Ay çöreği is the most familiar thing in the bakery, and people making it at home usually come unstuck at the same point: they do not prove it enough. The dough has to double, then be shaped and rise again on the tray. There are two hours of waiting in total, and cut short the pastry comes out dense and heavy.
Ingredients
For the dough
For the filling
For the top
Method
-
Activate the yeast
Mix the warm milk, yeast and a teaspoon of sugar and leave for 10 minutes; it should foam.
-
Knead the dough
Add the remaining sugar, the butter, egg, vanilla, salt and flour and knead for 10 minutes. It should be soft and slightly tacky.
-
First prove
Cover and leave somewhere warm for 1.5 hours, until doubled.
-
Make the filling
Mix the butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and walnuts into a paste.
-
Roll and fill
Divide the dough in two and roll each piece into a round. Spread the filling and cut into eight wedges like a pizza.
-
Shape
Roll each wedge from the wide edge towards the point, then curl the two ends in slightly into a crescent.
-
Second prove
Space them out on a tray, cover and leave for another 30 minutes. They should visibly swell.
-
Bake
Brush with egg yolk and bake at 180 degrees for 22 minutes. Dust with icing sugar while still warm.
Tips
- Do not skip the second prove; the lightness of the pastry is made in those thirty minutes.
- Soften the butter, do not melt it. Melted butter makes the filling run and it escapes as you roll.
- Do not pinch the ends of the crescent too hard; them opening as they bake is normal and is the look you want.
- Do not dust with icing sugar while they are hot, as it melts and disappears.
Nutrition
Values are per serving and approximate.