Nistisima Paximadia

Here I am, mid-week into the first week of Lent. The first day is the hardest and then each day it becomes easier and easier. One meal that’s a challenge is breakfast. I eat breakfast, rarely skip and when I do, I fell out or sorts – almost ill for the rest of the day. Eat your breakfast folks.

With breakfast options being restricted (no butter, no cream for coffee and no cheese or eggs, I leave the table in the morning a little hungry. Part of the solution are these Lenten (Nistisima) Paximadia. Paximadia are, a twice baked cookie that’s perfect for having with coffee.

I’ve been enjoying anew my Greek coffee (one in the morning and one in the afternoon) and a Paximadi or Kouloraki is always nice to have/serve with the coffee. These Paximadia are Lent-friendly in that there are no eggs or dairy…just flour, spices, sugar, and orange juice and zest and some white wine.

These Paximadia will not get you drunk but they will making fasting a little easier. Grab your notepad, I’ll put the coffee on and we can dream about that Easter Feast coming in early April.

Nistisima Paximadia

zest and juice of 1 orange

3/4 cup vegetable (sunflower) oil

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. ground cloves

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1 heaping Tbsp. baking powder

1/2 cup almonds

3 cups of all purpose flour (+ more if necessary)

sesame seeds

Pre-heated 350F oven

1. Pre-heat your oven to 350F. In a food processor, add the orange juice, zest, wine, vegetable oil, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda, baking powder and sugar. Process until mixed well. Now add your almonds and pulse until they look like they are roughly chopped.
2. Empty the contents into a large bowl and now gradually add your flour and mix in with your hands. You will need  approx. 3 cups of flour. Your dough should be smooth to the feel and not tacky. Add more flour if needed.
3. Gather your dough and knead it into a ball. Turn onto your work surface and divide into 3 pieces. Form into three loaves. Place some sesame seeds on some parchment and then place a loaf of dough in it. Wrap the parchment around the loaf so that the sesame seeds adhere to the dough. Repeat with the other two loaves.
4. Place the sheet of parchment paper on your baking tray and lay your three loaves of dough on top. Place your tray on the middle rack and bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and cut the loaves into slices with a serrated knife. Arrange the cookie slices flat on the baking tray.
5. Turn down the heat of your oven to 300F and bake for another 10 minutes. Now turn off your oven and allow the cookies to cool in the still warm oven.
6. Remove the Paximadia and store in an airtight container for up to 6 weeks.

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© 2007-2010 Peter Minakis

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© 2014, Peter Minakis. All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://kalofagas.ca then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at truenorth67 AT gmail DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author.