Cypriot Flaounes (Φλαούνες)

Flaounes belong to Cyprus, especially to the Easter table, when the long fast breaks and the house smells of cheese, mint, mahlepi, and toasted sesame. They are not ordinary cheese pies. The dough is tender but sturdy, the outside is crusted with sesame, and the filling stands high inside, rich with halloumi, anari, eggs, and dried mint.

The whole bread depends on the filling resting before you shape it. Grated cheese, semolina, yeast, eggs, and mint need time to tighten into a scoopable mass, not a loose mixture that leaks into the dough. Give it at least four hours, overnight if you can, and the flaounes bake proud instead of slumping. That is the step I defend.

Make them generous, not delicate. Fold the dough around the filling, leave the center open, brush with egg, and bake until the sesame is nutty and the cheese top is deeply golden. Eat one warm, because after Lent, patience has already done its work.