KOULOURIA

Koulouria are a very popular street food all over Greece. They are made in commercial bakeries and are sold as a morning or mid-morning snack. By 1:00 pm or so, vendors are sold out. I guess you can say koulouria are a street food with pedigree since there is historical evidence that they were sold in the streets of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, as early as 800 to 900 CE. (They are discussed in an army manual of the 9th century. See my entry about koulouria here). If you are far from Greece and miss the crunchy, sesame taste of koulouria, here is a recipe you can try that will ease your nostalgia.


Ingredients:

3 cups bread flour plus more for dusting
1 cup lukewarm water
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil, plus extra for greasing the bowl and the dough
1 cup sesame seeds (you may need more)
one medium-sized bowl filled with water at room temperature

Directions:

• Place the yeast, sugar, salt and 1/3 cup of oil in the bowl of your mixer. Add the water and mix everything with a wooden spoon, stirring until all the ingredients are well incorporated.
• Add one cup of flour, place the dough hook on your mixer and start mixing on low speed. Add the rest of the flour one cup at a time, mixing well after each addition. Keep mixing until you have a smooth dough. You'll know it's ready if it does not adhere to the sides of the bowl as it's being mixed.
• Remove the dough to a large bowl that has been greased with vegetable oil. Grease the top of the dough ball with vegetable oil, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and then cover it with a kitchen towel.
• Place it in a spot that is free of drafts and let it rise until doubled in size, about 2 hours.
• When the dough has doubled in size punch it down, cover it again in the same manner, and let it rise until it's doubled in size once again, about 1 hour.
• Punch the dough down once more, remove it from the bowl and cut it into chunks of dough that are about one-inch square.
• Sprinkle a small amount of flour on your working surface and roll each piece of dough into a strip. Line up the strips and sprinkle flour over them until they are lightly covered.
• Have the following ready: a bowl filled with water, a clean dish towel, and a flat pan filled with the sesame seeds.
• Dip each strip of dough into the bowl of water and lightly dry it on the towel. Dry it just enough to remove excess liquid. The dough needs to be somewhat wet.
• While the strip of dough is still wet, drop it in the pan with the sesame seeds and roll it around until it's coated in seeds.
• Cover all the strips in sesame seeds.
• Twist the strips into round shapes and pinch the ends together to make rings. Why should koulouria have a round shape? Look at the picture below:

A modern-day vendor. Round-shaped koulouria are easy to stack and easy to carry and sell. If you have a  few wooden dowels you're in business. Merchants have carried them around in this manner for centuries. 

Here's a modern-day display stand, but in the old days, a nice plain dowel did the job just as well!

• Although koulouria are traditionally made into ring shapes, I like to make both strips and rings. Strips take up less space on the baking sheets, allowing me to fit more on each sheet and finish the job faster. 
• Place on sheets lined with parchment paper and bake in a preheated 425°F oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until they are golden brown.
• Koulouria should be crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. Serve them warm. They taste best if consumed the same day they are made. Unless you are feeding a crowd, you won't be able to eat them all in one day. Store them in an airtight container and enjoy them during the week. They tend to get really crunchy-hard if they are left over, but believe me, they still taste great and can be enjoyed as breadsticks. 

KOULOURIA, KOULOURAKIA. WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Koulourakia, a wonderful dessert served here with a cup of coffee.

Koulouria for sale. Grab them while they are still fresh!!!

Is there is a difference between koulouria and koulourakia? The answer is yes, and here are the details:

1.  Koulouria (koulouria is the plural tense and koulouri is the singular tense).

These are somewhat large, bread-like wreaths or rings, smothered in sesame seeds and traditionally served as street food. They are good and crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, sesame-doughy tasting, and a fantastic treat to eat. They are carbohydrate-rich, very low in fat and make an excellent,  satisfying snack. Greeks eat a very light breakfast, so a crunchy late-morning snack of koulouri holds them over until the mid-day meal, which is the main meal of the day (eaten around one p.m. or at the latest two p.m. - right before the siesta). 

Koulouria are generally mass-produced by specialized bakeries, but there are recipes available for home cooks. (Find my recipe for koulouria here). Bakeries make koulouria at night so that their product can be ready early in the morning for the waiting vendors who will then sell them as snack food.

One of my homemade versions ... 

Vendors cluster around markets and crossroads. Some have stationary street stands, while others are mobile, moving according to demand. Most vendors sell out of koulouria by noon: Koulouria go fast. 

When I was a kid, attending elementary school in Thessaloniki, I used to consider myself lucky if I had the necessary sum of one drachma to buy a koulouri during recess. Sometimes, if our school vendor was in a good mood, she would ask us to cup our palms and she would pour into them the sesame seeds left on the bottom of the trays once the koulouria were sold out. A handful of roasted sesame seeds can make a kid very happy. 

Sesame is used liberally, therefore there are always leftover sesame seeds at the bottom of a tray. This vendor's koulouria are perfection itself and precisely what a commercially made variety should look like! Food heaven in a basket!!!

Etymologically speaking, the word koulouri derives from antiquity. In ancient Greece, the word kollyrio* described a small round-shaped bread made of barley flour. Later on, during Byzantine times, kollyrio evolved into the word kollykio, and that word evolved into the modern day word koulouri. All three mean the same thing: a small roundish bread. (Hold on. We're not done: In some regions, it’s also known as semiti or simit, a term that derives from the Greek word semigdali -- semolina to us. Semigdali or semolina is nothing else but hard or durum wheat, the type of wheat used in bread flour, the type of flour necessary for making koulouria).  

Koulouria were a popular street food in Thessaloniki and Constantinople both during the Byzantine and Ottoman periods. During the early part of the twentieth century, waves of Greek refugees from Constantinople and Asia Minor reintroduced the koulouri to the Greek mainland. A considerable number of refugees settled in and around the city of Thessaloniki which is located in northern Greece. Soon, koulouria made and sold by these refugees could be found all over the city, a reason these delicacies, no matter which city they can be found in, are known as "koulouria of Thessaloniki." Their popularity continues to this day.

Homemade koulouri, made smaller than the commercial variety. The smaller size is best for home ovens (photo by Sweet Almond Tree). 

Here is a personal observation: Look at the picture of the koulouri at the top of this paragraph. Do you see the part where the dough has been linked to form a ring? It's clearly visible because it forms an indentation in the koulouri. That is the most delicious part to eat. Since it's been pressed down, it's crunchier, denser, and thinner. It has a taste all its own. As a kid, I used to save this "link" for last, and sometimes I would hide it in my pocket to eat as a special treat later in the day. Eating that little bite was a delight! In the playground, there were two types of kids: those who loved that link and those who didn't. The links were a commodity to be traded or used as ransom in our hide-and-seek games.  Sometimes you could wind up with two or three in your pocket, and then you would be considered rich! 

This mural, dating to the Byzantine era can be found in Thessaloniki. It shows three comrades selling koulouria outside a bakery! 

*The word kollyrio is the etymological root of the word “collyrium,” which is used in the field of ophthalmology. A collyrium was an ancient medicinal preparation: a piece of soft bread was soaked in a remedy and used as an eye compress. Today, a collyrium is a lotion or liquid wash used as a cleanser for the eyes, particularly in diseases of the eye.

I must mention that although this is a beloved and celebrated snack, the life of a koulouri vendor (he is referred to as a koulouras) is a difficult one. Selling anything on the street was and is very hard work. As recently as the mid 1950s, in the still war-impoverished Greece, it wasn't uncommon practice for children to be employed as vendors. 

I'd like to share some photographs (from the Internet):

A modern-day vendor at a festival concession. Today, koulouria are also sold in shops and are available in different varieties such as stuffed with cheeses, olives, vegetables, hams, or ... dear me. chocolates. Myself, I am a sworn purist! Forever! Give me the original version, please.
  

I can't decide if this is a customer or a vendor ... Sometimes, if the vendor has to step away, koulouria will be sold on the self-serve honour system. Take a koulouri and pay for it by dropping your coins into a small receptacle left on the tray.

Thessaloniki 1947

This photograph was not dated but I assume it was taken in the early 1940s. War, poverty, famine and misfortune nearly destroyed Greece during 1940 - 1950. 

A young vendor from Crete, 1900. Too young, but unfortunately, such was and is life.
Notice the traditional Cretan breeches, a style made popular during the 14th and 15th centuries when Cretan men worked on Venetian ships. Versions of these breeches remain part of the traditional Cretan costume. 

Let's now discuss koulourakia (the word means small koulouria):

2.  Koulourakia  

Koulourakia are small, buttery, desert-type cookies. Historically, they were placed front and center on the buffet table during holidays and at times of celebration. Today they can be eaten at any time. Koulourakia can have various shapes such as twists, circles, serpentines, you name it. There is a shape meant to resemble a ship or boat, but in my opinion, the resemblance depends on an active imagination. Often, the shape is influenced by the region where the koulourakia are made and the preference or stamina of the person making them. 

The basic recipe for koulourakia contains flour, sugar, butter, and aromatics. The texture is crumbly, crunchy but not hard, and the taste is buttery with hints of the flavourings used. There are several flavourings to choose from: orange, lemon, brandy, ouzo, vanilla, etc. Koulourakia are brushed with egg wash before baking, and it's traditional but not necessary to top each one with a few sesame seeds. When koulourakia contain spirits, they are called koulourakia methysmena, which means drunk koulourakia. In some regions of Greece, perhaps for religious or dietary reasons, spirits are not used for flavouring. Anise can be substituted, to give the hint of the ouzo taste. After all, ouzo, the famous and omnipresent Greek apéritif, is flavoured with anise. 

You can find one of my recipes for koulourakia by clicking here. I should mention it was my mother's recipe, and the koulourakia pictured at the top of this post, the ones next to the coffee, were made by both of us: she made the dough, I shaped them. She used to say the recipe was the best one for koulourakia she had ever tried ... given to her by a dear girlfriend.  

Koulourakia before going into the oven.

Note: Some of the information on street food is based on personal observation. A certain amount, particularly that of the etymological origins of the word "koulouri," is taken from the book "Street Foods, World Review of Nutrition and Dietetics, Volume 86" edited by Artemis P. Simopoulos and Ramesh V. Bhat.

Scattered among my own  photographs are some borrowed from "Parallaxi," a Greek online magazine.