Hellimli

The halloumi goes in cubed and cold, so it holds its shape in the crumb instead of melting out into the tin.

Egg. Not vegetarian — contains halloumi whose rennet the source does not name, rennet the source does not identify as animal or microbial.

Ingredients

• 400 g halloumi, as on its own page, in 1.5 cm cubes
• 500 g plain flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 4 eggs
• 250 ml milk
• 120 ml olive oil
• a large handful of dried mint
• 1 teaspoon salt
• black pepper
• 4 tablespoons sesame seeds
• 1 egg, beaten, for glazing

Method

1. THE HALLOUMI GOES IN CUBED AND COLD, so it holds its shape in the crumb. Both halves matter and the cold is the half people skip. Halloumi will not melt into a liquid -- its curd was cooked in whey, which is the whole point of its own page -- but it will soften and slump and weep fat if it goes into a batter at room temperature and then spends fifty minutes in an oven. Cut into one-and-a-half centimetre cubes straight from the fridge and folded in at the last moment, each cube sets before it can collapse, and a slice of hellimli shows distinct white squares through it. Grated instead, or warm, it disperses and the loaf is a faintly cheesy bread with grease at the bottom of the tin.
2. IT IS A BATTER BREAD WITH BAKING POWDER, NOT A YEAST DOUGH. This is what separates it from the flaouna on the previous page, which is an enriched yeasted pastry WRAPPED round cheese. Here the cheese is suspended IN the crumb and there is no proving and no kneading at all -- it is mixed and goes straight in the oven, which also means the cubes have no hour of warm proving in which to soften.
3. THE CUBES ARE FOLDED IN LAST AND IN THREE STROKES. Once the batter is mixed, the halloumi goes in with the minimum of movement. Beaten through, the cube edges round off and smear, and the batter picks up enough salt from them to taste over-seasoned.
4. THERE IS A REAL QUANTITY OF OLIVE OIL AND IT IS NOT BUTTER. A hundred and twenty millilitres. It keeps the crumb moist for days where butter sets firm overnight, and the flavour belongs with the mint and the cheese. The loaf is noticeably better on the second day, which a butter version is not.
5. IT IS SALTED LIGHTLY BECAUSE THE CHEESE IS SALTY. One teaspoon in five hundred grams of flour, which looks mean. Four hundred grams of halloumi brings a great deal of its own, and it leaches outward into the crumb as it bakes.
6. The halloumi cut into 1.5 cm cubes and kept IN THE FRIDGE until the moment it is needed.
7. The oven heated to 180°C and a loaf tin lined.
8. The flour, baking powder, salt, pepper and dried mint stirred together in a large bowl.
9. The eggs, milk and olive oil whisked together and poured in.
10. Mixed to a thick batter -- lumpy is fine, and overmixing makes it tough.
11. The COLD halloumi cubes FOLDED IN with 3 strokes only. Not beaten.
12. Poured into the tin and levelled.
13. Brushed with beaten egg and the sesame seeds scattered thickly over.
14. Baked 50 to 55 MINUTES.
15. TESTED with a skewer into the crumb BETWEEN the cubes -- into a cube it will come out wet whatever happens. It should come out clean.
16. Cooled in the tin 15 minutes, then turned out.
17. CHECKED on slicing: the cubes should be DISTINCT white squares. Smeared cheese and oil in the tin means they went in warm.
18. Keeps 4 days and is better on the second.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Cyprus · All recipes