Sesame Pogača

Although the sesame pogača is just a simple homemade bread, it looks particularly appealing whether on a festive table or just for everyday consumption. They are tender, nutty and are typically made from a yeasted dough and feature a generous topping of sesame seeds. If you like, you can fill the buns with cheese, meat or potatoes. There are many techniques for shaping the dough which make each one unique.
Pogača is a beloved bread/pastry found across Turkey and the Balkans. While Balkan and Turkish pogača share the same linguistic root and are deeply intertwined, they differ in size and texture. Turkish Poğaça is typically made as a palm-sized, individual bun, commonly stuffed with feta, meat or potato, while in the Balkans (Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, etc.), pogača is typically a large, festive, shareable round of leavened bread, often decorated or layered with cheese and folded into intricate shapes. They are often baked plain, but filled versions do exist, usually stuffed with cottage cheese or meat.

Dough	Glaze
20 g Fresh yeast 1 tbsp Sugar 150 ml Lukewarm water 600 g Plain flour 2 tsp Mahleb 150 ml Lukewarm milk 1 Egg white ½-¾ tsp Sea salt 50 g+40 g Butter, softened White sesame seeds	1 Egg yolk 1 tbsp Milk

In a bowl, dissolve the fresh yeast and sugar in 150ml of warm water. Set aside for 10 minutes until frothy.
In the bowl of your mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine together flour, mahleb, milk, egg white, sea salt, 50 g softened butter and the yeast mixture. Mix to form a rough dough ball at slow speed. Increase the speed and knead until the dough has become elastic and smooth. Leave the dough in the bowl in a warm place, covered with a towel, for one hour or until it has doubled in volumn.
Line the bottom of a 26-28cm springform pan with parchment paper and lightly grease the side. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F.
Turn out the dough on a clean, very lightly floured work surface. Divide the dough into 8 portions of 65 grams, 3 portions of 100 grams, 1 portion of each 125 grams and 60 grams. Shape each portion of 65 g-dough into a ball. Dip the dough ball briefly in a small bowl of water. Immediately drop it into a shallow bowl filled with white sesame seeds. Repeat with the remaining 7 dough balls and arrange them around the pan.
Roll each 100 g-dough into a 20cm round. Brush 20 grams of softened butter on the round and top with one more dough round and brush with the remaining 20 grams of butter. Finally cover it with the last dough round. Cut the dough into 8 wedges. Divide each dough wedge into 3 strips, leaving the top connected. Braid them together. Place it between the sesame dough balls in the pan.
Shape the 120 g-dough into a ball. Dip the dough with water, then coat with sesame seeds. Set aside. Roll the 60 g-dough into a rectangle and use a lattice cutter to cut the dough into an expandable woven pattern. Use this to cover the 120-g dough. Trim and tuck the sides under the dough and place it in the middle of pogaca.
Mix the egg yolk and milk together in a small bowl. Gently brush the surface of pogaca with the glaze and bake in the middle of hot oven for 35 minutes until golden.