Ramazan pidesi, Turkish leavened bread traditionally eaten during the evening meals of Ramadan — a month in which Muslims strictly fast from sunup to sundown — is light, chewy and covered in sesame and nigella seeds. Turkish pizza maker Serhan Ayhan of Astoria, Queens-based pizza popup Next Level Pizza created a version of the bread that cooks up in either an Ooni oven or a home oven. Glazed with egg and yogurt and dimpled in a criss-cross design, this is a bread that deserves to be the centrepiece of your iftar (the evening meal that ends the day’s fast).
In order to make a pidesi recipe that’s versatile, Serhan provides a few different options for cooking. Yeast, salt and temperature can all vary slightly depending on your preferences.
Designed to work whether you prefer sourdough or instant yeast, Serhan’s recipe includes techniques for both. If baking with sourdough starter, you’ll need to add one day to the recipe time, as you’ll have to make a levain (a mixture of water, flour and sourdough starter) and leave it to pre-ferment overnight before adding it to the rest of the mix.
You can change the amount of salt you add to the recipe-anything between 15 to 20 grams will work-but keep in mind that the less salt used the more slack this dough will be. Serhan prefers diluting the salt in about 25g of the recipe’s water and adding it after the initial mix.
Finally, there’s room to play with the temperature of your oven, anywhere from 230° to 315°C. Pidesi baked at a higher temperature (290° to 315°C) may be done in 4 to 6 minutes and yield a softer bread with nice charring, whereas the same dough baked at a lower temperature (230° to 290°C) may be done in 6 to 12 minutes (or longer) and yield a crispier bread that has an even, golden brown crust.
This recipe is featured in “This Ramazan Pidesi is an Iftar Centerpiece.”
