Recipe: Turkish braided bread called Simit
MANILA, Philippines — In Turkey, people eat bread three meals a day, and they like their bread freshly baked. A main staple in Turkish cuisine, bread is served warm and crisp with every meal. Like the French bakeries that line the streets of France and let people, locals and tourists alike enjoy freshly baked breads and lovely pastries any time of the day, Turkey has its own vibrant streets teeming with bakeries that send the aroma of freshly baked breads wafting in the air.
Different types of artisan breads are consumed in large quantities across Turkey, which is not a problem because Turkey is a wheat-growing and flour-producing nation. It produces various kinds of flour, including all-purpose flour, bread flour, cake flour, pastry flour and high-gluten flour, used in making a variety of soft and hard breads, rolls, pastries, cakes, cookies and biscuits.
Like any other bread, Turkish breads are made using four basic ingredients — flour, water, yeast and salt. Flour makes up 66% of breads, and the quality of breads produced depends largely on the flour used.
Taking pride in the quality and not just the quantity of flour that the country produces, Turkey exports its flour to different countries, and its wheat flour happens to top the list of Turkish products that are exported to the Philippines. It is used mainly to produce flour-based products, such as breads, noodles and lumpia wrappers. Its good quality and affordability make Turkish flour a good alternative for community bakeries and noodle manufacturers to use, and it benefits not just the bakers but also the consumers because it keeps the production cost down and bakers are able to pass these savings on to consumers by keeping bread prices low.
To stress the benefits of using Turkish wheat flour in baking, the Turkish Flour Yeast & Ingredients Promotion Group (TFYI) had organized a Turkish Bread Making Workshop for the media at the Filipino-Chinese Bakers Association Inc. (FCBAI) kitchen in Manila. In partnership with the FCBAI, the TFYI brought in renowned Turkish pastry chef Emin Aydemir to conduct the baking demonstration cum hands-on class, which featured Turkish breads such as Simit, Pogaca, Gozleme,
