Tahinopita, Irish style!

We are missing my son who is in Cyprus. He moved to Limassol in August 2019 with a new job. We haven't seen each other since November 2019 because of Covid19. We missed his 21st almost a year ago and he will be 22, still in a partial lockdown in Cyprus.

I have spent a lot of time in Cyprus over the years and it has a special place in my heart. It took me a while to discover as a foreigner that Cyprus food is very vegan friendly. You wouldn't know this from reading tourist menus. But dig a little deeper into the wonderful culture and you will discover a host of delicious, vegan friendly food all over this lovely island. And it is mostly, wholefood and very healthy too.

It was #greenmonday there on Monday. Thinking of Cyprus and of my son and this fasting period before Easter made me think of Tahinopita. These are delicious vegan friendly pastries that are traditionally dairy free, egg free and oil free.

I adapted the recipe from www.kopiaste.org. I have made tahinopita before - if I was more organised I would have my own recipe to share now, but alas, it was lost in the move a few years ago. If I make them again I will make some changes to this recipe too. I used a strong bread flour which is great for home-made crusty white bread but I wouldn't use it in this recipe again because it is not very pliable.

Here are the ingredients:

For the dough

350g flour - I used half bread flour and half self raising flour

14g dried yeast

1/4 cup of caster sugar

pinch of salt

2 tspn of cinnamon

Enough lukewarm boiled water to make a pliable dough, about 150ml

For the filling

3/4 jar of tahini (you can buy it in Tesco)

1/2 cup of caster sugar

2 tspns cinnamon

Method:

Add all of the dry ingredients to a mixing bowl.

Make a well in the centre and add about 100 ml of the water. Mix. Add enough water to make a workable dough.

Turn out and knead the dough, Divide into six even pieces.

Leave them to rise for half an hour while you make the filling.

Mix the tahini with the sugar and the cinnamon.

Take the dough and roll out each piece to a round of about 30cm x 20cm

Spread the filling on the dough. Fold the edges in. Then fold the dough lengthways so the edges touch in the middle. Then fold it again lengthways so you have a long thing sort of tube shape.

Hold one end of the dough and start twisting the other end. The aim id to get it to double in length. I couldn't do that. But when you've got it as long as you can, twist it round into itself so that it forms a circle shape.

Do this with each piece.

Bake at 180 for 45 mins.

Glaze with a sugar water cinnamon mix.

Hack

This is a bit like cinnamon buns. It you wanted to get the tahini deliciousness without the hassle of making the dough, you could use pre-made pastry, spread the tahini on the flat pastry, roll it up and and cut it into rounds. Follow pastry pack cooking instructions.

Not quite as healthy but I reckon it would still taste good!