Nefeli's breads

This is a very important recipe for me that I will share with you, today 2 of May. It is a recipe that my grand-mother used to make and I have so many sweet memories and makes lots of small breads that have a sweet topping. These breads are soooo delicious and fluffy that will touch directly your soul!
In Greece, those breads very often are made to commemorate someone dear that you have lost and we distribute them to people at the church.
As there is no name for this recipe (my grand-mother used to call them small breads) I decided to give my first daughter's name to this recipe...
For my amazing grand-mother and all the stories that was telling me when I was a child... she would be very proud for me seeing me making this recipe!
For my father, the best father ever, that is watching over me... and would be very surprised that his little girl is not only good in maths but has finally learned to cook :)  

Ingredients
1 Kg of flour (for bread) maybe some more to adjust the dough
4gr breast yeast
2 spoonfuls of olive oil
1 teaspoon of salt
2 cups of warm water (be careful, slightly warm not hot! otherwise the yeast will not be activated)
1 cup of olive oil
For the syrop: 
1/2 cup of water
2 spoonfuls of sugar
2 spoonfuls of honey

Procedure

Prepare the dough by putting the flour in a big bowl (very big!). Make a hole in the middle, and add the 2 spoonfuls of the oil and the salt. Add the yeast crushed with your hands and start pouring little by little the water and mix with your hands all the ingredients.
Knead the dough enough using both your hands until you have a nice elastic result. If not, add either some flour or some water. Dough is good enough if it comes out of your hands and does not stick to the bowl.
Cover and leave the dough for about an hour in a warm place until it doubles in volume. In Greece, we cover with an old blanket to create a warm cocoon and that's what I did too.

 

When the dough is done, we mix it again slightly to take out the air and start making small "strings" of 4cm like in the photos.
Oil each string all over and start placing them tightly next to each other in a round oven deep pan of 28cm of diameter and cover all the pan like making a flower.
Leave the nice flower to double in volume for about 20min, covered the same way with before. 

When done, pin each bread using a fork.
In a cup, mix well the ingredients for the syrup and with a kitchen brush cover the top of the breads.
Bake at 200 degrees of Celsius and fan for about 30min or until they get a nice golden color. Take out of the oven and cover once again with a thick towel to keep the breads soft enough.
Start eating whenever you cannot resist any more to the smell :))))