ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

--- CONTENT--
The çörek (Turkish) are sweet loaves in Turkish cuisine with many varieties. The first reference to the word çörek in Turkish language dates back to 1070 or 1073 in the Divan-i Lugat-üt Türk, encyclopaedic dictionary of Mahmud al-Kaixgarí.

Etymology
The name Tsoureki comes from the Turkish çörek, which describes the family of round cloths to which it belongs.
The origin of the word is however to be sought in the Caucasus, where it is called choerek.

History
In the XI century, the Turks knew the çöreks with the current name and form and produced different types. The Çörek is mentioned several times in the works of Gialal al-Din Rumi, in the 13th century. In the Ottoman Empire çörek and simit could only be produced by specialized pastries. In the island of Cyprus in the Ottoman era there was a "narh" (price fixed by the state) for simit, börek and çörek, as for bread (the price of çörek was fixed at double the price of bread).

Ingredients
The ingredients of çörek are wheat flour, butter, eggs, yeast mother, mahlep (a spice obtained by grinding the hazelnuts of prunus cerasus fruits, also called prunus mahaleb), sugar and salt. Black cumin seeds are almost always added to these loaves; because of this the black cumin seeds (sativa nigella) in Turkish are called çörekotu.

Varieties

In Turkey there are many varieties of çörek, depending on the form, such as Ay çöreği ("moon çörek") or ingredients, such as Haşhaşlı çörek (çörek with poppy seeds), Tarçınlı çörek, (çörek with cinnamon), or Tahinli çörek (with tahina). The çörek can also be classified according to the city, such as İstanbul çöreği ("çörek of Istanbul") or Tarsus çöreği ("çörek of Tarsus"). There are also çörek for special occasions such as Paskalya çöreği (Paschörek). The çörek also gave the name to the Greek tsoureki.

Image gallery

Notes

Related Items
Ay çöreği
Haşhaşlı çörek
Paskalya çöreği
Tsoureki

Other projects

Turkish sweets