Koullourka Kyprou (Κουλλούρκα Κύπρου), Cyprus Easter Rings

Koullourka Kyprou are Cyprus's Easter rings: small bread-cookies, sesame all over, scented with mahlepi and mastic, made to sit on the table beside red eggs and flaounes without begging for attention. They are not the butter koulourakia of the mainland. They are firmer, chewier, less sweet, and built for keeping.

The sourdough is the part that decides them. A lively prozymi gives the dough its slow lift, a light tang under the spice, and the stubborn chew that makes the rings last beyond Easter Sunday. Rush them and they become ordinary little breads in sesame coats. Good olive oil, good sesame, and patience. Λίγα και καλά.

Shape them firmly, wet them, press them into sesame, and give the trays their second rise without poking at them every ten minutes. I keep this recipe plain because the Cypriot cooks who sent me their versions were plain about it too: mahlepi, mastic, sesame, sourdough, time. I don't invent it. I find it, I test it, I write it down.