Yeast bread flavored and filled with tahini, made into swirls. The first time I had these rolls was in Istanubul,Turkey! After our visit to Hagia Sophia at Sultanahmet square, we saw cart vendors selling simit and cinnamon rolls, where locals and tourists munching on them. Indeed they were not cinnamon rolls, that’s what I and the kids thought back then, they were tahini filled sweet bread “Tahinli Ekmek”. Say love at first bite! Yes! I was sold and instantly drawn to its flavor.
Turkish Tahini Sweet Rolls (Tahinli Ekmek)
After begging her, my friend Hilda sent me her 30 years old recipe of her mother-in-law, who happens to be Turkish. It takes precious little though to make, but really worth it!
I would enjoy tahini on literally anything, so if you are anything like me, you will devour these buns. Nothing like the aroma of freshly baked bread coming out of the oven, and the bonus here is the sweet tahini – the buns taste wonderful – yes I have to admit, I am a genius, but I can’t take credit for inventing these rolls! Many thanks Hilda to you and to your mother-in-law!
Divide the dough into 12 equal balls.
Roll each ball, using a rolling pin, on a floured surface into a circle with 20 cm/ 8 inches in diameter.
Spread a tablespoon of the tahini mixture almost covering the circle, leaving 1 cm boarder around the edges.
Roll up each to form a log.
Roll it back and forth a bit until it is about 30 cm/ 12 inches.
Use your hands to shape it into a tight spiral.
Transfer the rolls to a parchment lined oven sheet, leaving some space between one another (you may probably need to use two oven sheets). Set aside the rolls for another 30 minutes, for a second fermentation. Brush the top of each spiral with the egg wash.
Lightly sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Nothing like the aroma of freshly baked bread coming out of the oven, and the bonus here is the sweet tahini – they taste wonderful!
Turkish Tahini Sweet Rolls (Tahinli Ekmek)
Description
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 4 cups flour
- 2 tablespoons instant yeast
- 1 egg
- 11/4 cups milk
- 2 tablespoons butter
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1/3 cup sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
For the filling:
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup tahini
- For the egg wash
- 1 egg lightly beaten
- A drop of vinegar
- Some sesame seeds
Instructions
- First off, check the expiration date of the instant yeast package.
- To make the dough: In a large bowl, mix together the flour, butter, olive oil, sugar, salt, instant yeast and vanilla.
- Beat the eggs in a bowl, and gradually pour the milk while stirring. Add to the flour mixture.
- Knead the dough thoroughly until it is of one texture. Cover with a kitchen towel and set aside for 1 hour allowing it to rise and double in size.
- Meanwhile, mix together the tahini and sugar until well combined.
- Divide the dough into 12 equal balls. Working with one ball at a time.
- Roll each ball, using a rolling pin, on a floured surface into a circle with 20 cm/8 inches in diameter.
- Spread a tablespoon of the tahini mixture almost covering the circle, leaving 1 cm boarder around the edges.
- Roll up each to form a log. Roll it back and forth a bit until it is about 30 cm/12 inches.
- Use your hands to shape it into a tight spiral. Lightly flatten each with your hands.
- Transfer the rolls to a parchment lined oven sheet, leaving some space between one another (you may probably need to use two oven sheets). Set aside the rolls for another 30 minutes, for a second fermentation.
- For the egg wash: In a small bowl combine together the egg and vinegar and brush the tops of each spiral with the egg.
- Lightly sprinkle with sesame seeds.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/ 400°F. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden and cooked through. Serve warm! How delicious!
Notes
- Making these rolls, my mind traveled to our trip to Istanbul and Alanya/Turkey. Here are some pictures thought of sharing them with you! Nostalgic!
At Galata tower, a medieval stone tower.
A panoramic view from Istanbul’s Galata Tower.
The Spice Market: A century old trap! Love the smell of the various spices and sweets.
The Bosphorus bridge that connects Europe and Asia.
The Blue Mosque built between 1609-1617. It is known as the blue mosque because of the blue tiles used to decorate the walls of the interior.
Majestic Hagia Sophia.
My kids enjoying the beach life in Alanya, a spectacular peaceful location with a beautiful sea view and a relaxing sandy beach. If you are searching for tranquility, then this would be a good destination for you.
Read about our second visit to Istanbul
19 Comments
Amazing!
Thank you Christine.
Thank you for sharing. We spent April in Istanbul and loved everything moment!
The rolls look amazing and I am going to make them. Please tell me do you use bread flour or all purpose flour?
Yes Sharon, agreed, Istanbul is a lively and beautiful city! I used all purpose flour! I hope you enjoy the tahini rolls just like we do!
Vanilla is missing from your ingredient list, but it appears in your instructions.
this looks great. Do i make the yeast according to the package instructions?
Hadia, these buns look amazing! What a beautiful treat these would be on a weekend morning. And I’m enthralled with your pictures too. Thanks for sharing your adventure.
Respectfully, I ran into trouble with the recipe and thought I would post here to help others avoid the problems I ran into. These are the suggested changes I would make:
-Increase sugar/tahini mixture to 1.5 cups of each. Better to have too much than not enough.
-Decrease oven temperature from 400F to 350F.
-Decrease cook time to 12 minutes, continue to check for doneness every 2 minutes thereafter.
-Do not split the rolls apart onto 2 baking trays. They can safely cook on one, and they will be better for it.
With the recipe as written, unfortunately even checking at 15 minutes, the bottoms of the rolls were already burned. I used to work as a baker, and have made other varieties of sweet rolls without issue. When I reviewed multiple different tahini sweet roll recipes, a number were cooked at 350F, with a 12 minute suggested cook time. Given how burned mine were at 15 minutes, that makes sense to me.
The good part: after removing the burnt bottom of the roll, the overall flavor and texture of the roll and the filling was lovely.
It looks amazing and delicious, I will try it.
Great recipes!
Thank you!
The recipe as listed shows 2 tablespoons of instant yeast. Is this correct? That is a lot of yeast for such a small quantity of rolls. In America one package of Instant yeast is 9 grams which is approximately 1 tablespoon. This recipe needs 2 packages or 18 grams on Instant yeast. I’m just confirming this is correct before I make these.
Looks Delicious! Would mixing Tahini with either honey or date molasses (dibs) work? Trying to avoid white sugar if I can.