Homemade Milk Kifli

Steps

• 1
  Crumble the yeast into a small bowl, sprinkle sugar over it, and mash with a fork until it becomes liquid. Add one tablespoon of flour from the measured amount and one-third of the lukewarm milk. Mix well, then let it rise for about 10 minutes. If nothing happens after 15 minutes, start over with fresh yeast.
• 2
  Mix the remaining flour with salt, oil, the rest of the milk, and the risen yeast. Using the dough hook of a kitchen robot, knead for about 10 minutes until you get a smooth, elastic dough. The goal is a silky, almost non-sticky, play-dough-like consistency. If it's too dry, add 1-2 tablespoons of milk; if it's too sticky, sprinkle in a little more flour.
• 3
  Place the kneaded dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with foil, and let it rise at room temperature for about 45 minutes, until it doubles in size.
• 4
  Prepare two baking sheets with parchment paper. Turn the risen dough onto a floured surface, form it into a ball, and cut it into 4 equal parts. Roll out each part into a circle about 25-30 cm in diameter, then cut these into 4 wedges each (you will get a total of 16 triangles). Starting from the wider end, tightly roll up the triangles into a kifli shape. Place them on the baking sheet, leaving at least 5 cm distance between them. Brush their tops with water and sprinkle with coarse salt or poppy seeds.
• 5
  Let the kifli rise on the baking sheet for another 20 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius (170 degrees Celsius for convection ovens).
• 6
  Place the baking sheets in the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Mix one tablespoon of salt with 100 ml of water, and brush the kifli with this mixture after 10 minutes. Swap the positions of the baking sheets in the oven and bake for another 7-10 minutes, until golden brown.
• 7
  Let the finished kifli cool on a wire rack. Yeast dough is best fresh, on the day it's baked!