Boyoz Bread Recipe

Boyoz is a particular kind of pastry that originates from Turkey.

It’s a light and fluffy ball which when translated to English literally means “bundle.”

It was originally only prepared by Jewish bakers and enjoyed as a dessert or even for breakfast, where it would be accompanied by things such as hard-boiled eggs or a strong tea.

Nowadays its popularity has spread, and the recipe has been iterated a tremendous amount of times.

It can be made with anything from cheese all the way to having a vegetable or meat filling.

They are wonderfully easy to make, so today we’re sharing with you the classic, quintessential way to make this so you can give it a shot from home!

How to make boyoz bread

As we mentioned, there are plenty of ways this meal can be augmented with new ingredients and fillings to give it a unique spin.

Today we are showing you how to make the most standard and traditional version, which you can then take and get playful with as you see fit.

With a total cooking time of about 2 ½ hours, it’s not the quickest snack in the world, but I’m sure you’ll agree after you’ve tried it that it was worth the time and effort!

Ingredients:

• 3 cups hard flour (high protein/bread flour)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 tbsp sunflower oil
• 1 glass of water
• 4 tbsp butter

Number of portions: 4

Instructions

This recipe is a lot of fun to prepare.

It doesn’t use many ingredients, but making and forming the dough is a really fun activity.

This is also a fairly healthy recipe, too.

Although many versions incorporate cheese or even sugar, this particular one you can enjoy guilt-free as it doesn’t use any of that stuff!

Step 1:

Start by preparing the dough.

Take a large mixing bowl and add all the ingredients except the water and butter.

Mix them all together so the dry ingredients are evenly distributed.

Step 2:

Next, start to add the water bit by bit.

It’s important to do this to create an even consistency and avoid clumping.

Keep mixing the water in until you get a reasonably firm dough; it needs to be malleable but not wet or gooey.

Step 3:

Once the dough is prepared, you can start to knead it.

Sprinkle some more flour over your countertop to stop it from sticking.

Start to knead the dough for a few minutes to make it into a smooth ball.

Step 4:

Once the kneading is finished, divide the dough into 8 parts and place them in a bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap (or a towel), and let it rest for about 30 minutes.

Step 5:

Once at least 30 minutes have passed and you’re ready to proceed, place the dough balls on the counter and press them out with your hands to make a plate-like shape that is roughly 15cm in diameter.

Step 6:

Place a tablespoon of butter in four of the plate shapes (they should be at room temperature or even a little warmer).

Then, take another “plate” of the dough and place it over the top.

Repeat this a second time to produce 4 covered plates that each have a spoonful of butter in them.

Step 7:

Press the sides down to create a seal, apply a light coat of oil to the bottom of the dough, and place them on a baking tray.

Step 8:

Cover the tray with film and let it rest for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Step 9:

Start to pull from the edges to stretch it out, or lift the edges up and let the weight of the dough/butter pull itself down.

Once it’s been stretched out, fold it in on four sides to make a rectangular shape.

It doesn’t need to be too meticulous, but it needs one long edge and one shorter one.

Step 10:

Roll this up starting from the short edge to make a kind of fat and short roll.

Then, cut it into two parts.

Step 11:

Stand then roll upright and use your index and middle finger to depress down all the way to the bottom to create the final shape.

Step 12:

Repeat this for all the remaining pieces and arrange them on a baking tray.

At this stage, you can start to preheat the oven to about 400 degrees F.

Step 13:

Bake for roughly 15-20 minutes or until they are a nice, golden-brown color.

Enjoy your wonderfully fresh boyoz bread rolls!

Ingredient substitutions

While most of the ingredients listed are probably already in your kitchen, some might be a little harder to source, so here are some convenient suggestions to get you through the recipe should you find yourself missing something.

All-purpose flour

Hard flour (or bread flour) is certainly not the most common type of flour, so if you’re cooking this meal and suddenly find yourself missing this ingredient, you might not need to go to the store to buy some.

Just regular old all-purpose flour can make a good substitution here.

Because all-purpose flour has a slightly lower protein content, it won’t rise quite as high, but the difference in end result isn’t that serious.

Canola oil

Not everyone has sunflower oil around at all times, but that’s fine as there are a bunch of other alternatives you can use in lieu of sunflower oil.

These can include things such as grapeseed oil, vegetable oil, sesame oil, olive oil, or our favorite is canola oil as its taste (after baking) will be nearly imperceptible from sunflower oil.

What to serve with boyoz bread

In Turkish cuisine, there are many items people traditionally like to enjoy boyoz bread with, whether it’s being eaten as a dessert or breakfast.

Here are a few suggestions to give you some inspiration.

Eggs and a strong tea

Tea is a traditional thing to serve with a boyoz bread as breakfast.

Between the boyoz, the protein of the hard-boiled egg, and the light caffeine in the tea, this combo makes the perfect pick-me-up to get you ready to tackle your day.

But you don’t have to have it just for breakfast.

Enjoy it anytime you’d like!

Alternative fillings

While technically you are adding this into the dish itself, this is considered an “extra” on top of this standard recipe we have shared with you.

There are a lot of fantastic ways you can fill boyoz bread.

This can be anything from using vegetables (spinach is particularly popular in Turkey), meats such as ground beef, or even cheese in the middle to make it a wonderful snack.

We encourage you to experiment with these, as there’s a lot of fun to be had baking different versions of boyoz bread!

How to reheat boyoz bread

Fundamentally, boyoz bread is a fairly regular kind of puff pastry, and as such, we can apply a lot of our common practices when it comes to both storing and reheating boyoz bread.

How to reheat boyoz bread in a pot

Place a very small amount of oil in a pot that you have a nice lid for.

Heat it over medium heat and place the pastries in the pot.

Let the hot air circulate and heat them up for 3-5 minutes.

Be careful to not actually fry them.

We want them in there just long enough to get warm.

How to reheat boyoz bread in a microwave

Like most pastries, boyoz bread tends to want to go soggy when microwaved.

To counter this, we can cover them with a damp paper towel to help manage the water content.

Heat them for 20-30 seconds, and they should be adequately warmed through.

How to reheat boyoz bread in the oven

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Wrap the boyoz bread in foil and bake them for about 10 minutes.

They will be warm at this point, but you might want them a little crispier, so if you feel they’re a bit too soft, remove the foil and give them five more minutes and that outside should crisp up a little.

How to reheat boyoz bread in an air fryer

Preheat the air fryer to 350 degrees F.

The secret here is to flick a few drops of water onto the boyoz bread before heating.

There’s some technical science behind this to do with the water breaking down the starch crystals that formed during refrigeration.

Place them in the frying basket and heat them for two minutes, flip them over, and heat for another two minutes.

How to store boyoz bread

Pastry can be difficult to store, as it has a tendency to go soggy.

Here are the best ways to go about storing it to ensure maximum flavor and texture retention.

Store in the fridge

Ensure they have first cooled to room temperature, and then either wrap them tightly using plastic wrap or store them in an air-tight container.

Once refrigerated they will keep for 1-2 days.

Store in the freezer

First, wrap them in plastic wrap to ensure the cold air doesn’t directly contact the puff pastry, and then put them in a freezer bag and freeze.

It’s best to consume them in about 9 months.

In fact, they will last longer than that and be safe to eat, but once they have lost their texture, they’re far less enjoyable.