Halloumi is arguably Cyrprus’s most famous food. Combine it with olives and mint for an amazing savoury cake! I will also show you the gluten-free version.
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00:00 Intro
00:19 Dough
01:20 Other ingredients, assembling, baking
03:08 Tasting
03:36 Gluten-free version
04:20 Outro
Ingredients:
– 400 g bread flour (Caputo gluten-free for the GF version)
– 300 ml water
– 60 ml olive oil
– 12 g fresh yeast (or 6 g dry)
– 1 onion
– 225 g halloumi
– 160 g kalamata olives
– 2 tbsp dry mint
– 1/2 tsp sugar
– 1 tsp salt
– Sesame seeds
Procedure:
1. In a bowl, combine 400 g flour, 12 g fresh yeast (or 6 g dry), 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp salt, 300 ml water, and 60 ml olive oil; proof for 1 hour
2. Chop an onion, dice 225 g halloumi, and slice or halve 200 g black olives
3. Deflate the dough and add onion, halloumi and olives, plus 2 tbsp dry mint; mix everything, either with a spoon or a greased hand
4. Transfer the dough into a cake tin greased in olive oil, and sprinkle sesame seeds on top
5. Optional: set it aside for 30 minutes (recommended for the GF version, not needed for the regular version), then bake for 35 minutes at 200 C, and 10 more minutes at 180 C
6. Let it cool down for at least 15 minutes before serving; enjoy!
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Hi everyone, and welcome to my channel!
This is Hellimli (or Halloumoti in Greek), a delicious Cypriot savoury cake that you can
make with a few simple ingredients: olives, mint, sesame seeds and of course, halloumi,
arguably Cyprus’s most famous product! It’s very easy to prepare,
and at the end of the video, I will also show you the gluten-free version.
So, let’s get started. The first thing I’m going to do is dissolve 12 g fresh yeast in
100 ml of water, with half a tsp of sugar. If you’re using dry yeast, you
can halve the amount, so 6 g. Then, I’ll throw in 400 g of bread
flour, but it should work just as well with plain all-purpose flour.
Then, 60 ml olive oil – although some recipes use even up to double this amount
– and, finally, an extra 200 ml of water. That’s 300 ml in total, which
will yield a very wet dough. You can reduce the amount of water
if you prefer a bread-like texture, but hellimli is more often prepared as a soft
savoury cake rather than a bread or focaccia. So much so that there is also another method to
prepare hellimli, with a liquid batter and baking powder, as if you were making a sweet cake.
For the same reason, you don’t really have to do a lot of kneading – I’ve only combined the
ingredients with a spoon first, and then with this hand mixer for a couple of minutes.
At this point, there is no need to let the dough rest and then fold it, I’ll
simply let it proof for about an hour. In the meantime, I’ll work
on the other ingredients. I’m going to halve 200 g of kalamata olives, so
they get distributed better in the cake, but you can use them whole if you can’t be bothered!
I’m also going to chop an onion, and I’m going to dice 225 g of halloumi, the
cheese the cake is named after. And it’s already time to get back to the dough!
I’m going grease my hands with some olive oil, and I’m going to deflate it.
As I said, there’s actually no need to fold the dough – you can see that it’s quite wet
and the texture after baking is meant to be very soft rather than to have a strong structure to it.
So, after preheating the oven at 200 C, I’m going to go ahead and throw everything
in: halloumi, onion and olives. I’m also going to add 2 tbsp of dry mint,
and then I’m going to mix everything well. I am using a silicone spoon, but you
can also use your own hands – just make sure you grease them well again.
I’m actually going to add some oil to help me with the spoon as well.
And now, I am going to take a cake tin that I have previously greased in olive oil,
and I am going to transfer the dough into it. Then I’m going to drizzle some oil on top
to help me distribute the dough more evenly. Plus, it will also give the
cake a nice golden crust. As a finishing touch, I am going to
sprinkle some sesame seeds all over it, including some black ones as well.
Now, you can also set it aside for 30 minutes if you want it to rise a bit more;
otherwise, you can simply go ahead and bake it for 45 minutes like I’m going to do.
Depending on your oven, you might need to lower the temperature to 180
C for the last 10 minutes or so, if you see that the cake is browning too much.
In any case, it’s good to prick it with a toothpick before taking it out, to check if
it’s done, like you would for a sweet cake. And here it is!
I will have to let it cool down at least 15 minutes, then I can slice it up.
With olives, halloumi and mint, this is definitely what I would imagine having if I visited Cyprus!
We love its distinctive mint flavour and its fluffy texture.
It’s so satisfying, and if you don’t finish it all in one go, it’s still great the day after too!
And now, as I promised, the gluten-free version. I used the exact same ingredient
amounts and procedure. I let it proof for 1 hour, then I threw
in halloumi, onion, olives and mint. The only difference is that I allowed the dough
rest half an hour in the tin before baking, which made it rise a little more.
The other reason why it’s taller is that I used a smaller cake tin.
Anyway, doesn’t it look great too? The texture is a bit more bread-like, but that’s
because this flour, like most gluten-free flours, absorbs more water than regular wheat flour.
So, if you’re looking to obtain an even softer texture, you could probably
add a bit more water to the dough. But I found this incredibly
soft and enjoyable as it is! Anyway, whether you call it bread or
cake, I’ve already made hellimli a few times, and I’ll definitely make it again.
What about you, are you going to give it a try? Let me know in the comments.
And if you enjoyed this video, don’t forget to hit the like button and subscribe!
So, where are we going next?
Dining and Cooking