Murat's Halloumi bread

At a place I used to work, one thing I was welcomed with open arms to do, was to bring my bread-maker and make bread for everyone to love or loath, at lunchtime.
One day we hired in a new guy. Murat was a fellow foodie, originating from Cyprus. Naturaly we got chatting and I told him about my love of halloumi from when i lived in Cyprus as a boy.
This is when he slew me down with his recipe here.

It's simple to do and has a special taste due to a couple of ingredients which really make it.

Ingredients:

350 g strong white bread flour
300 g malted whole grain flour
1 teaspoon fresh yeast (which Asda give away free! Go to the in-store bakery and ask for it.)
200 ml warm water
200 ml warm milk
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon sugar
15 g soft butter
1 packet Halloumi chopped into small cubes
Handful chopped fresh mint
1 heaped teaspoon Onion seeds
2 large pinches of Mahlep

It's the Mahlep that gives it the unique taste. I'd never seen or heard of it before but upon investigation I found out that it's the ground-up insides of cherry stones.

To make, dissolve the yeast in the warm milk and leave for 5 minutes. Then combine all the ingredients but omit the Halloumi. Once you have a nice dough, fold in the halloumi and knead until the cheese is evenly distributed.

Place on an oiled tray or bread tin and leave in a warm place for an hour. I prefer to let the bread spread out rather than put it in a tin because i like the rustic looking shape and also, it cooks faster in the oven (this took 25 minutes), hence saving energy.

Preheat the oven to 200 c and cook for 25 minutes. Et voila!


If you're a fan of Halloumi and cheesy-bread then be go forth and put on the oven.

As you can see, the Halloumi holds it's shape so there's evident pieces of cheese when devoured, unlike other cheesy-bread, where the cheese melts and is there in flavour, but not in texture.

I recommend this with a nice home made tomato soup.