🥐 Boyoz
Boyoz is İzmir's signature breakfast pastry: a small round bun of paper-thin, oil-brushed dough, rolled into a spiral and baked until the layers turn flaky and golden. A little tahini is worked into the dough, which gives it a nutty depth. It is bought warm from bakeries in the morning and eaten with tea.
Diets
Allergens
Contains (in a typical recipe):
What it is made of
Recipe
Ingredients
- 500 g plain flour
- 280 ml water
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp tahini
- 150 ml sunflower oil, plus more for soaking
Method
- Mix the flour, salt, tahini and water into a smooth, soft dough; knead for 10 minutes and rest for 30 minutes.
- Divide into 8 balls, place them in a dish, cover completely with oil and leave for 2 hours.
- On an oiled surface, stretch each ball as thin as possible with oiled hands, fold the edges in and roll up tightly into a rope, then coil it into a spiral.
- Rest the spirals for 15 minutes, then press them into flat rounds about 2 cm thick.
- Bake at 220 °C for 25–30 minutes until deep golden and flaky.
How to make it lighter
- Boyoz is dense in oil — one piece with a big salad of tomato and cucumber is a satisfying breakfast.
- Drain the dough well before stretching so less oil ends up in the baked pastry.
- Pair it with unsweetened tea rather than sweet drinks.
History
Boyoz is usually credited to the Sephardic Jewish community that settled in İzmir after leaving Spain in the late 15th century; the name is often linked to the Judeo-Spanish word bollos, “buns”. Over the centuries it became a citywide favourite rather than a community dish. Today it is so closely tied to İzmir that it is rarely found elsewhere in Turkey.
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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →