Nokul, Fragrant Tahini Bread

(Mis Kokulu Nokul - Isparta - Mediteranian Region)

Dough:
7 g instant yeast
2 tbsp sugar
1 cup milk, warm
2 tbsp olive oil
~3 cups all purpose flour

Filling:
1 cup tahini (sesame seed paste)
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup walnuts, crumbled
Handful dried rose buds
1 tsp clove, ground
1 tsp cinnamon

Garnish:
Egg yolk
Sesame seeds
Nigella seeds

First, dilute the tahini with olive oil. Combine the walnuts, rose buds, clove and cinnamon in a food processor. Then mix the filling ingredients in a bowl.

Melt the yeast with sugar and milk in a bowl. Add the olive oil and flour slowly, knead well. The dough should be soft but not sticky. Cut the dough in half with a knife. Roll out each piece with your hands or with a rolling pin to get a round shape (doesn't have to be perfectly round).

Spread the filling on the doughs equally (picture). Roll them up and cut in 3 cm wide (picture). Close each piece with the open part facing down, knead and turn it into a ball shape. Line them up in a oiled oven proof dish (picture). Let them rest for 30 minutes. Brush egg yolks and sprinkle sesame and Nigella seeds over the tops.

Preheat the oven to 400 F (200 C) and bake until golden brown.

You can have the nokul as a breakfast with cheese, olives, tomatoes, etc., or with afternoon tea:)

*It is known that some pastries such as yufka and bazlama had been made in the Seljuk period. They were filling the leavened dough with walnuts, hazelnuts, sesame, sometimes beef, sometimes raisins. They made these buns/scones (çörek) with or without sugar and called them nokul-lokul. It is thought that all of these varieties came to Anatolia by Türkmens.