Monday 27 July 2015

Turkish Pizza



Ever since the small success of my Big Ass Buns, I am now slightly less afraid of yeast and bread making. But baking bread and buns is not a good endeavor for someone on a low carb diet eating plan. I have yet to lose my post Kuala Terengganu eating frenzy flab and hence subjected myself to a week of carb restriction. It was torture and last weekend I went rogue.


I seemed to recall a boat-like Turkish delight which I saw on Wendy's blog quite some time ago. The one that had me lusting for days back in 2013. The one that made me buy a box of yeast. The one that had me promise myself that one day I will bravely bake Kiymale Pide. Well, here I am.


So I gathered my ingredients, raring to go. If I can bake buns, I can bake pizza hah..hah... As I recall, Wendy regretted baking only one of these babies. As she took a bite, she was very tempted to finish it, leaving none for her husband. I would have walloped the whole lot and told the man that the thing "tak jadi " (didn't turn out). But Wendy is a good girl, not like me.


So I thought to myself. If Wendy could eat one whole Kiymale Pide, I could eat two. Muahahahaha! So I got greedy. I doubled the recipe. And not only that, I used more that the recommended amount of beef. Not due to greed, but simply to finish the whole packet of minced beef. 

This is how my first attempt looked like before I popped them into the oven.


These pizzas are huge! One would have sufficed but well, what is done, is done. I tweaked the recipe by adding cumin and coriander, adding more flavor (in my opinion) to the filling which originally contains paprika in addition to salt and pepper.

I did not execute the pide very well, because the casing unraveled while it was baking in the oven. I failed to leave enough border to fold over the filling. Besides, I had way too much filling. My egg was also overcooked.

First attempt.
Upon taking my first bite, mmmmm....very nice indeed! Crispy crust and tasty filling. However, I felt that I had to up the amount of spices and onions. And of course improve on the pide casing. An encore the next day was in order.


This time, I behaved myself and made one recipe. I replaced parsley with coriander and stuck to the same amount of spices I used in the doubled recipe. I also made sure that I rolled the dough thinner and leave adequate border for folding over the filling.


But I still used more filling and as such, my folding did not improve that much. As for that taste, it was much better than the first time. The egg was overcooked and in future, I will leave the egg out.


There are many variations of filling that can be used and I'm looking forwards to a minced lamb version soon. This Turkish pizza is not difficult to make and I hope that you will give it a go and delight yourself!







Turkish Pizza
Recipe source : Adapted from Table For 2.....or More

Pizza Dough
- 125g bread flour
- 20ml water
- 1/2 tsp instant yeast
- 20ml plain yogurt
- 20ml milk
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp olive oil and more for brushing pizza dough after baking

Filling
- 120g minced beef
- 1 tomato (about 80g), remove seeds and diced
- 100g onions, minced
- a handful of coriander leaves, minced
- 2 eggs, 1 to be mixed with filling, 1 to be baked with filing
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp ground coriander
- black pepper to taste

Method :
For the dough :
1. Dissolve yeast in water.
2. In a mixing bowl, mix all the rest of the dough ingredients together with the dissolved yeast (if dough is still dry add some water, a bit at a time)
3. Knead for about 2 minutes until dough comes together.
4. Leave to proof for 2 hours.

Filling :
1. Combine all the filling ingredients with one egg.
2. Place the mixed ingredients in a colander to drain off excess liquids (this is important or else your filling will be watery)

To assemble :
1. Roll the dough into a longish oval shape, about 5mm thick.
2. Put filling onto the dough, leaving a one inch border around the dough.
3. Fold the sides of the dough over the filling and pinch the two ends together to seal.
4. Crack an egg in the middle.
5. Bake at 180C for about 30 minutes or until the dough is brown and the filling is cooked.

Note : I made the filling while the dough is proving. The filling is kept in the fridge and taken out to room temperature 1 hour before baking.

36 comments:

  1. Wow, the pizzas are relaly huge.. The first picture looks like a mini pizza, and I thought the egg is quail's egg.. I thought you are making cute mini pizzas (for testing), using quail's egg as topping.. But I love it wor, huge pizzas, I like.. I like the taste of the filling, I can imagine it has those kebab smell, or "quesadillas" smell.. I realized there's no cheese here, but I don't mind, just look at those rich minced beef, enough liao lor..

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    1. Louiz, before I made this, I thought it was small. So that's why I double the recipe. Then only realized that it is big pulak. Haiz... But ok mah because I can eat a lot. Next time I will try the Italian style with cheese :)

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  2. wah...your "boat" bawak so many goodies leh. So full . drooling liao

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  3. Now that looks like to die for! Gotta ask my girl to see this - she's into baking bread sometimes..only sometimes... Maybe we can work together and try this one out! Wish us luck!!!

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    1. hee..hee.. this could be a good one for you and Melissa to try. If she is into bread, she should find this quite easy. She make the bread and you make the filling :)

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  4. Going Turkish huh... Looks so amazing, your boat pizza! Hmm... I am still not intrigued enough to try bread baking. Maybe I could cheat by getting those pre-made pizza base and shape it into a boat to do this...

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    1. No need to make boat shape lah. Just the flat base will do. The variety of toppings is endless. Feel like trying out an Italian pizza next :D

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  5. Wow! That sure looks good.

    All that filling!

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  6. I tried such a pizza once in a Turkish restaurant and I loved it! Yours looks like an original pizza from that country. working with yeast is not so difficult but to someone who begins I would suggest using the dried one instead of fresh, it's easier to use them

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    1. Ola, I am getting more used to making bread and I hope that it gets easier. More practice!

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  7. OMG! You just drove my mouth wide open!! I like what I saw - A Boat shaped pizza!

    How creative and you should put the tiny figurines sailor standing there to row with his gal seated lovingly. Awww!!!...

    Yeast??? I always joked about your yeast being tossed to rise up in SK's blog spamming chart. Wakakakaka

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    1. hah..hah...TM, you are always funny.

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  8. This Turkish pizza is not difficult to make, she said. But she conveniently forget to show us the dough making part...the difficult part...wakakaka! :D I don't know how to make a boat wor, if got ready made boat, then maybe I can try...kekeke! Your boat looks mighty fine...and with max. load...full steam ahead! ;)

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    1. Kris, I'm serious, this one is not difficult at all :D There was none of the scraping and sweating like the other one. This dough was not sticky at all. You know, I am really excited to bake more pizzas!

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  9. haha!! like I said, when there is the first time, there will always be the next timesssssss.. so you somehow got "addicted" with baking bread now?? and I can see with each successful attempt, the interest get more and more..

    that's a very interesting Turkish pizza indeed!! first it's the shape, it's the shape of a boat.. and there is no cheese but loaded with a big heap of minced beef.. and I'd say the best thing is the egg in the centre!! wah, as good as a mata kerbau on the nasi lemak.. just that your egg is fully cooked, not those that has the yolk still runny eh~~ :)

    haha!! certainly no surprise and no suspicion that you can wallop down two of those into your stomach.. now I wonder if I could actually do that too?? probably not because it is really all meat, I would say the whole pizza is like 80% meat, 15% dough and then 5% veggie?? hehe..

    okay so the carbs-control week was over and that was why you baked this boat-shaped Turkish pizza huh?? anyway, as mentioned above, it's actually all meat and the carb from the bread itself is actually quite minimal, we still need carbs to give us energy and keep us going, so just gasak that two pizzas and feel no guilty, just enjoy them!!! :p

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    1. hah..hah...I only managed half of a pizza at a time. It was big leh! I thought it was small. Anyway, I feel good about this latest development. But it may not be good for my weight :( I am going to try Italian style pizza pulak one of these days.

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  10. Hi Phong Hong,
    I see that you've got "the hang of it" ... baking bread. I must say you're so good & so adventurous. Me .. still at baking small buns occasionally and haven't "excel" to higher level to attempt toast, sourdough, pizza etc. This Turkish Pizza you've made looked so yummy ... love the fillings :D

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    1. Karen, this pizza dough should be easy for you since you have been baking bread/buns much longer than I have :) Give it a try and give your big kids a surprise!

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  11. It looks good! Such a nice boat shaped pizza! Maybe can crack the egg in later if u wan it not to be overcooked? I think 10 mins would be sufficient.

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    1. Yen, I will take your suggestion and add the egg 10 minutes before time. And let's see how that goes!

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  12. The Turkish pizza looks so yummy. The shape is cute too. I would love to have a bite of it to try..lol!

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    1. Nancy, how I wish you could taste some!

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  13. wow...that's something interesting!! I never tried a Turkish pizza before!

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    1. Chris, don't know if can get this at Middle Eastern restaurant. Anyway, it's good and I want to make some more :)

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  14. my kids would be excited if I were to make a pizza like yours. I stop baking for a while to keep my electricity bill under control.

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    1. Hi Agnes! Yes, oven takes up a lot of energy and my electricity bill is high :( But I can't stop as baking keeps me happy :D

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  15. I never tried a Turkish pizza yet but wow, this one looks really really yummy and so huge too

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    1. My first time eating this hah..hah...and it was so good!

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  16. Looks really delicious! I can imagine the taste with all the spices you put in - so delicious! Since you made this, you definitely will be able to make Italian pizza. :)

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    1. Italian pizza coming up next but don't know when :)

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  17. My, my, my, your turkish pizza look so huge! Love the delicious toppings too. Wish you'd invite me over to share :P
    By the way, I have nominated your blog for the 2015 Versatile Blogger Award. Please click on my post at http://mintyskitchen.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-versatile-blogger-award.html to follow up on this.

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    1. Hi Veronica! Oh...thank you so much for the nomination! I will hop over in a bit :)

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