COREK WITH OLIVES (Zeytinli Çörek)

Çörek is a form of bread with more joy in it. There are many ways to prepare and ingredients vary. But it is almost always consumed with cheese and tea. It is a wonderful accompaniment to breakfast tables and also a very fast way of making bread. If you are, like us, often forget to buy bread, you can always have your own in an hour in your own oven. I cooked this in a sandwich tray (a small, round, nonstick one), but I assume you can give it any shape or pour into any kind of tray. Only trick would be, make it 2-3 cm thick. If it's too thick, it remains raw and too thin, it is hard. We don't add baking powder, so it stays almost in the same dimensions before and after cooking. Lastly, I was supposed to use fresh mint, but I used parsley merely because these days I am unable to find what I need, in the stores (terrible weather helps as much). I thought, being green, both shall do the same effect.

Ingredients:

• 250 g flour
• 1 egg
• 60 g yogurt (4 tablespoons)
• 60 g pitted black olives (actually amount depends how much you like olives)
• Fresh mint (or parsley), a handful of
• 3 spring onions
• Baking soda, half teaspoon
• 50 mL olive oil

Preparation:

• Slice the olives and spring onions.
• In a deep bowl, sieve the flour and baking soda, make a hole in the middle with your hand.
• Into the hole, in the middle of flour, add all the ingredients; egg, yogurt, slices olives and onions and finely diced mint/parsley.
• Knead all until they come together as a dough.
• Lay on a tray or shape with your hands. Let it rest for 30 minutes in the room temperature.
• Bake in preheated oven at 200°C for 30 minutes.