Turkish Bread

Our bread machine got another work out this morning.  Just before breakfast I popped downstairs, quickly threw all the ingredients in the machine and started it up.

Just over an hour later it beeped several times to let me know it had finished.  So later when I came downstairs, there was my dough ready to use.

Teena and I both like Turkish Bread, but it's not something we have very often.  Probably because it's expensive compared to other bread.  I had planned to make Teena Eggs Benedict this morning because it's her favourite breakfast dish, and thought some Turkish Bread would go really nicely with it.

Ingredients
180 ml water
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tbspn sugar
1 tspn salt
300g flour
2 tspn dried yeast

That's the ingredients for my machine anyway.  It may differ for others I suppose.  Anyway, once the dough is ready, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface.  Divide it into three equal quantities, then shape each one into an oval and place them onto some backing paper. Using your finger, poke holes in the top of each one.  Cover with a tea towel and place in a warm spot for 15 minutes.  Preheat oven to 230°C.  Place baking trays in oven to heat them up.

Now...  this part I had a little bit of trouble with.  Supposedly, after the 15 minutes, you are supposed to carefully pick each one up and stretch it out to 30-35cm.  Mine was a bit too sticky though and I had trouble getting it off the baking paper.  The recipe said not to add extra flour as it should be nice and soft.  I had even sprinkled some flour under each one before I put it onto the baking paper.  Part of the problem may have been the cheap baking paper we have as I've had problems with it before.  Teena has promised to get some better quality paper for next time.

I managed to stretch it out in the end, though one of the portions was way too sticky and I had to reshape it once I got it off the paper.  It still came out ok though.  Once stretched, brush or spray with some olive oil, and sprinkle with salt.  Place the bread and baking paper onto the hot oven trays and bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

I baked each one separately as I was also making Eggs Benedict at the time.  For the last one I sprinkled some dried basil leaves on it for some extra flavour.

They turned out really nice, very soft and tasty.  It was really nice with the Eggs Benedict, but I will post about that later!  We had some for lunch later on as well as it makes a really nice sandwich.