Traditional Cypriot bread bagels koulouria

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The first time my grandmother included me in the kitchen was for making koulouria. I think it was her favourite food to cook and she was really, really good at making them. I remember vaguely that she was even interviewed by a lady who was gathering traditional recipes for a book. She would knead the dough for a long, long time by hand and even though she was old, she would continue to knead them because she knew that kneading for a long time made the koulouria better.

My yiayia Milia (her name actually translates to apple tree ♥) was born in 1929 in a very small village called Gastria. Growing up, she had to help her parents in the fields and also help with her younger siblings, when her parents were working. When she was 16 she moved to a nearby village to get married to my grandfather, who happened to be 20 years older!!! She had her first child when she was just 17 and was now in charge of her own home, helping with work in the fields and raising her children. She had four children. When she was just 45, the Turkish invasion happened in Cyprus so she had to leave her house and all her belongings behind as she was now a refugee. She and her family – my family- had to live in refugee camps for some time and spent time in other people’s houses, up to the point where the Cypriot government was able to offer them a small house for permanent residence. Given that my pappou was 20 years older than her, that meant that she was still very young when he died and all her insecurities as a person grew every year she spent alone. I always saw her like a young girl of 16 who never got a chance to learn from her mistakes and sort of mature as a person.

My yiayia was really traumatised from the invasion and would always tell us stories from Famagusta and how much she missed her home and village life. The only thing she was able to bring with her was her recipes which she had memorised through the years. She used to make her own sausages, her own tomato paste, her own bread and her own pasta. I was very blessed to have experienced all these with her and of course learn from her. I know I can never be as good as her but I can only try  to make justice to her recipes, that now my sweet mum passes me over.

Right, let’s get baking my darlings!

You will need:

1 kg plain flour

1 tsp salt

7 g yeast

1/2 cup trex, vegetable butter

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp mahlep

1 tsp mastic powder

warm water, apprx. 800 ml

2 cups sesame seeds

4 tbsp aniseed seeds

The procedure is straightforward. Add the flour, mastic, cinnamon, mahlep, salt and sugar in a big bowl. Add the vegetable fat and rub it together with the flour mixture using your fingertips to quickly and lightly rub them together until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Raise your fingers above the bowl while rubbing to help aerate the mixture. Then add the yeast and warm water and start kneading the dough by hand for 15 minutes or use the hook attachment of the mixer. Add the water slowly in the dough until you achieve a soft dough, not sticky but not hard either. Let the dough rise for minimum of one hour.

Meanwhile, prepare the sesame seeds. Add the sesame seeds in a pot along with the aniseed seeds. Cover the seeds with water and boil for 10 minutes. Once the sesame seeds are boiled, strain them and let to cool. Place them in a pyrex, spreading them evenly.

Turn the dough onto a working surface and divide into 15 pieces. Take one piece of the dough and roll out into a rope approximately 35cm long. Form a circle and join the ends pinching them together. Place the koulouri in the sesame seeds pressing it a bit for the seeds to stick. Place the bread ring in a large baking tray, lined up with parchment paper and repeat with the rest of the dough. (You will need two large baking trays) You can also shape the koulouria as you wish like creating the letter M or N.

Let the koulouria proof for 30 minutes. Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for 30-40 minutes, until nicely golden.

Georgia helped me a bit too!

The finished product