Step 1

Mix 350 g of the flour with the sugar, yeast and water. Cover and leave until bubbling and doubled in size, around 30-45 minutes.

Step 2

Add the remaining (200 g) flour along with the salt and extra virgin olive oil. Knead until you've got a dough which is soft and smooth and you can stretch the dough until it's transparent without it breaking. I use a kitchen machine with a dough hook running at medium speed, in which case it takes 10-15 minutes. Make sure the dough doesn't get too warm during this process – if it gets as warm as the inside of your wrist, take a break and place the dough in the fridge for 15 minutes before continuing. Once ready, cover and leave to rise until doubled in size, 1-2 hours. At this point you may also leave it in the fridge for up to 48 hours.

Step 3

Preheat your oven to its highest heat setting. If you have one, place a pizza stone or baking stone in the oven to heat up with it.

Step 4

Split the dough into 6 equally sized pieces and shape into rounds. Cover with a moist cloth and let the dough rest for 20-30 minutes.

Step 5

Flour your kitchen counter well. Using a rolling pin in the same direction back and forth, roll out one of the dough rounds into an oval approximately 30x20 cm (12x8 in). Turn the dough regularly in the process and add more flour as required to make sure it doesn't stick to the kitchen counter.

Step 6

Transfer the pide to a baking parchment. Add cheese and a little salt, leaving approx 2 cm (⅘ in) along the edges. Fold the sides in a little, so the pide is half closed, then pinch the ends together. Repeat with the remaining dough, baking them as per the next step as soon as they're ready (pide doesn't need to rest after being shaped). Depending on how large you make them, you can usually bake two pides at the same time.

Step 7

Making sure your baking or pizza stone is properly preheated, transfer the pides to the oven and bake for 5 minutes. Take the pides out, quickly crack an egg into each of them and put it back in the oven. Continue baking until the cheese is golden and the egg is cooked to your liking. The whole process takes anything from 5 to 15 minutes or more, depending on how hot your oven is and whether you are using a baking or pizza stone. Depending on time time it takes in your oven, you may want to adjust the time before adding the egg. If the oven is very hot, you may even add it at the beginning of cooking.

Step 8

As soon as the pides are out of the oven, brush the edges well with butter. Slice and serve immediately, with a good sprinkle of pul biber on top, then repeat with the remaining pide.