MANILA, Philippines — In Turkey, bread is a staple. People eat fresh bread three meals a day, serving it warm and crisp with the aroma of freshly baked breads wafting in the air.
Artisan breads are consumed in large quantities across Turkey. This is not a problem since Turkey is a wheat-growing and flour-producing nation. It produces different types of flour used for making breads, rolls, pastries, cakes, cookies and biscuits. One of these happens to be wheat flour.
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To stress the benefits of using Turkish wheat flour in baking, the Turkish Flour Yeast & Ingredients Promotion Group (TFYI) in Manila put together a Turkish Bread Making Workshop for the media at the Filipino-Chinese Bakers Association Inc. (FCBAI) kitchen in Manila.
Established in April 2012, the TFYI is composed of companies in Turkey that export wheat flour, cereal grains, yeast, bran and similar agricultural products to international markets. It is under the guidance of the Ministry of Economy in Turkey and promotes the Turkish flour and wheat products exported to some 120 countries worldwide, with the Philippines being one of these countries.
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, Paskalya and Turkish Pan Bread.
Here, we share the recipe of Paskalya, which can be found year-round in bakeries in Istanbul. It is best enjoyed with jam or honey.
Paskalya
Ingredients:
1 kg. Turkish hard flour
3 eggs
300 grams granulated sugar
300 grams margarine
20 grams instant dry yeast or 50 grams fresh yeast
350-400 grams water
Egg wash (*beaten egg yolk)
Procedure:
1. Using a mixer, combine all ingredients together until dough is formed. Continue mixing until dough is no longer sticky, but do not overmix so as to not have too much gluten development in the dough.
2. Rest the dough for 10 minutes.
3. Cut and divide the dough into 50 gram portions. You will be needing three portions per bread.
4. Using your hands, roll the dough into strands with pointed ends.
5. Put three strands of dough side by side for each bread.
6. Braid the strands of dough.
7. Tuck ends in and lightly press to seal pointed ends.
8. Rest braided dough for 10 minutes.
9. Brush with egg wash. Let it rest for 25 minutes. Put nuts or sesame seeds on top if desired.
10. Bake in a preheated 150°C oven to 20 to 25 minutes.
11. To enjoy, slice freshly baked Paskalya bread, spread jam or honey on it, and enjoy.
RELATED: Recipe: Turkish braided bread called Simit