flour for its dough
- 1/4 cup warm milk for its dough
- 1 tbsp dry instant yeast for its dough
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil for its dough
- 1 tbsp sugar for its dough
- 1 tbs salt for its dough
- 1 cup mineral water for its dough
- 1/2 bunch parsley for its filling
- 1 1/2 cup feta cheese for its filling
- 1 egg yolk for top coating
- 2 tbsp poppy seeds for top coating
Instructions
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First mix sugar and yeast with milk and then add all the dough ingredients including this milk mixture and mix them well.
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You need to have a pliable and non-sticky dough. Cover it with a moist kitchen towel and let it rest for 45 min.
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While the dough is resting; chop the parsley bunch and mix with feta cheese. Preheat the oven 180 C.
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Take a small piece from the dough and flatten it with your hands on your counter.
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Put a teaspoon of cheese and parsley mixture on it and close it up folding the edges upwards and put a little pressure to give rugby ball shape in your palm. Do the same process for the rest of the remaining dough.
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Place the baking paper in a baking tray and place the Pogacas one by one on it. The folded side of Pogacas must be face with the baking paper.
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Coat all the Pogocas with egg yolk using food brush and sprinkle poppy seeds on each Pogaca evenly.
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Bake them 25 minutes until they get golden color.
