The many small meze and dips call for crunchy morsels of bread type accompaniments and wherever I have travelled, I have never seen so many bakeries or so many different kinds of savoury and sweet biscuits as in Greece. Next time you get a chance pop into one. You will love the variety, warmth and smell!
In the last few years I have come to appreciate the benefits of carob flour, so rich in vitamins and protein so I incorporate it wherever I can. It also adds natural sweetness and in this case, I added some to part of the dough to make biscuits for cheese. They are worth trying!
Ingredients
- 250ml sunflower oil
- 250 ml dry white wine
- 30ml vodka or brandy (I use tsikoudia, the Cretan eau de vie made from grapes)
- 30g baking powder
- 50 g sugar
- 200g mixed seeds including linseeds and sesame
- Plain flour enough till a soft dough consistency is reached, approx. 600g
Method
Toss the seeds in a bit of flour and the baking powder in a bowl. Mix in all the other ingredients apart from the flour. At this point you may take approximately 1/3 of the quantity of the mix and put in another bowl to which you add first 50g of carob flour and then enough plain flour to make a soft dough. Carob flour is very healthy (350mg of calcium and 850 mg of potassium per 100g) and a little sweet.
Or, you may continue and add the flour slowly to reach the right consistency working the dough gently with your hands. Try to roll a piece of dough to make a stick. If it is sticky, it needs a little more flour but don’t add to much flour as they will harden when they cook. Oil based dough must not be overworked otherwise the oil will seep out of the mixture. Cover with clingfilm and rest for 15 minutes.
Make sticks and bake at 180 for 17-20 mins depending on how big they are. Allow approx. 20g per stick for long sticks and 10g for short sticks.
For the carob flour mixture, you can choose to make sticks or roll out the pastry between two sheets of baking parchment and cut out rounds to be used as biscuits for cheese.
Both go very well with dips such as tzatziki, tyrokafteri (I like my version which is a mixture of feta, Greek yogurt and roasted sweet peppers with a bit of paprika, chopped chili and a little vinegar for flavour and kick – you can buy Greek Florina peppers in jars) and the carob flour ones go well with blue cheese.