In Doğancı, ovens are heating up... Dough is prepared... Hot pastires and olive breads are baked accompanied by good conversation. Even though the stone ovens are not used and dough is not prepared as often as it used to be, some people did not abandon their culture at all...
In the past, everyone would prepare their own dough for bread and pastry and bake it in the oven in their garden... Nowadays, ovens are rarely used in the villages. Cyprus pastry can be baked using different herbs in each region. In some villages in Cyprus, especially during Bayrams, it would be made from chickpea yeast. Maya would be acquired from chickpea and dough would be made from the yeast for pastries in the old days... Still there are some people who continue these traditions. Deniz Solyalı and her family take us on a journey towards the nostalgia of old days, taking advantage of good weather in Doğancı during a weekend. Oven is warmed up, dough is prepared and Cyprus pastry and olive bread are prepared.
It is covered with a blanket for fermentation
The recipe we acquired from Deniz Solyalı is as such: Flour is screened into the dough sink and then stick cinnamon, ginger and arabic gum that were previously crushed are added for the preparation of the traditional Cypriot pastry.... Later, yeast is added to flour with warm water and dough is started to be knead. As the elders say, dough is kneaded until it is a bit harder than an earlobe. Dough is covered with a blanket to keep it warm for fermentation. When the dough swells and it has cracks on it, it means that it is ready. Later the dough that is divided into pieces with the help of a knife is made into small pieces of balls.
Pastries are sit to wait before being put to the oven
Later, the pieces of dough are made into rolls on the table and sesame is spread on them. Dough in rolls that is covered with sesame can now be sliced into pieces in any size and the pieces are connected side by side as traditional pastries. Later on, the pastries that are put on a clean sheet are covered. This is done before putting them to the oven to reach the desired temperature for the pastries to swell.
Temperature of the oven is determined with sesames
Meanwhile ovens are heated up, pieces of wood that turned into coal are put outside and the inside of the oven is cleaned with wet cloth. Therefore, the ideal temperature of the oven is reached. Temperature of the oven is checked if it is ready by throwing sesames in it. If sesames suddenly change colour, this means that the temperature of the oven is high. If sesames change colour gradually, this means that the temperature of the oven is fine and the pastries can be put into the oven. Pastries put into the oven are ready in about half an hour and is served with fresh halloumi. (We would like to thank Deniz Solyalı for these beautiful photos and the recipe.)
