Simit and Ramazan pidesi: leavening, molasses dipping, sesame coating and oven technique

Two icons of the Turkish oven

Ask anyone what Turkey smells like in the morning and the answer is simit (sesame-crusted bread ring); ask what it smells like on a Ramadan evening and the answer is Ramazan pidesi (the round, lattice-scored Ramadan flatbread). Both are leavened wheat breads finished with sesame, and both are ruined by skipping one core step. Simit lives or dies by its grape-molasses dip; Ramazan pidesi lives or dies by its slack, high-gluten dough and a very hot, steamy deck. This dossier gives working bakers the authentic method for each, with the numbers drawn from Turkish trade sources and from Domson's own supplier spec sheets. See image img-b2sp-01 for the regional map and img-b2sp-06/img-b2sp-09 for what "right" looks like.

A quick side-by-side is in data.json → table-simit-vs-pide.

Part 1 — Simit

What it is, and where it comes from

Simit is a ring — halka biçiminde — of stiff, strong-flour dough, usually formed by twisting or braiding two rolled strands together (burma/örgü) before joining the ends. The name descends from the Arabic samīd ("fine white flour"); the compound simid-i halka already appears in 16th–17th century Ottoman records, and Evliya Çelebi's 17th-century Seyahatnâme describes giant ring simits sold in Istanbul before production settled on the smaller everyday rings we know today. It is street food and tea-time food in equal measure (img-b2sp-07).

The regional map and its geographical indications

Simit is not one bread but a family with registered geographical indications (mahreç işareti) at the Turkish Patent Office. The practical, buy-and-bake map lives in data.json → table-regional-simit:

• Ankara Simidi (GI reg. no. 235) — its specification fixes the ingredients as un, maya, su, tuz, üzüm pekmezi ve susam (flour, yeast, water, salt, grape molasses and sesame) and requires conformity with the Turkish Food Codex and the TS 10626 Simit Standard. That official list is the cleanest proof that the molasses dip is not a home shortcut — it is the defining, standardised step.
• Kastamonu Simidi (GI reg. no. 435), Manisa Taban Simidi (baked on the oven floor, taban), Samsun Simidi, İzmit Simidi — further registered regional rings.
• Rize Simidi — distinguished by a dip in a fragrant local grape molasses (yöreye özgü kokulu üzüm pekmezi).
• İzmir gevreği — the Aegean name for simit, thinner and crisper. Its name is often linked to Balkan migration around the 1930s (compare gjevrek) — a popular etymology worth flagging as contested, since the gevrek/gjevrek form is attested in the Balkans well before then; see img-b2sp-08.
• Kandil simidi — a smaller, crunchier, biscuit-like sesame ring eaten around the kandil religious nights. The traditional version cited here is a leavened (mayalı) dough enriched with mahlab (mahlep); note that many modern kandil-simidi recipes are instead chemically leavened (baking powder).

The dip, not a boil (the one thing bakers get wrong)

Newcomers assume simit is boiled like a bagel or Poland's obwarzanek (see B2-bread-landscape and the Polish B1-obwarzanek-and-scalded-doughs for the scald-and-boil family). It is not. The shaped ring is dipped in pekmezli su — grape molasses thinned with water at roughly 1:1 — and then pressed straight into a generous bed of sesame while still wet (img-b2sp-02). Two things happen in the oven:

1. Colour and gloss. Grape molasses is loaded with reducing sugars (glucose and fructose). On the crust these drive Maillard browning and caramelisation, giving simit its unmistakable dark mahogany, glossy shell — a heat-chemistry story covered in A5-baking-oven-science. A boil, by contrast, only gelatinises surface starch: a different mechanism and a paler result (img-b2sp-03).
2. Adhesion. The sticky syrup cements the sesame so it does not shed after baking.

A precision note on "never boiled": the point is that simit is not cooked in water the way a bagel or obwarzanek is — the ring goes straight from dip to oven. The dip itself is not always cold: some regional specifications (e.g. Kastamonu Simidi) describe passing the ring briefly through a hot molasses-water bath to set colour and coating. That is still a coating step, not a cook-in-water boil, so the distinction holds — just don't read "dip" as strictly cold.

Use roasted sesame (kavrulmuş susam) for the deepest flavour and colour. A note on sourcing: the catalogue's spec'd Sesame Seeds 25 kg is a hulled (dehulled, whiter) grade, whereas traditional simit favours natural/unhulled sesame for a browner crust — so treat hulled as a workable substitute and reach for a natural-sesame line where you want the classic look. Sesame handling, toasting and allergen control are the subject of A7-seeds-nuts-toppings.

A working simit formula

The full teaching formula in baker's percentage is in data.json → formula-simit; it is an indicative baseline synthesised from cited Turkish street-simit sources, not a protected GI recipe. The essentials: a strong wheat flour at 100%, water kept low (~55–58%) so the dough is stiff and holds its twist, ~2% fresh yeast (or ~0.8% instant), ~1.5% sugar and ~1% salt; ferment about 1 hour; shape, dip, coat, and bake hot (~220–240 °C for ~25 minutes) in craft ovens — commercial simit ovens run hotter and faster. Baker's-percentage thinking is explained in A8-bakers-percentage-fundamentals, and this lean four-ingredient logic sits alongside the lean breads in A8-lean-bread-formulas. When it goes wrong, use data.json → faults-simit.

Part 2 — Ramazan pidesi

What it is (and what the law says)

Ramazan pidesi is the large, soft, glazed flat round bought fresh for iftar throughout Ramadan, scored into the diamond baklava dilimi ("baklava-slice") lattice and showered with sesame and nigella (img-b2sp-09, img-b2sp-10). Under the Turkish Food Codex (Türk Gıda Kodeksi) bread communiqué it is classified as sade pide ("plain pide") and, like bread, may be made from only flour, water, yeast and salt — everything else (sugar, glaze, seeds) is finish, not substance. (This classification is cited from the 2012 Ekmek ve Ekmek Çeşitleri Tebliği, which has since been amended — confirm against the in-force communiqué before treating it as a current legal definition.)

Flour first: go strong

Turkish millers grade flour by job — ekmeklik (bread), böreklik (börek), baklavalık (baklava/phyllo) — and both simit and pide want a strong / high-gluten bread grade for chew and gas retention (the strength story is in A1-protein-gluten-and-strength, and flour-by-application in A1-wheat-flour-types-by-application; the Turkish grades themselves are detailed in the sibling article B2-flour-and-milling). Domson's Windrush Strong White Bread Flour is the closest catalogue match: its datasheet gives protein 12.0–12.5%, Hagberg falling number 250–400 s and water absorption 55–61% — strong, sound, and thirsty enough for a wet pide dough. Domson White Strong Wheat Flour is a solid everyday alternative; Wheat Flour Type 550 (wet gluten 28–32%, falling number ≥220 s) will work if a dedicated strong flour is not to hand, though it is a touch weaker. See data.json → table-flour-choice.

Two honest routes (choose by your schedule)

There is no single "correct" hydration or yeast dose for Ramazan pidesi — there are two legitimate production philosophies, and a good bakery picks by throughput and oven. They are laid out in data.json → table-pide-two-approaches and img-b2sp-05:

• Professional / same-day (Pakmaya trade formula). Per 1 kg high-gluten flour: 800–850 ml water (80–85% hydration), 30 g fresh yeast (or 20 g instant, or 30 g sourdough starter), 15 g salt (1.5%) and about 20 g sugar. Bulk-ferment in the trough, then a second proof in a controlled proof/steam room. This is the route for Ramadan volume. Full card: formula-ramazan-pidesi-pro.
• Slow artisan / overnight. 74% hydration (250 g strong white + 20 g wholemeal flour, 200 g water), an ultra-low ~0.3 g dried yeast per 270 g flour (~0.11%), 7 g salt, and a 15–18 hour room-temperature first rise for flavour without a proof room. Full card: formula-ramazan-pidesi-slow.

A note on the numbers: the ultra-low-yeast, 74% figure is a single-source artisan approach — excellent for flavour, but not the trade norm. The professional standard runs wetter and much yeastier. Both are shown so you can pick deliberately rather than copy one blindly. The fermentation trade-offs behind this choice are covered in A2-yeast-types-comparison and A2-yeast-fermentation-science.

Shaping, glazing and the lattice

Flatten each piece by hand into a round or oval. Brush with a glaze — options are egg yolk, whole egg, a flour-and-boiling-water paste, or yoghurt — then, on the fully proofed dough, press the signature baklava-lattice with perpendicular finger-dimpling (dimple firmly, right to the base, or it bakes out flat). Scatter sesame + nigella (çörek otu, Nigella sativa) and load the oven (img-b2sp-04). Reading proof correctly — the difference between a springy lattice and a collapsed one — is the subject of A5-proofing-science.

The oven

Ramazan pidesi needs a very hot deck with steam: stone, matador or rotary ovens at ≥250 °C (a home baker on a stone can push to ~300 °C). Bake time is short — 5–6 minutes on a hot stone, or 12–15 minutes in a standard oven — long enough to set the crumb and colour the glaze without drying the loaf. Steam and heat management follow the same principles as any lean, high-hydration bread (A5-baking-oven-science). Faults and fixes: data.json → faults-pide.

Buy the ingredients (Domson catalogue map)

Everything above maps to stocked products; first-party spec figures are in sources.json and summarised in data.json → key_specs.

• Sesame (susam). Sesame Seeds 25 kg — the spec'd line is hulled (631 kcal, 61.2 g fat and 20.5 g protein per 100 g; declares the sesame allergen; 12-month shelf life). For the classic dark simit look, prefer a natural/unhulled sesame line where available.
• Nigella (çörek otu). Black Seeds 5 kg — the traditional companion topping on Ramazan pidesi.
• Grape-molasses dip. Authentic simit uses üzüm pekmezi (grape molasses); it is the flavour- and colour-correct dip. Where genuine pekmez is not stocked, Molasses Sugar dissolved in water, or a dilute solution of EDME dried malt extract (90 g carbohydrate/100 g, 81 g of it sugars; colour 15–30 °EBC), can stand in for the browning role — flag these as substitutes, not equivalents.
• Strong flour. Windrush Strong White Bread Flour (best fit), Domson White Strong Wheat Flour, or Wheat Flour Type 550 at a pinch.
• Yeast. Fresh Yeast Benevia or Fresh Yeast Traditional (fresh, yaş maya); Dried Yeast Pakmaya — the Turkish market's benchmark brand, immediately familiar to Turkish bakers — or Dried Yeast Fermipan Red for the instant/low-dose overnight route. Store fresh yeast at 1–10 °C (best-before ~35 days).
• Salt. Sea Salt Extra Fine (NaCl ≥99.5%) — fine grade dissolves quickly into a stiff simit or slack pide dough.

Food-safety and allergen flags (for human review before publication)

• Sesame is a declarable allergen (EU Regulation 1169/2011 Annex II, item 11; retained in UK law) and is intrinsic to both products — always declared.
• Cereal gluten (wheat) is intrinsic to both breads (Annex II item 1); any barley-based malt extract used as a browning stand-in adds barley gluten and carries a "may contain wheat" same-line note on its datasheet.
• Egg and milk from the Ramazan pidesi glazes. The traditional glaze options include an egg-yolk or whole-egg wash — declarable EGG (Annex II item 3) — and a yoghurt glaze (plus, in some recipes, a melted-butter wash) — declarable MILK (Annex II item 7). Whichever glaze you run must be captured on the finished-product declaration. (Simit, being lean, carries neither unless you glaze it.)
• The catalogue sesame is hulled (dehulled with a sodium-hydroxide processing aid, E524, a non-declarable processing aid) — a substitution vs traditional natural sesame.
• Fresh yeast carries a supplier note that SO2/sulphites (Annex II item 12) are present in the molasses used during yeast production — check your allergen declaration. Fresh yeast also needs a genuine cold chain: store 1–10 °C (optimum 4 °C).
• The Windrush strong flour datasheet carries a "may contain soya" cross-contamination note.
• Molasses Sugar / dried malt extract are proposed only as browning stand-ins for grape molasses; confirm ingredient declarations if you use them.
• Acrylamide awareness (process note): the sugar-rich, high-heat molasses crust is a classic Maillard/acrylamide-forming context — commercial bakers should apply the usual mitigation good-practice (Reg (EU) 2017/2158) and avoid over-baking to very dark colour.

All numeric, allergen and food-safety claims are itemised with their sources in sources.json; each fact in this article carries a citation, and the verification status is recorded in the frontmatter verification block.