Score Yourself Some Simit This Weekend

A Special Bake of THE bread of Turkey on January 23 & 24

Thirty-one years ago this month, in the January 1995 issue of The Atlantic, friend and food writer Corby Kummer published a long piece about his visit to Istanbul the previous year. He opened by sharing all the downsides of the city, but then, in a lovely authorial about-face, announced to everyone, “I’d go back in a minute. In the course of a 10-day visit I recently made, Istanbul lodged in my soul.”

After detailing a number of the cultural and culinary highlights of the visit, Corby got to the heart of the culinary matter:

My survival food was simit, big dark rings of sesame-covered bread stacked on pushcarts all over the city: vendors carrying wooden trays laden with them, often still warm, are a frequent and welcome sight. A simit is more than a sesame bagel ever dreamed it could be.

You can’t yet survive on simit here in Ann Arbor, but maybe you’ll be able to soon enough. I’m ready! In under a year, the Bakehouse’s Simit has become the no-longer-secret, great new product in the ZCoB. We’ve got them on Special Bake at the Bakehouse this weekend, Friday the 23rd and Saturday the 24th. I’d say either get there early or order ahead. I have a feeling that even in the dead cold of the Michigan winter, and even with us making more of them than ever, they’re going to sell out quickly. They are, quite simply, super good!

If you lived in Turkey, of course, simit would be everyday and everywhere fare for walking to work, riding the subway, or sitting down to a lovely meal. Here they’re still new to most folks who are neither Turkish nor have traveled to Turkey, but as I said, they’re already catching on quickly!

In Turkey, as Corby said, they’re a critical component of everyday eating. Simit is a single word that conveys the baker’s art and instantly evokes a sense of community, country, and culture for anyone who is either from Turkey or has spent meaningful time there. The last time I was in Istanbul was many decades ago, well before we opened the Deli in 1982. And yet, like Corby, I still remember the simit. Hazim Tugun, longtime Bakehouse bread specialist, grew up in Turkish Cyprus, where simit is standard fare. This is how he recently described his experience with it:

This beloved snack bread takes me back to my childhood. I still eat simit whenever I go back to Cyprus or Istanbul, especially for breakfast, although the actual simit itself may, on occasion, pale (based on my newly formed baker’s palate) compared to the overall anticipation/experience/idea of having it.

Here, in our attempt to recreate this humble, traditional food, we combine locally grown and stone-milled wheat flour with a touch of in-house milled durum flour in a stiff dough that we ferment, braid into a ring, dip in grape molasses, and cover with pre-toasted sesame seeds. After an extended overnight fermentation to further develop flavors, we bake these rings to a deep golden color.

The aroma of freshly baked simit is enough to start bringing the memories back—but it’s that first bite that opens the magical portal for me. A bit of crunch gives way to a chewy interior, with the irresistible combination of savoriness from the toasted sesame seeds and a subtle, hard-to-put-your-finger-on sweetness from the grape molasses.

Enjoy it fresh on its own, bite by bite, or with a bit of cheese (like a great feta), tomatoes, cucumbers, and olives with some black tea (like the Turks do), or dip it in honey and cream cheese. If there is still some left over, slice the whole thing open, and make it into a great open-face grilled cheese in your oven the next day. Hopefully, you will step into that magic portal with that first bite, too.

Here at the Bakehouse, we’re beyond excited to bring simit into our repertoire. A wonderful taste of Turkey that anyone who’s intrigued—or, like me, already in love—can try out this coming weekend!