40. Cheese Snails - Halazon

I stumbled upon this recipe quite by accident on this cute website called thefreshloaf, and decided to give it a try. I was not disappointed.
I now like to have one with my morning coffee every day, and always store a quantity in the freezer. This recpe yields 16 generous cheese snails.

Ingredients:

 Milk Glaze:
1 cup milk
1 Tbsp olive oil

Filling:
900g white cheese, crumbled
3/4 cup fresh mint, chopped
1 Tbsp sumac
1 cup olive slices (optional)

Dough:
2 cups flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 Tbsp dry mint, crushed
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups warm water
2 tsp yeast
1/4 cup olive oil

Dough before rising.

Dough after rising.

Filling ingredients.

Steps in the making, left to right.

Halazon before baking, with milk glaze.

Method:

To make the dough, mix the flours, salt, sugar, and dry mint in a stand-mixer bowl.
Whisk in a beaker the yeast in the water. Add the olive oil and whisk.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and knead on medium speed for about 4 minutes.
Shape into a ball, lightly oil, cover and let rise for 30 minutes to an hour.

To make the filling, simply mix all the filling ingredients together, set aside.

To make the milk glaze, simply put the milk and olive oil in a cup and set aside.

To assemble, preheat oven to 400°F.
Divide the dough into 16 balls.
Roll each ball thinly into a long oval (as in picture).
Place 2 tablespoons of the filling, and seal shut by rolling like a rod or snake (as in picture).
Start rolling the rod onto itself like a snail (as in picture).
Place on a baking sheet and brush with the milk glaze.
Bake for 20 minutes until slightly golden colored.

 صحة و عافية