Flaounes Cheese Pie Recipe

Easter in Cyprus means baking Flaounes, a delicious Cypriot Savory Easter Cheese Pie. As families get together to break their Lenten fast, these savoury pies hold a special place in festive celebrations. 

These golden pastries are stuffed with spiced cheese and wrapped in a sesame-coated crust infused with aromatic mahleb and mastic. Different from the sweet Traditional Greek Easter Cakes, these savoury breads or pies are a must-try recipe if you are looking for authentic Greek Orthodox Easter Pastries!

For Easter, enjoy these recipes: braided Easter Bread, how to Make Dyed Eggs for Easter, Deviled Eggs or Eggs Mimosa, Eggless Slovak Paska Bread and Deviled Tomatoes.

What is Flaounes?

Flaounes, a Cypriot Cheese Pastry, is a bread or pie baked with families. This flaounes recipe uses a slow-rising process that allows the flavours to develop. There are also sweet versions of flaounes.

The aromatic ingredients mahleb and mastic give these Greek Easter Pastries a unique flavour. Mahleb is powdered dried pits of a wild Mediterranean cherry, and mastic is the dried resin of a shrub. These spices are common in Greek and Middle Eastern cuisine; there’s no substitute for the flavours.

Traditionally, the cheeses used are the local Cypriot cheeses, which are difficult to find outside Cypriot. The savoury Easter Pie recipe uses a lot of eggs. So, the filling for Flaounes is made of raisins, cheeses, and Greek spices.

What did I use in my Flaounes?

The cheese for flaounes can be substituted with a combination of hard and soft cheese. If you find Halloumi, use it. However, I have used sharp cheddar, processed cheese, mozzarella and cottage cheese. 

Traditionally, the recipe for Savory Easter Pies uses lots of eggs, but I have used Aparna’s modified recipe and one egg in the dough and filling, which worked great for me.

Flaounes also has raisins in the filling, mahleb, and mastic, but I skipped them all. I added chilli flakes to both the dough and the filling.

Ingredients for Flaounes

For the quantities, please check the recipe card

For the dough:

• Flour: Use all-purpose flour (maida) for the dough. 
• Yeast: I used instant yeast, but you can add active yeast after blooming it.
• Salt: for flavour.
• Sugar: regular granular sugar.
• Egg: regular egg or a brown one.
• Butter: Melted and cooled.
• Milk: I use 6% whole milk.
• Lukewarm water: To knead the dough, keep some extra because you may need it.
• Oil: To grease the bowl and roll the dough.
• Mastic and Mahleb: Use them for an authentic taste if you can get them. I skipped.

For the filling:

• Cheese: I used sharp Cheddar, mozzarella and cottage cheese or paneer 
• Flour: All-purpose flour; you need a little to bind.
• Rava: or semolina again to bind.
• Herbs use Mint: Use dry or fresh mint, black pepper, and red chilli flakes.
• Baking powder: do not skip.
• Milk: To bind the filling.  
• Raisins: You can also substitute with currants, and these are optional.
• Egg: regular egg or a brown one for sealing.
• Egg wash for sealing. 

How to make Flaounes

Making the Dough:

• Mix the flour, instant yeast, salt, sugar, egg, butter, and ¼ cup of water until the dough is soft, smooth, and elastic. Add water as needed.
• Place in an oiled bowl and allow to rise until doubled.
• Once the dough has risen, deflate it, cover it, and refrigerate it for at least 2 hours. You can also leave it overnight. 
• When ready to make the flaounes, divide the dough into 8 or 10 pieces. 

Making the Filling:

• Mix the dry ingredients for filling.
•  Before making the Flaounes, add the egg and milk to bind the filling to a stiff paste.

Shaping the Flaounes

• Divide the dough into 8 (or 10) equal pieces, and divide the filling into 8 (or 10) portions.
• Spread the sesame seeds on a large plate.
• Lightly oil your work surface and rolling pin.
• Then, roll each dough piece into a 5 to 6” round and place it on the plate with sesame seeds.
• Place a portion of the filling in the centre and spread the dough slightly, leaving an inch gap on the edges.
• Fold the two opposite edges over the filling, leaving the centre exposed. Next, fold over the other two edges to have a square pocket with the filling at the centre. 
• For a triangular Flaounes, fold to 3 points while keeping the filling exposed.
• Seal the edges with the egg or the flour paste and seal the edges tightly. 
• Press down the sealed points with the tines of a fork.
• Place the flaounes on a greased or parchment-lined baking sheet about 2 inches apart and allow them to rise for about 45 minutes.
•  Brush the top with egg or milk and bake in a preheated 190C or 375F oven for 25 - 30 minutes until golden and the cheese filling is puffed up.
• Cool on a wire rack and serve warm or at room temperature.

Substitutes for Cypriot Savory Easter Cheese Pie

• Cheeses: Cypriot/ Greek cheeses like Kefalotyri, Kefalogravier, or Kaskavali are suggested as substitutes for Flaounes cheese. Other cheeses include Halloumi, English Cheddar, Italian cheeses like Parmesan, Romanelo, or Pressato (mild), Pecorino (salty), or French Cantal cheese.
• In place of the egg, use 1 tablespoon flour + less than ⅛ cup milk as a sealing paste.
• In place of egg wash, use a little milk for brushing. 

Storage of Easter Cheese Pie

• In my hot and humid weather, I did not take chances. The Flaunes sat in the fridge.
• For Easter, make a large batch for the family get-together and as something they can carry back home.
• These flaounes also freeze well, so make some for the day you want something delicious to eat but rather not make anything. Just microwave in the oven. I loved it with coffee.

Related Recipe

Some of the other yummy breads you can make

This is an old recipe with pictures that begged me to replace them. The write-up, too, said that I needed to examine what I wrote, as forget my readers even I did not understand what I penned down. So, I'm redoing this post for Shhh Secretly Cooking.

The group where we are paired with other members who sign up for the challenge. This month's theme was Popular Dishes Around the World.

The hostess of the theme and my partner Kalyani gave me butter and milk as my secret ingredients. My ingredients for Kalyani to use were chia seeds and dates and this Strawberry Jam was her reply.

Flaounes Cheese Pies Recipe

A Cypriot Savoury Easter Cheese Pie Recipe to Celebrate Tradition

5 from 6 votes

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Course: Festival Cooking, Snack

Cuisine: Europe

Keyword: Baked, Easter Basket, Savoury cakes, Tart/Pies

Prep Time: 5 hours hours 25 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes minutes

Servings: 8 pieces

Calories:

Author: ArchanaPotdar

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Equipment

• Bowls
• Baking tray
• Oven
• Spatula

Ingredients

For the dough:

• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour maida
• ¾ teaspoon active yeast
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ teaspoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon mastic ground in a mortar (optional)
• ¼ teaspoon mahleb ground (optional)
• 1 egg
• ¼ cup milk
• 60 gram butter melted and cooled
• ¼ cup water lukewarm or as needed
• oil for greasing bowl and rolling dough

For the filling
:

• 1 cup cheddar cheese grated
• ¼ cup mozzarella cheese grated
• ⅓ cup paneer cottage cheese, crumbled
• 2 teaspoon all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup semolina
• 1 tablespoon mint dry , use ½ tablespoon finely chopped fresh mint if available
• ½ teaspoon Black Peppercorns crushed , optional
• ½ teaspoon red chilli flakes
• ⅛ cup raisins or currants, optional
• ¾ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 egg beaten, or 1 tablespoon flour + less than ⅛ cup milk (for sealing paste)
• 1 tablespoon oil
• ⅓ to ½ cup sesame seeds optional
• milk for brushing or egg wash from the beaten egg above

Instructions

First, make the dough:

Activating the yeast:

• In ½ of the ¼ cup water, dissolve the 1 ½ teaspoon sugar and sprinkle the ¾ teaspoon active yeast. Mix well and set aside till the yeast blooms.
• Mix well the 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, ¾ teaspoon salt, and flavouring ingredients in a bowl.
• Whisk together the 1 egg, ¼ cup milkWhisk together the 1 egg, ¼ cup milk and 60 gram butter in a small bowl and add it to the flour.
• Add the yeast mixture to the flour and knead until you have a soft, smooth, and elastic dough. Be careful that the dough is not sticky.
• Place the dough in an oilbowl, turning to coat it well.
• Cover loosely and let the dough rise for about 1 to 2 hours until it is doubled in volume.
• Once it has risen, deflate the dough by pressing it out and folding it a few times. Then, place it in a large container, cover it loosely, and refrigerate for about 2 hours or overnight.

Tip:

• Add water or flour as necessary to achieve the desired consistency of the dough. Too much flour will spoil the texture of the pies.

Making the filling:

• Mix the coarsely grated 1 cup cheddar cheese,¼ cup mozzarella cheese,⅓ cup paneer, 2 teaspoon all-purpose flour and ¼ cup semolina, 1 tablespoon mint, ½ teaspoon Black Peppercorns, ½ teaspoon red chilli flakes, ¾ teaspoon baking powder, and ⅛ cup raisins Mix the coarsely grated 1 cup cheddar cheese,¼ cup mozzarella cheese,⅓ cup paneer 2 teaspoon all-purpose flour¼ cup semolina, 1 tablespoon mint, crushed ½ teaspoon Black Peppercorns, ½ teaspoon red chilli flakes, ¾ teaspoon baking powder, and ⅛ cup raisins , if using, with a fork. Set aside.
• When ready to use, add 1 egg. Your filling must be just moist or a stiff paste, not wet.

To shape the Flaounes:

• Divide the dough into 8 (or 10) equal pieces, and divide the filling into 8 (or 10) portions.
• Spread the s⅓ to ½ cup sesame seeds on a large plate.
• Lightly use 1 tablespoon oil on the work surface and rolling pin.
• Then roll each piece into a 5 to 6” round. (The dough should be thin enough to support the weight of the filling; if it is too thick, your pie will be “bready”).
• Place the rolled-out dough on the plate of sesame seeds and press lightly. This will coat the Flaounes with the sesame seeds.
• Place the round on the work surface and put the filling portion in the middle. Spread the dough lightly to create an overhang of about 1” free at the edge.
• Now fold the Flaounes. You can make them triangular or square. Squares are traditional.
• For the square ones, fold the two opposite edges over the filling, exposing the centre. Now, fold over the other two edges to have a square pocket with the filling at the centre.
• For the triangular Flaounes, pull up the edges of the dough at three points and partially fold over the filling, one after the other, leaving the centre uncovered.
• Use the paste of flour and milk (or beaten egg) to seal the flaps of dough well.
• Press down the sealed points with the tines of a fork. Sealing the pies well is essential, or they will open up during the second rise/ baking. Do not pinch the flaps together; they will come apart as they rise.
• Place the shaped pies on a greased baking sheet, leaving 2 to 3” between them, and let them rise for about 40 minutes.
• Just before baking, brush the dough with milk (or beaten egg) and bake the Flaounes in a preheated oven at 190℃ (375℉) for 25 to 30 minutes until they are golden and the cheese filling is puffed up.
• Let them cool on a rack. Serve them warm or at room temperature.
• This recipe makes 8 or 10 Flaounes, about the size of one’s palm. These pies keep for two days at room temperature in an airtight container. You can freeze the extras to eat later.