Koulouri Thessalonikis Recipe (Greek Sesame Bread Ring)

Koulouri is bought more often than it is baked, sold every morning from carts and small kiosks on street corners across Thessaloniki and, by now, every major Greek city, and it functions as the single most common breakfast-on-the-go in the whole country, eaten walking to work or school rather than at a table.

It takes its more specific name, Thessaloniki, from the city most strongly associated with it and where its production has genuinely old roots stretching back to Ottoman-era baking traditions, though the ring itself is now made and sold everywhere in Greece under the same name.

The technique that matters most is the sesame coating: the shaped ring is dipped in a sugar and water syrup before rolling in sesame, which is what makes the seeds stick properly and toast to a deep, even gold rather than falling off in the oven.

Key preparation steps

1. Make and prove a simple, slightly sweet bread dough.
2. Shape into rings and dip in a light sugar syrup.
3. Roll thoroughly in sesame seeds to coat completely.
4. Bake until deeply golden and the sesame is toasted.

The dough

A simple yeasted dough, flour, a little sugar, oil and water, given a proper hour-long first rise. It is a plain dough by design, since the sesame coating and the bread's characteristic chew are what carry the flavour, not a rich or enriched crumb.

Shaping the ring

Roll each portion of dough into a long rope, about 50 to 60 cm, then bring the ends together and twist or simply pinch to form a ring, or twist the rope over itself once along its length before joining the ends for a slightly more textured, braided look, which is common on many koulouria.

The syrup dip that makes the sesame stick

Dip each shaped ring into a light syrup of water and a little sugar, then immediately roll it thoroughly in a shallow tray of sesame seeds, pressing gently so the seeds stick all over the surface, not just the top. This syrup dip is the detail that separates koulouri from simply sprinkling sesame on an unmoistened dough, and skipping it results in half the seeds falling off during baking.

Let the coated rings have a short second rise, twenty minutes or so, before baking, which keeps them from deflating once they hit the oven's heat.

Baking

Bake in a hot oven until the rings are deeply golden all over and the sesame coating has toasted to a rich brown, which takes about eighteen to twenty minutes. They are best eaten the same day, ideally still slightly warm, since the crust softens noticeably by the next day.

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