Yogurt Bread Stuffed with Cheese or Chocolate

Sunday April 12th, 2020Monday April 20th, 2020 aglaia Leave a comment

This is a delicious, moist and very easy bread dough.

I describe here how you can make it into savory or sweets treats.

No need to make them both the same day, though. Just keep half the dough in the fridge to stuff and bake within the next 2-3 days making the sweet or savory version.

You also can form into loaves or small buns and eat instead of any other bread; it makes wonderful sandwiches.

The cheese-stuffed bread is a lovely accompaniment to soups and vegetable dishes, or served as meze with drinks. The chocolate bread can be part of breakfast or accompany soft cheese or served with tea, and coffee.

Yields 2 round loaves
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Nutty, Fruity, and Seedy Bread

Saturday November 23rd, 2019Thursday January 2nd, 2020 aglaia Leave a comment

This is our morning treat: a somewhat heavy bread, close to a fruit-nut cake, with complex, bold flavor.

I decided to make a variation of this bread for our vassilopita

(the New Year’s cake where the lucky coin is hidden) instead of the traditional rich, elaborate cake I used to bake.

I experimented with more and less nuts and dried fruit, and I feel that here I have pushed the nut-fruit additions to the limit. Feel free to add less nuts and/or fruit if you prefer to make a lighter bread that will rise more.

I cut the loaves into thick slices and freeze them in zip log bags. Every morning I take out the slices we want to eat and toast them.

We like them on their own, but they are wonderful with fresh cheese –cottage or ricotta– or just with yogurt.

Yields 3 medium loaves, or 2 loaves and a round bread (more…)

Red-pepper-and-feta-topped Flat Bread

Tuesday October 1st, 2019Tuesday October 1st, 2019 aglaia Leave a comment

Besides adding our garden’s delicious red peppers to sauces, fry, and stuff with rice, vegetables, meat, or fish, I love the combination of flavors created by olive-oil-sautéed peppers and use them as topping for my flat bread, pairing them with crumbled feta cheese.

The dough is the one I use for my everyday breads, sometimes adding yogurt if I have leftover that is going too sour or any kind of mashed vegetables or greens.

See also the Tomato and Cheese topped bread, the Smoked Cheese and Kumquat Bread which is basically the winter version of my topped breads. For a more spicy-aromatic topping spread Zaatar mixed with olive oil over the tomatoes.

Makes TWO large Laganes (flat breads), or FOUR smaller 10X7 inch (25X18,5 cm) breads, serving 8-12 people as appetizer

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Tomato-and-cheese-topped Lagana (Flat Bread)

Friday August 2nd, 2019Friday August 2nd, 2019 aglaia Leave a comment

We make this bread all the time, especially when we have guests. The dough is the one I use for my everyday breads, sometimes adding yogurt if I have leftover that is going too sour or any kind of mashed vegetables or greens. In the summer I use a tomato-onion-olive oil mixture, the leftovers from our daily tomato salad, pulsed in the blender, to make my Tomato Salad Bread which can also be topped with cheese and tomato slices. Tomato Bread S

See also the Smoked Cheese and Kumquat Bread which is basically the winter version of my topped breads. For a more spicy-aromatic topping spread Zaatar mixed with olive oil over the tomatoes.

Yields 2 laganes (focaccia-like flat breads), each serving 6-8 people as appetizer

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TAHINOPITES: Tahini, Cinnamon, and Walnut Cookies, in Lemon Syrup

Saturday April 13th, 2019Saturday April 13th, 2019 aglaia 1 Comment

Traditionally made in Cyprus before Easter, during the spring Lent – when all foods deriving from animals are prohibited – tahinopites are 6-7-inch round, syrupy breads, coiled and stuffed with a tahini mixture. As the coiled tahinopites bake, the thin layer of dough cracks and the stuffing oozes out, caramelizing; these crunchy, darkened, sugary tahini bits are the best bites.

Why not have more of the best parts of the pie? I decided to shape the dough differently in order to increase the caramelized area. The results are bite-size, cookie-like tahinopites — a kind of Eastern Mediterranean Cinnamon Rolls. It is important to get the highest quality tahini paste for these cookies. They taste best made a day in advance. As they cool, they absorb and fully incorporate the lemony syrup.

Adapted from Mediterranean Vegetarian Feasts

Makes about 56 cookies

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