Fresh From The Oven - Turkish Pide

I have been a bad Fresh From The Oven baker.  I've missed the last two months for one reason or another, and I am actually really annoyed with myself for not being better organised to get them done.  I missed Croissants and Neapolitan Pizza!  [Hanging my head in shame] I would have liked to try my hand at both of these recipes.

But I did manage this months challenge, Turkish Pide.  Pei Lin a.k.a Mrs Ergül picked this months recipe which is a traditional bread that is used to break Ramadan.  After reading Mrs Ergül's notes on the recipe I decided to take a cautious approach, I didn't want any more wasted food in my kitchen.  Thankfully the recipe was pretty open to interpretation and that combined with caution resulted in a fluffy, almost focaccia like bread that helped perk up my boring~thrown~together~on~a~whim~Sunday~night~dinner.  It goes really well with Mustard and Onion Relish too :0)

Turkish Pide
4 cups plain flour
1 and 3/4 cups warm water (I ended up not using all the water, Mrs Ergül advised that her dough was very wet and sticky which made it very tricky to knead, I reserved maybe 1/4 cup)
57g unsalted butter, melted
7g instant yeast
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tbsp salt
Black and white sesame seeds, for the topping (do you think I could find my sesame seeds!  I ended up using sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper)

In a large mixing bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients.  Add the melted butter and warm water into the dry mixture and knead. (No instructions were given to knead for a specific time so I plumped for 10 mins as a general rule of thumb).  The dough should be sticky.

Place the dough back in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Keep it in a warm place for rising  Let the dough rise to double its size (about an hour).

Knead the dough again until it is bubble free (I kneaded this time for about 5 mins).  Place some parchment paper on a 13" by 10.5" baking tray.  Place the dough to the tray and flatten it with your hands until it covers the surface of the tray.  Dampen your hands with water if the dough sticks to your hands on this step.  Then take a knife and mark the dough into squares, ensuring the cuts are deep but don't cut straight through the dough.  Sprinkle some sesame seeds on top.

Preheat the oven to 180C.  Let rise the dough for half an hour then bake it for 30 minutes or until the color of pide turns light brown.  Take the pide out of the oven and let it cool for 20 minutes and cover it with a clean kitchen towel to keep it soft.

Makes 1 loaf