Turkish simit is the best breakfast in this world when accompanied by cheese, tomatoes, cucumber and a cup of tea. Although it’s one of the best street foods in the country, it’s possible to make it at home too.
What Is Simit?
Simit is a type of Turkish bread mostly eaten as a breakfast food. Well, it is known as the meal of the busy people or poor people because it is the cheapest street food in Turkey. We pair it with a cup of Turkish tea for breakfast and with the yogurt drink named ayran for lunch.
As for the meaning; the Turkish word simit got an entry in Oxford dictionary in 2019 and is described as follows: A type of ring-shaped bread roll originating in Turkey, typically coated with molasses and encrusted with sesame seeds before baking.
Oh and if you don’t have a single idea about this Turkish pastry, look for a store called Simit Sarayı around you. It is a chain store selling various types of simit all around the world. If you can’t find it, then you have to give this recipe a try at home!
Simit Bread For Breakfast
This is the best breakfast for many working people and students in Turkey. They mostly buy simit and cheese together either on the way to work/school or at their workplace/school. I’m a breakfast person (you know it already!), so I never leave home without having breakfast. However, I can’t take my eyes from the counter of the school canteen. We sometimes go to school with my officemate and he buys his breakfast from the canteen everyday saying “one simit and one cheese please!” They are selling small packages of cream cheese and it’s one of the best companions of freshly baked sesame simit.
Turkish Simit Ingredients
You don’t need many ingredients for a tasty simit. Here is the list of what you need:
For the Dough:
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tbsp dry instant yeast
- 1 ¼ cup warm water
For The Coating:
- 1 cup grape molasses
- ½ cup water
- 1 tbsp flour
- 2 cups sesame seeds
Pro Tip: The amount of protein in flour is very important to have the right flavor in simit, it must be 13 or more. We searched for the right flour at the market, but it wasn’t very easy, so we had to visit a few markets and finally found one with 14. Check out its label before buying!
How To Make Homemade Simit
It is sold everywhere here, people don’t prefer making it at home, it’s always easier to buy it prepared. We do love difficult things though! Simit at bakeries is made with white flour, but we used whole wheat flour, so ours are darker in color than the ones sold outside. So here are the instructions:
First, make the dough. Mix dry yeast with warm water and pour it on the flour.
Add in salt and combine them until smooth and non-sticky. If it’s too tough, use your hands and keep kneading. Cover it with a piece of wet cloth and wait about 20 minutes.
After 20-minute sleeping, it becomes bigger and softer.
Second, shape the dough. Roll it and make a big log from it. Cut it into 14 pieces to make 7 simits and give them a ball shape.
Roll two balls one by one and give them a thin and long sausage shape.
Did you use to play with dough as a kid? It’s fun, isn’t it? You can involve your kids in this step.
Make them in equal length.
Hello little caterpillar! Twist them around each other firmly.
Seal their edges very well with your fingers so that it doesn’t lose its circular shape.
Third, prepare the coating. Mix water, grape molasses and flour. Dip each into molasses mixture very well so that it is completely coated.
Coat them very well with sesame seeds. If sesame seeds are half roasted, it’s better.
Finally, place them on a baking sheet and bake in a preheated (420F/220C) oven about 20 minutes. They are tempting even unbaked, aren’t they?
Enjoy it at breakfast with typical Turkish breakfast foods and tea.
Ways To Eat Simit
You can eat it in several ways:
- Eat it as it is, just pairing it with a drink.
- You can prepare a sandwich. Cut it into two lengthwise. Place cheese, tomatoes and lettuce leaves in between. Or you can even make a chocolate sandwich with it. Just spread some nutella between two halves and enjoy!
- You can use chopped simit as a topping on your soup. You can even make croutons. Just heat simit pieces in a pan over the stove or in a baking sheet in oven until crunchy. Sprinkle some on your soup, you will love it.
- Just like crackers or tortilla chips, you can eat simit with your dips. Get a piece and dip it into spicy acuka sauce, hummus or cheese dips! YUM!
Other Bread Recipes
Other Savory Turkish Pastries
- Cheese Borek
- Pogacha Recipe
- Turkish Bread
- Cheese Bread
- Easter Bread
- Sigara Borek Recipe
- Kusbasili Pide Recipe Homemade
Homemade Turkish Simit
Crunchy street bread with an amazing flavor of roasted sesame seeds.
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
- Yield: 7 1x
- Category: Bread
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Turkish
Ingredients
- Dough:
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tbsp dry instant yeast
- 1 ¼ cup warm water
- Coating:
- 1 cup grape molasses
- ½ cup water
- 1 tbsp flour
- 2 cups sesame seeds
Instructions
- Mix dry yeast with warm water and pour it on flour.
- Add in salt and knead it until smooth and non-sticky.
- If it’s too tough, we your hands and keep kneading.
- Cover it with a piece of wet cloth and wait about 20 minutes.
- Roll it and make a log from it.
- Cut it into 14 pieces to make 7 simits.
- Roll two balls one by one and give them a thin and long sausage shape.
- Twist them around each other and seal their edges to make a circle.
- Repeat it for all dough balls.
- Mix water, grape molasses and flour.
- Heat oven at 420F/220C.
- Dip each simit dough first into molasses mixture and then sesame seeds.
- Place a baking paper on a tray.
- Put simit doughs on it and bake them about 20 minutes.
- Serve them with cheese, sliced tomato and cucumber.
Notes
Note: These ingredients make 7 simits.
Keywords: simit, bread, Turkish food, street food, simit recipe, turkish simit
How much salt should be added to the dough?
1 teaspoon salt is fine.
Great recipe. Very frustrating that adverts appear over the top of the recipe instructions. Badly designed webpage.
★★★★
Simit brings me back to my childhood in Egypt where we used to buy them from the street vendors….sometimes going to the cinema En Plein Air eating a simit with a slice of cheese or a hard boiled egg with salt and pepper. Loved eating them.
My question is making simit at home can I substitute molasses for vegetable oil.
Thank you,
Henry
How lovely memories! Well, molasses is for a bit sweetness and color. So vegetable oil won’t give the same effect.
Hi guys! Thank you for the recipe and the pictures! I made these with all purpose flour and they turned out great! I heated the leftovers in a non-stick pan and they tasted as if I had just made them. Will definitely make it again!
★★★★★
Hi Irene! So glad to hear that you loved this simit recipe! Heating it in a pan is what we do especially for our Sunday breakfast.
Such a wonderful recepie! By the way, the amount of salt is missing in the ingredients list! 😉
Do you think I could make these the night before up until the molasses and sesame seeds and then bake in the morning?
Never tried it that way Liz, but I think it’s ok to make the dough overnight. I sometimes make such yeast dough pastries the night before and fill it with something and bake the following day.
Interesting what you mention about the protein content of the flour. Here in the US flour has a much higher protein content than European flours, and I had a hard time figuring out why my German rolls didn’t turn out right (with a fluffy, pull-out crumb, instead of a chewy, baguette like one).
When I was in Hamburg last time, I looked for permez, but couldn’t find it. Here in the US there is (sadly) not much Turkish food, anyway.
Happy Baking!
I’m glad my usual breakfast has inspired you to cook it at home. I would ask you to cook and bring me some for a breakfast, but simit is delicious only if it is fresh, so I and Utku(he loves simit) will call on for a five o’clock tea on a Saturday.
Another important tip about simit: Simit+cheese+tea makes a breakfast, simit+ayran makes a lunch.
Enjoy it!
Erkin, we can make it for you and sweet Utku any time you want. Just call us before coming and your simit will be ready right when you come.
Thanks for additional info about simit+ayran.
Hi Zerrin,
The recipe is missing from the bottom of the page!
I’ve still never managed to find grape molasses here, only “regular” (sugarcane) molasses, and now I can get carob or pomegranate molasses…but no grape. 🙁
Thank you Stamatia for warning! I fixed it and now the recipe must be displayed.
As carob molasses has the same color and similar sweetness, I guess it works fine for this recipe, so you can use it.
Hi Zerrin..thanks for your reply! Over here in Malaysia we don’t produce molasses so i believe what we import are sugarcane molasses from the US. I think i will mak e more research on this hehe. Thanks!
Hello! These look so yummy! Could I substitute grape molasses with regular molasses?
Hi Hana,
I don’t know what regular molasses is, we have grape molasses here, which has a dark brown color and sweet flavor. We use it in this recipe especially for its color and quite little sweetness. If your regular molasses is the same, you can use it.
Regular molasses are a by product of producing whit sugar. They mix some of it back in with the sugar to make brown sugar.