Recipe video above. It's hard to get great pide outside of Turkey. It's hit and miss, even at many Turkish places. Solution: make it yourself! Pide is easier than you think, and it will tick all your pide boxes: pillowy soft bread inside with a crispy base, generous on the toppings. SO GOOD!Makes 2 pide around 40cm / 16" long. A generous meal for 2 people, normal meal for 3 people!TOPPINGS –Choose only 1. Each batch is enough to top 2 pides.
Bloom yeast: Mix yeast with 2 tbsp warm water and sugar in a small bowl. Cover with cling wrap, leave for 10 minutes until foamy.
Make dough: Mix together flour and salt in a large bowl or stand mixer bowl. Add the yeast mixture, olive oil and remaining 2/3 cups water. Mix together with a wooden spoon. Once the flour is mostly incorporated, switch to your hands and bring it together into a dough.
Knead: Sprinkle work surface with 1 tbsp flour, then knead for 8 to 10 minutes by hand OR 3 minutes on speed 6 of a stand mixer. Dough is kneaded enough when it's smooth and does not break when stretched - see photos video for before/after comparison. (Note 8)
Rise 1: Shape into a ball. Smear inside of used bowl with a bit of olive oil, place dough inside. Cover with cling wrap and rise in warm place for 1.5 hours, or until doubled in size. (Note 9)
Rise 2: Punch dough down to fully deflate, then divide into 2 equal pieces. Pull the sides down and tuck underneath so the top is smooth, underside is bunched up. Shape into ball and place on a lightly floured tray, smooth side up. Sprinkle surface with flour, then cover with damp tea towel. Rise 1 hour until doubled in size.
Assembling & Baking Pide:
Preheat oven to 240°C/465°F (220°C fan). Place shelf on the top and middle.
Roll: Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface into an oval shape 40cm/16" long and 20cm/8" wide (widest point).
Prepare 2 trays: Sprinkle 1/4 tsp semolina on each tray, 40cm/16" long and 15cm/6" wide. (Note 10)
Top Pide: Place a rolled out dough on the semolina. Sprinkle with cheese, then sprinkle chosen Topping evenly across the surface, leaving a 2cm / 4/5" border all around.
Fold dough: Brush the ends with water. Pinch ends together to seal then fold the sides of the pide in.
Bake: Bake 15 minutes, switching trays halfway, until the crust is golden.
Egg option: Bake pide for 10 minutes, then crack the egg on top and return to oven for 5 minutes. This applies to all Pide - egg can be added for any of them!
Top & Serve: Sprinkle with toppings of choice. (Note 11 for combos I used). Cut into 3cm / 1.3" slices and serve!
Spinach Topping:
Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Cook onion for 3 minutes until translucent. Add spinach, cook until just wilted (add in batches if necessary). Stir in cumin, salt & pepper. Cool before using.
Turkish Sausage Topping:
Roughly chop, then turn the sausage into mince (ground meat) by using a Nutribullet or food processor.
Lamb Topping:
Heat oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Cook garlic and onion for 3 minutes until soft. Add lamb and cook until it changes from pink to brown. Add tomato paste, Baharat, cumin, salt, pepper and cook for 3 minutes.
Add capsicum, tomato and lemon juice, then cook over medium heat until most of the liquid evaporates (a couple of minutes usually, though depends on juiciness of tomato). Cool before using.
Notes
1. Yeast - recipe works with dry active yeast too, but the bread is a bit softer with instant yeast. Also note, rapid-rise/instant yeast normally does not need to activated in warm water but during testing of our naan recipe we discovered that by blooming instant yeast, breads are softer (in some cases) than adding the instant yeast directly into the dough.If yeast does not go foamy in the blooming step, then your yeast is dead. Time to get another!To use normal active dry yeast, use the same quantity as instant yeast.2. Warm water - If you don't have a thermometer, the test is that it should be a temp you'd happily take a bath in. Not scorching hot - it kills the yeast. If too cold, yeast will not activate.3. Bread flour has a higher protein than plain/all purpose so breads have a nice chew/elasticity to them. I wouldn't make a special trip to get bread flour because it's still great with plain flour. But if making to impress, get bread flour!4. Kasar cheese - a Turkish cheese made from sheep's milk and sometimes a bit of goats milk mixed in, melts and stretches well. I got this from a Turkish grocery store. Sub with mozzarella - it is very, very similar.5. Sujuk sausage - Turkish beef sausage used for Pide. Substitute with chorizo - it's extremely similar in flavour intensity though flavouring itself is different. And it is made with pork not beef.6. Baharat spice mix - Middle Eastern spice mix, sold in ethnic specialty stores and also Harris Farms. (Australia, the Baharat spice sold at Woolworths is the wrong flavour!)Make your own Baharat spice mix - mix and measure out 1 tsp for recipe:
1 tsp paprika (not smoked)
1/2 tsp EACH ground cumin, coriander, cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp EACH ground cloves, cardamom
7. Turkish Tulum Cheese comes in a can and tastes like feta but slightly less salty and lasts longer once opened. I got this from a Turkish grocery store. Sub with feta.8. Dough - should be soft and a bit sticky, but not so sticky it gets stuck all over your hands. If it is, add a bit of flour. For stand mixer, dough should not be stuck on the walls of the bowl.9. How to promote dough rising – One of my favourite places to proof dough is in my dryer!!! Draught proof, easy to heat up a small space. Just run it for a couple of minutes, put the bowl in, close the door and leave it. Just don’t turn it on!10. Semolina - To replicate store bought pide which typically has semolina on the base for a bit of textural crunch. It's optional. The idea with sprinkling it on the tray is to avoid getting it on the folded sides of the dough, we just want it on the base (as best we can!).11. Finishes - any of these will work on any of the pide. Combinations I used:
12. Egg option - This is a nice optional extra, a version of traditional Pide that is baked with an egg on top! The egg can be added to any of the toppings. I've pictured it on Spinach Pide. Crack the egg on and bake it for the last 5 minutes in the oven. The yolk won't be runny, though if you're really keen for runny yolk just delay the adding of the egg to the last 3 minutes of bake time.13. Make ahead the day before: make the dough and do Rise 1. Then place the bowl in the fridge as is, ie do not punch it down. The dough will likely flatten. It can keep in the fridge for 2 days (probably longer, like other bread doughs). The day of, take dough out of fridge, cut, shape etc and do Rise #2 but add a layer of cling wrap on top of the damp tea towel. Plan to let it rise for 3 - 4 hours (time it will take for chill to come out of dough, then start rising). Proceed with recipe as written.14. Nutrition per pide, for Spinach Pide.