Have you ever made dough? If you have, you’ll know what we are talking about in this blog post. If you haven’t then let us introduce you to the magical word of putting a few ingredients together and creating something you thought was impossible.
Sure, like most things you can get ready made dough of your choosing from the grocery store. Do you need filo (phyllo) pastry for a spinach pie? The corner shop will have it. Do you need puff pastry for a bulgur pie ? Supermarket is next door.
But then you will be missing half the fun. You see, making dough is much easier than what you think. When we are talking dough, it all comes down to two things: ingredients and recipe. Dough usually has very few ingredients so as we’ve said in the past, make sure they are damn good. Get the good eggs. Get the slightly more expensive flour. Get the best you can afford. Now, when it comes to the recipe. That’s a tricky one. Internet these days is full of recipes. Bookstores are filled with cookery books. How does one choose which recipe to trust? Because we know first hand how horrible it is to put time and love into a recipe and it not giving you that love back. How does one find a recipe they trust? Here at Oliveology if there is one person we trust more than anyone it’s Mrs Kalliopi, Marianna’s mother. Remember her delicious Apple cake? Every week when we discuss future blog posts at Oliveology I nudge Marianna: call your mum, she has great recipes!
This time she shared with us her recipe for Kourou dough. This is a Greek dough that Mrs Kalliopi makes with olive oil and yogurt. The recipe came just as a list of ingredients and only the phrase: “make a soft and fluffy dough. Let it rest for 30min”. But worry not, we’ve deciphered it for you.
In Greece we usually make it into small pastries and fill them with feta and egg. But as you can imagine you can stuff it with whatever you wish: graviera or other hard cheese and bacon, tomatoes and a soft creamy white cheese like galotyri. Or you can even spread it and use it as a base for your pizza. This specific dough can actually stand on its own, so you can even roll it out and cut it in strips.
Ingredients
500g flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
230ml (1 cup) of extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons (30g) grated graviera cheese
200g greek yogurt
1 egg
Preheat your oven at 180C. Sieve your flour in a bowl and add the salt.
In a separate bowl whisk your egg. Add the olive oil and yogurt and stir until everything is combined. Add the cheese and stir again. Slowly pour your wet ingredients into your flour bowl. Use your hands until everything is combined. Place your dough in a lightly floured surface and kneed for a few minutes until you get (you guessed it) a soft and fluffy dough.
Let it rest for half an hour while you prepare your fillings or topping (if using any). Roll it and either stuff it, use it as a pizza base or cut in strips. Bake at 180C. Your dough will rise a bit, having a delicious slightly flaky texture. When you make it, drop us an email or tweet, Mrs Kalliopi would be thrilled.
