July Sourdough Surprises - Gozleme

This month's Sourdough Surprises theme was brought to us by one of the awesome cooks who bakes along with us each month. I love when that happens for two reasons. First, it's so awesome that we have such great, involved members! Second, it's usually something I never would have thought of before. Or, in this case, something I'd never even heard of before!

According to wikipedia, gozleme is a traditional dish in Turkey, consisting of a pastry dough, rolled out, filled with the toppings of your choice, folded over, and cooked on a griddle. From everything that I saw, the most traditional filling is spinach and feta cheese, but can really be anything.

If you do an online search for "sourdough gozleme," there really aren't many recipes that pop up. Sure people have done it before, and you'll find some great inspiration, but actual recipes for a traditional-style gozleme pastry? Couldn't find one.

Do we let that stop us?? No way!  Time to get creative.

For the pastry, I figured I'd need a flatbread style dough, and hopefully one strong enough to handle being rolled out, shaped and pan-fried.  I chose this sourdough pita bread recipe.

Very simple dough - flour, water, oil, salt, sugar (just a bit!) and starter.

And yes, I am using my soup pot as a mixing bowl. My real mixing bowls were already packed. I told you I had to get creative...

The dough comes together pretty easily, and is then set aside to rest until it's doubled in size.  Once it's ready, it's time to prepare the filling.

Inspired by the spinach and feta idea, but wanting to keep it a bit more... well... something little miss might enjoy, I went for the American version of that - broccoli and cheddar.

Yes, my graters were packed, too. So I had to chop my cheddar.

I rolled out circles of the dough, then piled on my toppings.

Then just fold them up and crimp the edges!

They kind of reminded me of calzones at the point, which I thought was pretty cool. But instead of baking these on my pizza stone, I cooked them in a pan right on the stove top.  About 10 minutes per side to make them nice and crispy.

And the results?

I definitely needed more filling, but other than that? These are awesome. Seriously. I don't know that the dough was as strong as it needed to be to hold up to the rolling, filling, crimping and movement to the pan, but it wound up flaky and delicious, with a slight sourdough tang, and the whole thing together, with the flaky crust and fun filling - it was great. I will definitely be making these again, and will try other fillings, too. I bet it would be tasty with all kinds of meats, veggies, cheeses... you name it!

I can't wait to see what everyone else chose!! So link up!

An InLinkz Link-up

Sourdough Gozleme
(dough from food.com, method inspired by The Witches Kitchen)

for the dough:
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sourdough starter, freshly fed
1 tablespoon olive oil
3/4-1 cup water

In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar and salt. Mix in oil and starter.  Slowly add in the water, about 2 to 3 tablespoons at a time, kneading until the dough is soft and elastic.
Grease a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat all sides. Cover dough with a dish towel and allow it to double in volume.

For the filling:
Get creative! I used broccoli (about 1/2 cup, total) and cheddar (about 1/4 cup, total) to fill mine (I filled only three, and made the rest unfilled), but I think they definitely needed more filling than that - so be creative and generous!

To make the gozleme:
Gently deflate the dough and divide it into approximately lemon-sized portions.
Roll each ball out into a circle about 8 inches around.
Put a generous scoop of filling onto one half of each round, then fold the un-filled half over the filling and crimp the edges to seal.
Heat a griddle or pan over medium heat and cook each pastry for about ten minutes per side, until they are golden brown.

Enjoy!