At Anna’s Kitchen Table

These gorgeous bread rolls are typically Cypriot, slightly sweet, fragrant with the smell of aniseed, cinnamon, vanilla and mastic. Perfect eaten warm, straight from the oven, with a cup of tea or coffee.

You can form them into rings, pretzel shapes or any shape that takes your fancy, really! Some form them into braids or breadsticks.

This recipe makes 10-12.

You will need 1 sachet (7g) of dried fast action yeast, 3 tbsp sugar, 500g strong white flour, 1tsp salt, 100g sesame seeds mixed with a pinch or two of aniseeds (optional) 2-3 mastic tears ground to a powder with a little sugar, 1tbsp ground cinnamon and 1 sachet of vanilla sugar or 1tsp vanilla extract.

In a mixer with a dough attachment, place in the bowl the flour, at the one side open the sachet of yeast and sprinkle it in.

At the other side of the bowl place the sugar, salt, mastic, cinnamon and vanilla.

Pour in 350ml of lukewarm water and knead, starting off at a low speed for 5-7 minutes.

The dough will be smooth and elastic.

Pick the dough up, shape into a rough ball, oil the bowl with a little cooking oil, place the dough back in and place in a warmish place for 1-2 hours, until doubled in size.

Cut the dough into 10-12 equal sized pieces and form into shapes, bearing in mind that they expand a lot during the second prove and in the oven. Make them thinner than you eventually want them.

Place them one by one on to your hand and swiftly turn them over and back again into the sesame seeds which are on a plate.

Place on two non stick baking sheets.

Leave them for 30 minutes to prove a little more.

Cook at 180 deg C for 20-30 minutes until golden brown and the house is smelling delicious ❤️

These are perfect for a spot of lockdown baking. Husband is redecorating, so I have no wallpaper on the walls 😩 and I seem to be doing a lot of cooking and baking!