Kıbrıs Köy Ekmeğİ (Cypriot Village Bread)

Ok, welcome to Episode 4 of Meliz’s Meyhane, and today I’m showing you how to make “Kıbrıs Köy Ekmeği”, a spiced, traditional Cypriot loaf. This bread is served for breakfast but also alongside meze in a meyhane, sometimes toasted, not only for its change in texture and intensity of flavour, but also so it’s not wasted once it goes a little stale. I adore this bread, it’s dairy free and vegan too, and freezes beautifully. Please make it. 

INGREDIENTS

75ml boiling hot water

1 tsp sugar

250ml cold water 

1 x 7g sachet fast-action dry yeast 

500g strong white bread flour + extra for dusting 

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon 

1/4 tsp ground cloves 

1/4 tsp ground mahleb

1 tsp sea salt flakes 

1/2 tsp aniseed

METHOD

Dissolve the sugar in a jug with 75ml boiling water then top up with 250ml cold water - it should be tepid / lukewarm. Add the yeast and leave to one side for 5-10 minutes to activate. It will become frothy once ready. 

Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl, then gently stir in the salt, ground cinnamon, cloves and mahleb with a fork. Crush the aniseed and sea salt together in a pestle and mortar until it forms a powder. Stir this into spiced flour then make a little well in the centre of the bowl. 

Add the activated yeasty liquid to the bowl, whisking the liquid into the flour with a fork, then start to mix it together with one of your hands. 

Place the dough, including any pieces left in the bottom of the bowl, onto a clean, dry surface and start kneading the dough, by pushing it out then bringing it back in with the other hand (you can use a stand mixer with a dough hook for this entire process, including adding the water mixture to the flour). If you need to add a little more flour to the surface, just add a small dusting so that the hydration levels don’t drop too much, which will result in a much tighter loaf. 

Knead the dough for around 10 minutes until smooth, then form it into a large, smooth ball, dust with a little flour, then place in a bowl that has also been dusted with flour in the base. Cover the bowl with cling film, then a tea towel, and allow to prove somewhere cosy for around an hour until it doubles in size. 

After the dough has this this first proof, uncover the bowl, then gently punch down the dough in the bowl, then turn the dough over onto your clean surface, tucking the sides under to form a ball again. Now start to gently push down on the dough with the pans of your hand until you are left with a large, but flattened piece of dough, around 23cm in diameter. Dust the flattened dough with a little more flour and place it in a large, deep baking tray or a large Dutch oven, around 25cm in diameter, that has been lined with baking paper. If using a deep tray, then cover it with another large deep tray; if using a Dutch oven, pop on the lid and proof for another 30 minutes. 

Preheat oven to 230c fan / 250c conventional while the dough has its second proof. 

Once the dough has had its second proof, quickly score around the centre of the circular unbaked loaf. 

Place the deep tray / lid back over the unbaked loaf, pop into the on the middle shelf, quickly throwing in 50ml cold water into the bottom of the oven (do not throw it on the glass) and cook covered for 18-20 mins, then remove the covering tray / lid, turn the heat down to 210c fan / 230c and cook for around another 12-15 mins more until golden brown. 

Remove straight onto a cooling rack, turn off the oven, and allow the loaf to cool for 20 mins, before putting it back into the residual heat of the oven for the crust to really crisp up for another 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, slice and serve warm.