🇹🇷 Türkiye
Simit
Simit · sesame bread rings
The sesame-crusted ring bread sold from every Turkish street cart — twisted ropes of dough dipped in grape molasses, rolled thick in sesame, and baked deep golden.
Serves makes 8
Photo to come
Ingredients
- 500g / about 4 cups plain flour
- 3 tsp dried yeast · 1 pinch sugar · 1½ tsp salt
- About 1½ cups lukewarm water
- Coating
- ½ cup pekmez (grape molasses), thinned with a little water
- 150g golden sesame seeds
Method
- Bloom the yeast, then mix and knead a smooth, elastic dough and let it rise until doubled.
- Divide, roll each piece into a long rope, fold in half and twist the two strands together, then join into a ring.
- Dip each ring in the thinned grape molasses until fully coated, letting the excess drain.
- Press and roll in sesame until you can’t fit another seed.
- Rest 20 minutes to puff, then bake hot until deep golden. Best eaten the day it’s made.
The family table
Grape molasses (pekmez), the boiled-down grape syrup, is non-negotiable — it gives simit its brown color, earthy sweetness, and the tack that makes the sesame stick. The classic street lunch is a simit with a wedge of white cheese, or with a bottle of ayran. Sources split on the dough: the traditional street simit is lean like this one, while some home bakers enrich it with egg and cream for a softer roll.
Yumma
Middle Eastern home cooking, organized by country. Your family’s version is the one that counts.