Baked products with sesame: bread, koullouria, gennópites, lehouzoúthkia, koúmoulla and others.
Name - Origin
Κουλούρια με σησάμι.
They were made using a firm dough and coated with white sesame seeds. Crushed cloves, cinnamon and mastic were added to the flour. Sometimes, in a variation, a bit of sugar was added. A variety of sisamota included koullouria (buns), dáhtyla (fingers), glystarkés; anthopoúthkia (little people) and zembyloúkia were prepared for children (MichalopoulouCharalambous 1998, 331).
Functional and symbolic role
Sisamotá were festive preparations which included gennópites, lehouzoúthkia, koúmoulla, koulloúria (ordinary or fasting type) and pitta of Aï Vasílis (Santa Claus). The would be baked two or three days before Christmas. On these days, housewives would bake many koullouria, enough for all the days of the festive season, and so two or more women would often work together to knead the large quantities of dough (Kypri - Protopapa 2003, 86-87).
Sisamotá were always essential for Easter and Christmas celebrations. However, housewives would also prepare them during fasting periods, so as to enrich the family's fasting meals. During September, the sesame trees would be shaken to obtain the fresh sesame seeds and use them to make sisamotá (Michalopoulou-Charalambous 1998, 331).
People used to believe that if kneading was carried out during the twelve days after Christmas day, it would not be successful since kalikantzaroi (malevolent creatures in Southeast European and Anatolian folklore) were still around. However, if a housewife had to knead sisamotá during that period, she would include nigella seeds in the dough to ward off the evil spirits (Kypri - Protopapa 2003, 87).
Additional information and bibliography
Kypri Th. - Protopapa K. A. (2003), Παραδοσιακά ζυμώματα της Κύπρου. Publications of the Centre for Scientific Research, XVIII, Nicosia.
Michalopoulou- Charalambous H. (1998), Περιστερωνοπηγή. Από την αρχαιότητα μέχρι το 1974, Προσφυγικό σωματείο «Ένωση Περιστερωνοπηγιωτών», Nicosia.
Eleni Christou, Demetra Dimitriou, Argyro Xenophontos
Σησαμωτά για το Πάσχα, 2014.φωτ: Αιμιλία Παπαπαύλου
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