Pogaca - Turkish Cheese Puffs

After my post on the tea parties of my childhood, I started craving for one badly. So finally I gave up fighting my desires, summoned my Turkish girlfriends, asked one of them to bring her tea pot and threw myself a tea party.

I was determined to do it as traditional as possible so even though there was no kisir on the menu, we had simit, spinach borek, pogaca, bunt cake and pots of freshly brewed black tea. And we talked, gossiped and laughed about every subject that is important, from husbands to nail polish colours.

I confess, due to time constrains I had to take some shortcuts and made my pogaca with ready rolled shortcrust pastry instead of making the dough from scratch. The outcome tasted good and we all enjoyed the fake version but knowing the taste of the original neither my girlfriends nor I were fooled.

So the next weekend, I was in the kitchen again mixing butter and flour together and working a dough from scratch to make the real deal.

Pogaca is like a savoury and grown up version of the Kindersurprise chocolate eggs. You would never know what delicious filling is waiting for you inside until your first bite.

The most traditional fillings are feta & parsley, potato or minced beef. Some people prefer a modern twist and may include sausages & mozzarella, sucuk (Turkish salami) or olives.

The recipe below is with the feta & parsley filling, but very much like the Spanish empanada, what you want to hide inside this deliciously crunchy shell is limited by your imagination.

They can keep in the fridge for a few days and you can warm them up slightly on a frying pan before serving but in our house they never last more than a day. 

Pogaca (Turkish Cheese Puffs)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup sunflower or vegetable oil
1/2 cup Greek yoghurt
2 1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 heaped teaspoon baking powder
1 egg

For the filling:
250 gr feta cheese, crumbled
1/2 bunch parsley, finely chopped
Nigella or sesame seeds (optional)




Here is how:

Heat fan forced oven to 175 degrees.

Line a shallow baking tray with baking paper.

Separate the egg white and yolk. Place the yolk in a little bowl for using later.

In a large bowl, place the melted butter, oil, yoghurt, flour, salt, baking powder and the egg white. Mix them all until combined and knead into a soft, smooth and oily dough. It should feel a bit elastic when stretched.

In a separate bowl, mix the feta and parsley until combined.

Take walnut size pieces from the dough and place it in your palm. Press the dough with the fingertips of your other hand to form a 0.5cm thick flat round disk.

Place a spoonful of the cheese mixture on one half of the dough disk and flap over the other half on top of it. Then press the ends together, pulling the dough lightly, to seal in the filling. Place it on the baking tray. Repeat until all the dough it finished.

Brush the tops of the puffs with egg yolk and sprinkle with nigella or sesame seeds (if using).

Bake in the oven for about 25-30 minutes or until they are golden brown.

Cool them slightly and serve.

Afiyet olsun!