Gozleme

Sammi from Rozelle Markets shares her special gozleme recipe with Food Lovers Guide to Australia's Joanna Savill and Maeve O'Meara. Gozleme is a Turkish bread filled with a variety of ingredients, often feta and spinach, or minced meat.

Credit: Tammi Kwok

• makes

  6

• prep

  1:30 hour

• cook

  10 minutes

• difficulty

  Mid

Ingredients

Dough

• 2 cups (300 g) unbleached plain flour, plus extra to dust
• 2 cups (320 g) wholemeal flour 
• 1 tsp salt
• lukewarm water 
• ½ cup vegetable oil e.g.canola 

Filling

• 2 cups (200 g) grated feta (or a mixture of feta and mozzarella, cheddar or ricotta) 
• 2 cups silverbeet or spinach leaves, finely chopped and stems removed 
• ½ cup fresh mint leaves, chopped
• ½ cup flat leaf parsley, chopped
• ½ cup spring onion, chopped 
• ½ cup brown onion, diced
• 1 tsp white pepper 
• 1 tsp allspice 
• 1 tsp mixed dried herbs, such as oregano and sage 

Minced meat filling (optional)

• ½ kg lamb mince
• olive oil, to pan-fry
• 2 garlic cloves, minced 
• ½ tsp ground cumin 
• ½ tsp paprika (hot or mild)
• pickled or fresh red chillies (to taste)
• 1 medium carrot grated 
• ½ cup of pureed tomato or juice

Proving time 10 hours or overnight

You'll need to begin this recipe 1 day ahead

Instructions

1. To make the dough, sift the flours and salt. Mix with 1½ cups water in an electric stand mixer with a dough hook attachment, or knead by hand for at least 10 minutes. 
2. Keep adding more water, a little at a time, until you get a very pliable, elastic dough that is easy to knead, but not so watery that it is too sticky to handle. Rubber gloves dusted in flour make the handling easier. Dust frequently with the extra flour. 
3. Allow the dough to prove, covered, overnight (at least 10 hours).
4. When ready to cook, divide the dough into six round portions. Dust with flour. 
5. Dust a work surface with flour and roll one of the rounds flat with a rolling pin, into a rectangle shape as thinly as possible. 
6. Sprinkle on about 1 tsp of oil, then fold over into a square. Fold over twice more into a square. Repeat the dusting, rolling out to a large rectangle, folding, oiling, dusting process three more times. 
7. Repeat the entire process for each of the six rounds. You should end up with six neatly folded, labour-intensive squares! 
8. To fill and cook the gozleme, take one of the folded dough squares and roll it out very thinly for the final time, into a large square.  
9. Sprinkle on the filling sparingly, as you would for a pizza topping, but on half of the square only. Start with a layer of cheese. Mix the silverbeet, mint, parsley and spring onion together in a bowl, and add some of this as the next layer. Top with some of the herb-spice-onion mixture. 
10. If desired, add a little of the cooked savoury minced lamb mixture, as the last layer. (To prepare the lamb, pan-fry the mince in a little oil until browned, add the other ingredients and continue cooking until the carrot has softened. Add the tomato juice as the mixture begins to dry out. Continue to cook on a low heat for another 5 minutes.) 
11. Fold over the uncovered half of the square to cover the filling. Press down lightly all over. Cook on pre-heated oiled barbecue hot plate or large frying pan, but not too hot, because it should take about 10 minutes to cook through, without burning. Turn often. Cut into smaller squares and serve with lemon wedges.

 

Want more recipes like this? We recommend: 

• Must-have meze: lamb stuffed eggplant.

• 130+ Turkish recipes from kebab to köfte.

• Shane Delia's take: duck and mushroom gözleme.

• More silverbeet recipes, including pie and pide.

• An exotic fusion: our guide to Turkish cuisine.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.