This recipe for Cypriot Flaounes – Traditional Easter Cheese Pies comes directly from Cyprus. Enjoy these authentic cheese-filling pies with your whole family during Easter. Flaounes are a typical Easter dish in Cyprus and their fluffy, aromatic nature is a perfect way to break your Easter Lent period and celebrate Easter Sunday!
Prep time: 30
Cooking time: 25 minutes
Servings: 10 pieces
To make this traditional Cypriot flaounes– traditional Easter pies recipe you will need:
For the Flaounes dough:
For the cheese filling:
- 350gr flaouna cheese
- 80gr crystal sugar
- 1 tsp mastic
- 1 tsp mahlepi
- 1 tsp dried spearmint
- 1tsp cinnamon
- lemon zest from 1 lemon
- 80gr semolina
- 1 large egg
- 100gr raisins
Cooking instructions
For the dough:
Add the water and the yeast in a mixer and mix manually. Add the flour, olive oil and salt and mix at maximum speed with mixer’s hook. Transfer the dough in a oiled bowl and cover with cellophane until doubled in volume.
For the cheese filling:
Add the flaouna cheese in a bowl. Add the Tsp of sugar, mastic, mahlep and spearmint in a mortart until fully grounded and trasnfer into the flaouna cheese bowl to mix. Once mixed, add the cinnamon, lemon zest, semolina, egg, raisins and the rest of the sugar in to the mix and hand mix until everything is combined.
For the Cooking:
Pre-heat the over to 200ºC fan. Separate the dough and the filling in 10 parts. Spread one part of the dough with a plaster in a triangle or round shape of approximately 10cm. Place one part of the filling at the centre of the dough piece and fold towards the centre, leaving an ‘S’ shaped gap in the middle. Press the edges with a fork and transfer to the baking sheet on the tray.
Repeat the same process for the rest of the dough and filling pieces and bake for 20-25 minutes on a separate tray. Remove from the tray, serve and enjoy!