Easter Flaounes

Flaounes are  the traditional Easter cheese breads we make in Cyprus.   Traditionally they are made on Good Friday and it’s not an easy job.  The preparations usually start from the previous day and on Friday most female members of the family get up from the crack to dawn to start preparing them.  I have memories when I was young when we all used to help making them and then we had to take them to our neighbourhood’s “fourno” which was a traditional bread bakery with wood oven and we had to wait patiently for our turn to have ours baked.

These cheese breads are made with a very flavourful bread dough and filled with a cheese called “Pafitiko” made during the Easter period for flaounes.  However, this can be substituted by a mixture of other Cypriot cheeses such as halloumi or kaskavalli or the Greek cheeses ladotyri Mytilinis, graviera, kefalograviera and some kefalotyri.  Kefalotyri is usually very salty, so don’t add too much.  We usually make more dough than necessary to make some koulouria, which is a very aromatic bread.

I have just finished the procedure of making them and I made 12 medium-sized flaounes with the quantity of flour used and there was some left to make two koulouria.

As most Greek and Cypriot recipes, this is measured in glasses, so you can have a look at a post I made how to convert glasses into cups here.

Easter Flaounes, traditional Cypriot recipe

Ingredients

For the filling

• 1.250 grams of hard cheese, such as halloumi, graviera, kefalograviera and ladotyri Mytilinis

• ½ glass of semolina (a little bit over half a cup)
  

• Fresh yeast the size of an egg (1/4 of this yeast will be used for the filling and the remaining for the dough)

• 1 cup of fresh mint finely chopped (or 3 – 4 tablespoons of dried mint)

• 10 - 12 eggs

• 8 - 9 pounded mastic resins

• 8 - 9 pounded mahleb grains (pound mastic and mahleb together adding a teaspoon of flour or sugar)

• 1 cup of sultana raisins (optional)

• 1 tsp of baking powder

Directions:

Preparation of the filling:

Grate cheese (any of above types will do but it is better to have a variety) and mix with raisins, semolina, baking powder and mint. Mix the yeast with 2 eggs (at room temperature) to dissolve the yeast and add to cheese as well as the remaining eggs, one by one, mixing until the cheese have become a firm mixture. Maybe less eggs will be required depending if cheese are moist.

The cheese mixture can be done from previous night in which case refrigerate overnight. If done on the same day, cover with kitchen towel for a few hours to rise.

If prepared from the previous night, the next day add two more eggs and mix the mixture to become soft and fluffy.

Note:

1) In some parts of Cyprus, especially in the region of Larnaca, sugar is added to the cheese mixture.
2) Instead of fresh yeast, dry yeast may be used (about 7 grams per kilo of flour, dissolved in lukewarm milk and a few spoonfuls of flour)

3) Pound both quantities of mastic and mahleb simultaneously and save some for the dough.

4) Be careful with fresh yeast as it may not dissolve properly. Pass it from a small sieve.

5) When cheese mixture is ready place a cling film on top and store in refrigerator until next day.

For the Dough

• 2 kilos bread flour( (In Cyprus we usually make more dough and with the remaining we make koulouria a kind of Easter bread) so if you want to make koulouria adjust recipe adding an extra kilo of flour plus more of the remaining ingredients.

• 1/2 glass of margarine and 1 glass of  shortening

• 8 - 9 mastic resins pounded with 1 tsp of sugar as well as

• 8 - 9 mahleb grains pounded together with mastic resin

• lukewarm milk (about 3 glasses)

• 1 teaspoonful of baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

• Fresh yeast (3/4 of the size of an egg)

For the finishing

• 1-2 beaten eggs for brushing

• 350 grams of sesame seeds

Preparation of the dough:

Mix flour, salt, pounded mastic and mahleb, add butter and oil and rub into the flour using your fingertips until oil and butter are absorbed and looks like bread crumbs. Make a well and pour yeast which you have previously dissolved in lukewarm milk. Add remaining lukewarm milk and knead until dough thickens and does not stick on your hands. Cover cling film and cover with a woollen cloth and leave for about an hour to rise.

Wash sesame seeds, drain and place on a clean towel to dry. (This applies to non processed sesame seeds).

Roll out the dough and make round or square shapes, the size of a plate. Place the dough on the sesame seeds and press the dough gently, so that sesame may stick on the dough. Reverse so that the dough without the sesame is on top and place in the centre of the dough, a few spoonfuls of filling and fold the sides to form a square or triangle shape but leaving the centre uncovered.

Using a fork, press the four (or three) sides of the dough to join. Place each flaouna on clean tablecloths or sheets and cover again with tablecloth and leave them to rise. Place them in the baking tray on parchment paper and brush them with the beaten egg. If you do not like sesame seeds skip the previous procedure and after brushing with egg over the “flaounes”, sprinkle with sesame seeds on top.

Preheat oven to 180o C and bake them for about 20 minutes, then lower heat to 150 degrees and bake until golden brown.

If you want to make koulouria with the remaining dough take a large piece and roll with your hands to make a long cord about 3 cm in diameter and about 50 cm long. Cut with knife diagonally in equal parts about 7 - 8 cm each and place each piece next to the other and join them together and cover them with sesame seeds. Leave them to rise, (same way as flaounes) then brush with egg and bake in a medium oven, at 180 degrees Centigrade.

Tags: Breads, Cheese, Cypriot, dough, Greek cheese, made with phyllo, pies, Traditional