Simit
Simit differs from other bread rings in one step that changes everything: it is dipped in diluted grape molasses before it meets the sesame. The molasses does two jobs at once — it is the glue that holds the seeds on densely, and the sugar that caramelises in the oven and gives simit its characteristic dark, faintly sweet crust.
Your own work in that: 15 min.
- Dough 20 min
- Rising 75 min
- Twisting 25 min
- Molasses and sesame 15 min
- Resting 15 min
- Baking 40 min
Step by step
0 / 7 doneKnead an elastic dough
Mix the flour with the yeast, sugar and salt, then add the warm water and oil. Knead for 10 minutes, until smooth and springy. It must be well developed, because it is about to be stretched into half-metre ropes that cannot tear.
Ingredients: 500 g strong bread flour · 300 ml water · 7 g dried yeast · 1 tbsp sugar · 10 g salt · 3 tbsp oil
Rise for 75 minutes
Leave in an oiled bowl until doubled. In a warm kitchen it rises faster — start checking after an hour.
Ingredients: 500 g strong bread flour · 300 ml water · 7 g dried yeast · 1 tbsp sugar · 10 g salt · 3 tbsp oil
Stretch ropes and twist them in pairs
Divide the dough into 16 pieces and stretch each into a 50 cm rope. Twist them together two at a time, holding the ends and turning in opposite directions — only then join into a ring. The twist gives simit its characteristic spiral pattern and a slightly denser crumb.
Ingredients: 500 g strong bread flour · 300 ml water · 7 g dried yeast · 1 tbsp sugar · 10 g salt · 3 tbsp oil
Two ropes twisted in opposite directions.Seal the ring firmly
Join the ends, overlapping by 3 cm and pressing hard. A butt joint will open — only an overlap survives the dip in molasses, the sesame coating and the rise in the oven.
Ingredients: 500 g strong bread flour · 300 ml water · 7 g dried yeast · 1 tbsp sugar · 10 g salt · 3 tbsp oil
Dip in molasses and coat in sesame
Whisk the molasses with the water in a shallow bowl. Submerge the whole ring, shake off the excess and press it immediately into a tray of sesame, turning. There should be enough sesame that no dough shows — this is a coating, not a sprinkling.
Ingredients: 100 ml grape molasses · 150 ml water · 200 g sesame seeds
The sesame should hide the dough completely.Leave 15 minutes and bake at 220°C
Set the rings on two lined trays, wait 15 minutes, then bake one tray at a time for 18–20 minutes at 220°C, until deep brown. Keep the second tray somewhere cool meanwhile. The high heat is needed so the sugar in the molasses caramelises before the dough dries out inside.
Ingredients: 500 g strong bread flour · 300 ml water · 7 g dried yeast · 1 tbsp sugar · 10 g salt · 3 tbsp oil
Eat on the day
Cool on a rack and eat the day it is baked. Simit is crisp outside and soft inside for only a few hours — which is why in Istanbul it is bought fresh, most often for breakfast.
Ingredients: 500 g strong bread flour · 300 ml water · 7 g dried yeast · 1 tbsp sugar · 10 g salt · 3 tbsp oil
Before you start
Instead of pekmez
Cane molasses diluted 1:1.5 with water gives a similar result, if slightly more bitter. Diluted honey will also hold the sesame, but the crust comes out paler and without pekmez's characteristic note.
Raw sesame, not toasted
Toasted sesame burns during twenty minutes at 220°C and turns bitter. Raw sesame toasts in exactly that time, which is the whole design — simit smells of sesame because the sesame toasts on it.
Reheating
Sprinkle with water and put in a 200°C oven for 5 minutes. Never the microwave — the sesame softens and falls away, and the sesame is the point.
