Blue Cheese Onion Jam and Rosemary Turkish Bread

This is my take on a traditional style Turkish bread that you can bake on its own or with a delicious filling. I generally do a mixture of plain and stuffed Turkish bread. I find the combination of Blue Cheese Onion Jam and Rosemary absolutely wicked.

Ingredients

• blue cheese
• onion jam
• rosemary
• 1280g baking flour
• 75g oil
• 12g dried yeast
• 25g salt
• 25g sugar
• 950g chilled water
• egg wash

Method

Mix flour with salt and sugar. Add the water and oil together and slowly pour into the flour mixture before mixing together. Add the yeast and then mix until a dough has formed. Turn out onto a floured surface then knead gently for 8 minutes or in an electric mixer on fast speed for 10 minutes. This is to develop the strength in the dough.

Place in an oiled bowl and cover with cling film. Allow to rest for 30 minutes in a warm place.

Once the dough has rested tip back on to the bench and fold all four sides of the dough back into the centre. Return to the bowl and rest for another 20 minutes. This is called knocking back and is a very important step as we are developing strength in the dough which will give you what I like to call a ‘really great oven jump’. It will also help the bread to hold its shape in the oven.

After the last rest period, rub the surface of a clean bench with a little chilled water and tip the dough onto it. Scale your piece at 180g to 190g and allow to sit for ten minutes. Then flatten the pieces to your desired shape add a good amount of blue cheese, onion jam and fresh rosemary and fold over to seal the ingredients inside. Brush the outside of the bread with egg wash and sprinkle with white and black sesame seeds.

Preheat an oven to 200 degrees. Allow to rest until the bread has risen by half then place in the pre-heated oven on fan bake, dropping the oven to 180 degrees. Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown and cooked.

To serve

Serve warm with your favourite olives and olive oil - or just on its own.

John Hawkesby’s wine recommendation

Riesling
John Forrest Collection 2007

Gewurztraminer
Johanneshof 2010