What is what in a Turkish bakery

They buy a lot of bread in Turkey.

No, it’s not.

Turks buy a fantastic amount of bread. A lot. 10 loaves per family per day! It is not very clear whether everything is eaten, because in some families there are 2, 3, or even 4 yesterday’s loaves. But no one eats them – they go for fresh ones.

They bake great here. But how to understand the variety of pastries on the counter of a Turkish bakery? Here is a quick guide.

Ekmek is “bread” in Turkish, a long loaf or loaf.

Types of bread:

• Regular wheat – so be it – “ekmek”. There are two types: the sharp-nosed “village” is coarser, and the “urban” one is with rounded humps and a more airy dough. “It doesn’t look like) -” chavdar ekmei “.
• Whole grain -“there tahilli ekmek.”

Lavash – in bakeries, they mean thick porous lavash just from the oven. Thin pita bread can be found in supermarkets.

Attention! Some bakeries sell rolled semi-finished yufka dough, it looks like thin pita bread, but it is not eaten raw. This is a semi-finished product for baklava and bereks (more on them below).

Simit – the famous Turkish bagel with sesame, needs no introduction. It is usually eaten with kaimak, with melted cheese (peynir cream) or with nutella.

Achma and poacha are two types of Turkish breakfast buns. The difference between them is not particularly fundamental, the yeast dough is both there and there, but there is much more oil in the achma.

Both achma and poach are baked with different fillings:

• With potatoes (patatesli)
• With cheese (kasharly) – there is very little cheese; if you are expecting something like a hot sandwich, don’t expect it from buns, just order a toast with cheese, they are made in bakeries
• With cheese (peynirli)
• With meat (kyymal )
• With sesame paste (takhinli)
• With olives (zeytinli)
• With dill (dereotlu)
• Without stuffing (sade)

Berek – puff pastry of the most unexpected shapes: roses, sticks, squares … The fillings are about the same as we have listed above.

Separately goes su berek – wet berek is a wet puff pastry with a lot of cheese and salted cottage cheese, baked on large rectangular baking sheets and cut into squares. There are also a variety of confectionery pleasures, but about them another time.