SESAME RINGS
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SESAME RINGS
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I wasn’t planning on doing a whole separate page for Sesame Rings, because in all honesty, Sesame Rings were always just an after thought. They just happened. They were the result of left over pizza dough and good, significantly over proofed, dough. You already have the formula on the Sourdough Pizza Page Here. Once you have that, it is just about the process..and the process is simple.
First things first: Go to the link below and make pizza dough.
pizza dough formula
Sesame Rings are made with this dough. It is a mix of water, sourdough levain, honey, olive oil, flour and salt. I would suggest maybe leaving the olive oil out of this mix if you are looking to just make sesame rings. I think the olive oil in unnecessary for the purpose of sesame rings. That is how I originally ran my pizza dough years ago. It was just my country sourdough recipe with added honey. You decide what works for you.
PROCESS:
Mix your dough and follow the directions for fermenting and shaping out your pizza rounds. You can scale these rounds to any size you would like depending on what kind of ring you are going for. It can be a full loaf size ring or a smaller version that resembles a bagel.
Once the bread rounds are shaped and placed on a floured tray, cover with plastic wrap and retard in the fridge overnight. Pull from the fridge a couple of hours before you are ready to bake so the dough can warm up and proof out significantly.
Before baking, prep out your sesame seed operation. I usually use two round cake pans. One is for the boiling water with barley malt syrup. The other is for your sesame seeds with coarse salt. This process is slightly similar to bagels except we are not boiling our dough. Instead we are getting our water really hot for a quick dip situation. The water and malt syrup will aid in getting the sesame seeds to stick, along with add a nice rich color and flavor to the baked bread.
When ready to bake: Take a piece of dough, dip it into the water and malt syrup, then dip into the sesame seeds and heavily cover on both sides. Place the dough onto a board if you are baking on a stone or onto a sheet pan if you are not. Poke your two thumbs down into the center to make a hole and stretch the dough into a ring. When it bakes it will puff up so you want to make sure your hole is big enough that it keeps in the oven and doesn’t just fill in.
Once you have your rings, bake them on high heat like you would a pizza or your country sourdough loaves: roughly 500 degrees F. Bake until dark golden and delicious.
Sesame Rings are closely related to the Simit Bread of Turkey. I don’t call them Simit because I was unaware of Simit Bread when I first made them. I don’t think the dough is the same but it is my variation. I also don’t twist the dough before making them into rings but I suppose you could with this dough if the hydration was slightly lower.
Simit is known as the Turkish Bagel. It is chewy and dense with a heavy coating of sesame seeds . It is mainly eaten with butter, cream cheese, or feta and accompanied with olives , sliced cucumbers and tomatoes with a drizzle of olive oil.
Simit has it’s origins in the Byzantine empire where it was called Boukellon or Kollikion. It has been described as a ring shaped bread made of barley or wheat flour and popular among the army. It was first mentioned in 19th century by Constantine VII Porphyrogennitos who described it as a small ring shaped bread sold in Constantinople. Today in Greece it is called Koulouri. Simit has been produced in Istanbul since 1552. There were said to be seventy simit bakeries in Istanbul during 1630’s. Simit is an important symbol for lower or middle class people of turkey and in Egypt it is eaten with hard boiled eggs and an herb mixture called Duggar. It is used to break the fast with yoghurt and buttermilk in mosques in Mecca and Medina.
I usually eat my rings fresh from the oven with melted butter.
If they aren’t fresh from the oven they are good sliced, buttered and broiled up like a bagel. Then you do the cream cheese thing and chives.
I have also made good sandwiches with this bread.
And if you want to go a little further, you can use this dough and process to make Bialy. For this I wouldn’t make a hole straight through the dough but, instead, an indentation. Fill with cream cheese, poppy seeds and top with a quick sauteed shallot or onion and herbs. Bake off. They are delicious.
Have fun and get creative. You have all the doughs now in the Sac(k) to mix and match and make things happen. Sesame Rings are a perfect example of how we can adapt our regular doughs to different moods and processes and come out with great success!
