Sesame bagels (koulouria Thessalonikis)

Thessaloniki is my home town! I was born and raised there. It’s the second biggest city in Greece.

Koulouri is a snack that you can find everywhere in the city, on the streets, in the super markets, in the bakery. It’s something that we eat mostly as a breakfast but personally I can eat it any time of the day.

I couldn’t help but learn how to do it my self when i moved to the UK as here there is not such a thing.

So here is the recipe nice and simple.

Ingredients

  • 500gr of plain flour
  • 2 tsp of yeast
  • 2  tbsp of sugar
  • 2 tbsp of salt
  • 2 tbsp of olive oil
  • 250 gr warm (not hot) water
  • Sesame seeds

Let’s make it

  • Put the flour in a large bowl
  • Add all the ingredients and at last put the warm water on the mixture
  • knead the dough until smooth and soft and not sticky in to your hands.
  • Let it rest in a warm place by wrapping the bowl with the dough in a clean kitchen towel. You can leave it rest as long as you like or until the dough has doubled its size ( it usually takes more than an hour)
  • After the dough is ready you need to form smooth balls and knead each  one of them by hand in to a long roll, bring the two edges together to form a circle.
  • Put in a bowl warm water and in another one the sesame seeds
  • Deep each bagel in to the bowl with water and straight after in to the sesame seeds, the water helps the sesame seeds to stick in to the dough.
  • Place them in a baking tray that have been lined with baking paper, so they won’t stick.
  • Bake for 30 min (depends on the oven) or until brown.

You can serve them with a piece of cheddar cheese, maybe some melted butter or plain just like i prefer them.

Enjoy x