Greek Easter Bread

Soooo...this is a traditional bread called 'tsoureki' that's made during the Holy Week for Easter. Coincidentally, I just happened to make it on Good Friday. This was definitely a challenge to make, as I'm not exactly familiar with the in's and out's of the whole process. On a scale of 1-10, 10 being best, I'd give myself a 7. The taste was great, I didn't burn it...but the traditional bread is supposed to come out with more of a "stringy" consistency like you'd see in Hawaiian bread or monkey bread.

Anyways...

::gathering my raw materials::




the unique taste of tsoureki comes from two spices--Mahlep and mastika. (ok ok the vials say "mahlab" and "mastic" as to not get confused). Mastic is a resin that comes from the mastic tree (which are found on the island of Chios), used in various desserts, cakes, breads. Mahlab is made from St. Lucie Cherry seeds, dried, ground, and again--giving various Middle Eastern breads, pastries, a little kick. Phew. Thank YOU wikipedia. = (




The rest of the ingredients are fairly typical.

1 packet dry active yeast

1 cup warm water

1 tsp honey

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp orange zest

1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

6 eggs (4 for the dough, 2 for brushing)

1 cup sugar

2 sticks butter (this is a preference thing. i like salted 'cause i don't have to worry about forgetting to add salt, and never had a problem using it)

4 cups of flour (to start...as you knead the dough, you will use much more. recommend buying a 5 or 10 lb bag for this).

~ 1 tsp mastic (ground)

~ 1 tsp mahlab (ground)


And here we go

First off, throw your flour in a very large mixing bowl. Because I am basing this off a "baby" recipe (mom usually makes like 500 loaves, heh), I used a 6 quart mixing bowl. Make a little "crater" in the center. Your yeast mixture will go here.



The yeast mixture:

Start off with warm water (100 - 110 degrees F) in a mug or small bowl. Whisk in the packet of dry yeast, honey, and salt.



Carefully pour this into the hole you created in your flour bowl. Sprinkle the top with flour, so the yeast can bubble and proof.



Cover and set aside somewhere warm. I preheated my oven, and put the bowl on top of a trivet on top of the stove.

While I waited for proofing:

I decided to grind my mastic. I don't have a mortar/pestal, so I just used a rolling pin, put the mastic in a sandwich baggie, and put wax paper between the rolling paper and the bag of mastic. Worked great, and gotta thank my sis for that idea.



The liquids all coming together:

Milk and butter: on a very very low heat (this is where my electric stove drives me nuts--growing up with a gas stove, I could see the flame and KNOW medium from high heat, and not rely on a 1, 4, or 5), melt the butter with the milk into a saucepan. You don't really want to boil the milk--just get it warm enough where all the butter melts.



Once the butter melts, remove from the heat and stir in your orange zest, ground mahlab, mastic, and vanilla. Stir in the cup of sugar.

In a separate bowl, crack your four eggs and whisk. Make sure the milk mixture isn't too hot, and whisk the egg mixture into the saucepan containing the milk/butter mixture. As soon as I smelled the spices, childhood memories came flooding back. Was a nice experience to be the one with the whisk in hand this time.

The mixing:

Pour your liquids into the bowl containing the flour and proofed yeast. IT WILL BE VERY STICKY! I started mixing the flour with the liquid by using a wooden spoon, but soon realized it'd take a lot more than just spoon power.




So this is the part where you take off any rings, and plunge your hands in and knead. Make sure your flour is within easy reach, 'cause your hands will be pretty sticky in the first rounds. Knead your dough and add flour. Cover the bowl with a towel and put in a warm, draft free place. I had my oven on warm for a while, but turned it off--just so it was a nice, cozy environment to throw the bowl in.

::NOTE!!:: As we all encounter cooking/baking roadblocks...I now come to mine. You're generally supposed to wait about an hour, punch the dough, knead, and leave it alone for another hour or two to rise some more...but I didn't. This is where I think I went wrong with the end result/consistency of the bread.

After an hour, I felt it was ready to knead and roll. Adding more flour, I punched my dough, kneaded it, and was ready to start braiding and putting into pans.




I had 5 tiny disposable aluminum tins for 5 mini loaves. I tore off a piece of the dough, divided into 3 rolled out pieces, and braided it.



Now we come to the 2 leftover eggs. Cracked them open, whisked them, and brushed them on top of the little loaves. As a finishing touch, I sprinkled the sesame seeds on top.



Oven time:

Again, I'm very wary about electric ovens, and as advised by my mom, start off with super low temperature--I set my oven to 275 F. This is to prevent your egg wash from burning before the bread is actually done. Popped in the loaves, and proceeded to check on them every 15 minutes or so, increasing the temperature oh so slightly.



Finally, after about an hour (final temperature was at 325 F), I took out my loaves. Was very happy that they did not burn, nor were they raw.





After a couple of hours, I cut into my first tsoureki creation. Although slightly disappointed with the fact that it came out so dense, the flavor was great. All the spices came together just nicely.



And there you have it. I always eat it toasted with cream cheese. I'm so happy that I took a risk to attempt this recipe. I'll be back next year with the perfect tsoureki = )