Simit

Yesterday we had these lovely "simit" for breakfast. "Simit" that I make is a bit softer version of the traditional "simit" as I make the dough with milk and butter. Here is the recipe;

Ingredients;
200ml whole milk
100ml cold water
2 teaspoon fast-action yeast
75g unsalted butter
625 gr strong white flour (I have swapped 100 grams of this to wholemeal flour)
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon grape molasses
3 tablespoon sesame seeds


Boil half of the milk, then mix with rest of the milk and the water in a bowl and beat in the yeast and leave to dissolve 5 minutes.
Melt the butter.
Add the flour, honey and salt to the yeast mix then pour in butter and using your hands work everything to a rough but evenly mixed dough. In order to get a even softer dough you can adjust by adding some more water.
Cover and leave for 10 minutes, then lightly flour a patch of worktop and knead the dough for 10 seconds.
return the dough and leave to rise until doubled in size roughly for an hour.
You can repeat the 10 second kneading twice within this one hour.

Shaping;
Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces.
Take a piece and divide into two and roll each half into 20 cm long rope.
Hold down one end of the rope with one hand while twisting it with the other. 
Then form this twisted rope into ring, pressing and rolling the overlapping ends together on the work surface with one hand to seal. 
Place on a greased baking sheet and let rest until rise by half about 15 minutes.
Mix the grape molasses with 6 table spoon of water and put the sesame seeds on a plate.
Once risen take them off the sheet and dip the top side into the grape molasses water mixture and then roll the topside in the sesame seeds. Then put back in the baking sheet.
Repeat for each and bake  at about 220C (200C fan-assisted)/425F/gas mark 7 for 20-25 minutes, just until they're risen and coloured on top.
Enjoy with some cheese and tomato and a cup of tea.