Pogaca (Soft Turkish Breakfast Buns)
Pillowy, golden Turkish breakfast buns with a salty white cheese and parsley filling. This yogurt-enriched dough stays soft for days and freezes brilliantly.
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Ingredients
500g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
10g instant dry yeast (1 sachet)
200ml warm milk
100ml sunflower oil
125g thick natural yogurt
1 medium egg, plus 1 yolk for glazing
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
250g soft white feta cheese, mashed, for the filling
Half a bunch of parsley, finely chopped
1 tsp nigella seeds
1 tbsp sesame seeds
Instructions
- 1
Stir the yeast and sugar into the warm milk and let it foam for 5 minutes. Add the sunflower oil, yogurt and whole egg and whisk to combine.
- 2
Add the flour and salt and knead for 5-7 minutes until you have a soft, slightly tacky dough. Cover and leave in a warm spot for about 1 hour, until doubled.
- 3
Meanwhile, mash the feta with the chopped parsley for the filling.
- 4
Knock back the dough and divide it into 12 equal pieces. Roll each into a ball.
- 5
Flatten each ball into a palm-sized disc, place a heaped teaspoon of filling in the centre, then pinch closed and shape into a smooth oval, seam side down.
- 6
Arrange on a lined baking tray with space between them, cover loosely and rest for 20 minutes while the oven heats to 180C fan.
- 7
Brush the buns with the egg yolk mixed with a teaspoon of water, then sprinkle with nigella and sesame seeds.
- 8
Bake for 22-25 minutes until golden. Cool briefly under a clean tea towel to keep the crusts soft, and serve warm.
Pogaca are the soft, cloud-like buns that anchor every Turkish breakfast spread and every school lunchbox. Unlike flaky borek, pogaca are made from an enriched yeast dough with yogurt and oil, which keeps them tender and moist for two or three days. The classic filling is white cheese mashed with parsley, though olive paste and spiced potato versions are just as loved.
The dough is very forgiving and needs no fancy technique: mix, knead briefly, let it rise once, then shape. Turkish plain flour, instant yeast and a good thick yogurt are all you need, and a proper 55 percent fat soft feta makes the filling creamy rather than crumbly. Everything is available from Turkish Online Market with UK-wide delivery.
Bake a full dozen and freeze half once cooled; twenty seconds in the microwave brings a frozen pogaca back to just-baked softness. Serve them warm with sweet black tea, a spoonful of jam or honey on the side, and breakfast is sorted.
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