Recipes From a Cookaholic: A Grandma Proved Recipe- Poğaça

French have croissants. We have poğaça (poh-ah-cha).

Poğaça is a savoury baked good kind of like a biscuit or a bread roll. Normally we eat the famous poğaça for breakfast. The freshly baked, warm and yummy poğaça is a sunday breakfast favourite or an easy "to go breakfast" if you trying to get to work in the Istanbul traffic.

My grandmother is the queen of baked goods. She is good at every single one. And I wanted to share this family recipe with you. It is one of our family classics.

There are many variations for poğaça. It can be plain or it can be more sophisticated: stuffed. There are many variations for the stuffing; cheese, olives, potato, spiced ground beef etc. However some people prefer to add some herbs to the dough as well like dill, oregano or any other fresh or dried herbs.

I like mine with potatoes. I know it sounds strange; potatoes in a bread. Doubled the carbs. But it is like eating a mashed potato in a bread roll. If I don't bake the potato one, I prefer with cheese or olives. Olive ones are also really yummy if you like a little bit of sour taste. If you are one of the people who try tasting new stuff, go ahead and create your own stuffing. This recipe can be adapted in to millions of versions. If you are one of the people you like the classics better, go enjoy the plain one. It is also very yummy.

So here is the recipe for a perfect poğaça:

Ingredients:

For the dough: 1 egg
1 tablespoons of greek yoghurt
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
100 g butter/margarine
1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vinegar
1/2 tablespoon baking soda
Flour (until a nice dough is formed, about 2 cups).

For the filling:
I used cheese (about 1 cup) Slice them and it is important for the cheese to be an easily meltable one.

For the top:
Black sesame seeds
1 egg yolk

Directions:
1) In a large mixing bowl, mix all the ingredients together for the dough. Continue adding flour until a nice dough is formed. The dough has to be fluffy.

2) Knead the dough and then transfer back to the mixing bowl. Cover the mixing bowl with a wet cloth and rest the dough for about 30 minutes to 1 hour.

3) Knead the dough again and then roll balls out of the dough as big as a walnut. Place the dough balls on the counter and then make the balls about 1 cm thick. You can use your rolling pin or your hand.

4) Then put the cheese on top of the doughs. Fold the dough in half and then close the edges so that the cheese does not melt outside onto the baking sheet. Transfer them to the baking sheet.