A Turkish rolling pin is an extra long wooden rolling pin that is over 30” long rolling pin.
You can find an extra long rolling pin by Bulut that is 35″ long, and only 3/4″ in diameter.
This is one of the classic Turkish Oklava rolling pins.
Baklava (phyllo pastry dough), dumplings, and tortillas are rolled into very thin doughs ~2 mm or less before baking.
To create these thin doughs, having an extra long rolling pin will make it much easier to roll out. The larger the rolling pin, the more surface area the dough has to expand.
These types of dough are light, and will move freely as you press your rolling pin into the dough.
One dough in particular, phyllo pastry dough is especially difficult to make. Phyllo pastry takes a long time to master because the dough becomes substantially large and paper thin.
Phyllo pastry is created by rolling out the dough to it’s final dough thickness – as thin as you can make it. Phyllo pastry requires you to add flour/corn flour to your dough as you continuously roll it out thinner and thinner. The phyllo dough will become as long as your rolling pin.
If you’re working with a rolling pin half the size, it will take you twice as long to roll out your dough. You might not get your dough to the required thinness needed for phyllo using a short rolling pin.
The sheets of phyllo dough are then stacked together to make layers of fat and dough.
Phyllo pastry is used to bake many delicate pastries by manipulating it into different shapes and adding fillings in the center of the dough before baking.
Pasta dough can also be rolled out using an extra long wooden rolling pin. Pasta dough requires the dough to be thinner than paper, which is easily achieved using a pasta maker. A pasta maker squishes the dough together, making it thinner and thinner, working the dough until it’s a uniform thickness.
In a pinch, an extra long rolling pin will help you roll out your pasta dough into thin sheets. You will not get it as thin as a pasta maker, but you can use a rolling pin if necessary.
Lavash Armenian Flatbread becomes quite large and thin when it’s rolled out to ~35 inches long. By using an extra long rolling pin it will save you time rolling out your dough to the suggested length.
