Almost Turkish Recipes

Dill-Feta Poğaça (Dereotlu Peynirli Poğaça)


























Poğaça
, a kind of savory pastry / bread, is a traditional baked good in Turkey and Eastern European+Balkanic countries which at some point in history were under the Ottoman rule long enough to adopt its cuisine. Poğaças are best with (black) tea. In Turkey, people would have them for breakfast from a neighborhood patisserie on their way to work or school, or for afternoon tea time.

Usually poğaças are made in half-moon shape. Several pieces of round dough, 3-5 inch in diameter, would be filled with stuffing (variations on stuffing are numerous: feta cheese, potato, ground meat, spinach, cheddar, onion, etc) and folded in to two for the half-moon shape. This recipe, however, doesn't require the traditional half-moon shape.

1 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup oil (vegetable, corn, or conola)
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs (egg yolk of one should be set aside to brush the tops of poğaças)
2 tsp baking powder
2 1/2 - 3 cup flour
1 cup crumbled feta
1 bunch dill, chopped finely
1/4 cup (Turkish) black olives, pitted and sliced
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper flakes (optional)
black and sesame seeds


















-Except for one egg-yolk and black + sesame seeds, mix all the ingredients.
-Using your hands make small balls of dough and place them on a greased baking sheet.
-Brush them with egg-yolk and sprinkle black or sesame seeds on top.
-Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F for 40-50 minutes or until the pogacas are slightly brown.






















Try definitely with tea.

This week's Weekend Herb Blogging is hosted by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen who is the founder of the event. After three recipes with parsley, I decided to give a chance to another precious herb: dill.

22 comments:

  1. If I can find some decent feta (very difficult where I live) I will definitely try these! But I suspect that I will have to think out some kind of Italian version of it...

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  2. I love absolutely everything about the sound of this. Especially that you just mix it together without a lot of fussy steps (I'm not a good baker at all!) And of course I'm absolutely nuts about feta, so that's a bonus. Great recipe!

    Ilva, wish I could mail you some; here I can get the loveliest sheeps milk feta at Costco where it's very inexpensive.

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  3. Ilva, you can either completely skip feta or use fresh mozzarella or some other saltier grated cheese. I'm sure i'll still be good.

    Kalyn, that's the reason why i like this recipe, too. It's easy to make and perfect for average bakers and lazy people :)

    Thanks, Sher.

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  4. Anonymous6:51 AM

    I had this before and its delicious. I was looking for the recipe. Thanks!

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  5. Oh... my beloved black seasame seeds! I love it so much in baked goods!

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  6. wonderful looking bread/cakes..it does sound easy. how do u say the name though?

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  7. Shaheen, making them was easy even for me! I'm not a good baker at all.
    As for the pronunciation it might be something like poh-cha

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  8. Anonymous12:39 PM

    I cannot believe it again! Of course we have it in Hungary also, and we call it the same, "pogácsa" which would be "pogaça' ın turkısh pronunciation so it is the same almost, but comes from the same word...I get so happy when I find similarities between my and my bf-s country:)

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  9. Anonymous6:07 AM

    Hi Burcu! I made these yesterday and everyone loved them including my two litle boys (4 and 1 year old). They lokked and tasted great and they were so easy to make. I will definitely make them again.

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  10. Anonymous7:51 AM

    I made these yesterday and they were absolutely delicious, and so easy to make. I will definitely try to make them again, though possibly with less oil or butter.

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  11. I made these for breakfast and they were lovely with a cup of Turkish tea.

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  12. I just made this for a baby shower, and it turned out great. Thanks for the recipe!
    Ipek

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  13. Hi Burcu,

    Another wonderful recipe! ive made this a few times only i made a gole in the middle and put the fillings in like they do in Turkey.

    The only problem i have is i cant seem to get the softness, i cook in an electric oven at 180C and it comes out like corek.

    If the dough is too soft and wont form into balls and sticks like crazy, does it mean too much yogurt or oil?

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    Replies
    1. Dear Lizzy, there are two different pogacas: one with yeast and one without yeast. The yeasty pogacas tend to be really soft when baked whereas the non-yeasty ones are a bit crunchier and melt in your mouth, but not soft. So, these one are non-yeasty and it's normal that they're not soft.

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  14. Hi Burcu,

    I really love your blog =) you got some great Turkish recipes on here. My hubby is from Turkey and he's always craving these types of food. So as an American, I'm very grateful for your recipes! So easy to make and so tasty. So far every recipe I have made from this site he has liked very much, including this one.
    I made this recipe but I didn't have any olives so I didn't use them, I used regular sesame seeds and I didn't have any dill so I substituted 1 tsp dry mint(another great spice to use in Turkish recipes).
    These came out great! Tasted just like real cheese pogaca (and was much easier to make) ;)
    The only thing I would recommend would be, like Melis said, to use a little less oil (cause then you can't eat too many you'll get stuffed too fast).
    After I made these I got a great idea...
    I think another variation of the pogaca that would be great would be to omit the olives and to substitute a sharp Cheddar cheese instead of the Feta. By doing it like this I think these would come out exactly like the Cheddar Bay Biscuits at Red Lobster! When I made them they did remind me of them a little. If anybody gets to try making the pogaca this way lemme know how they turned out =)

    Thanks again,
    Michelle Lynn

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  15. I am living in Adana, Turkey and made this for my two roommates tonight and we all three LOVED it! Thanks so much for this and your other recipes! They are delicious!

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  16. Anonymous7:00 PM

    Hi Burcu,I've been following your blog for a couple of years at least and really like your recipes. Great photos. You prepare REAL food-not just fancily decorated cakes and cupcakes. For this recipe, how does one know how much flour to put in? I'm not good at preparing dough so I want to know what consistency to look for.Thank you.Zeyneb

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    Replies
    1. Hi Zeynep, for this recipe you cannot go wrong. If you like dense pogacas, go all the way and add 3 cups; however, if you like soft pogacas, add 2 1/2 cups. the ideal is that the dough is a bit soft that you cannot easily shape it in your hands.

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  17. I just made these and even though I used sour cream instead of yogurt and didn’t have any dill they are still so delicious! Your recipes are always great thanks so much.

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  18. Hi Burcu,

    For the 1/2 cup of butter, are you using 8 tbsp (1 stick) or the measuring cup? I look forward to trying this soon. I love savory/salty baked goods.

    Thank you.

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