Easter Bread..tsoureki!!

Great Friday today...and I finally found some time to post that easter bread recipe I had told you about...Soo, get your ovens warm and start baking!!! I promise you won't regret!!! ;)
Ingredients:
80gr. wet yeast
380 ml fresh full fat milk + 80 ml more, luke-warm
4 eggs, preferrably bio + 2 more for topping
250 gr milk butter at room temperature, cut in pieces
1.360 all-purpose flour (strong) sieved
240 gr. caster sugar
2 pinches salt
16 gr. machlepi (about 2 tsps, not very full)
16 gr. mastic crystals (about 1 tsp) crushed with a little confectioner's sugar, until they become light dust
file almond for topping
Preparation:
1.In a small bowl we add the 80 ml of lukewarm milk and dissolve the yeast in it.
2.In the mixer bowl we put all the solid ingredients, the flour, the sugar and the salt.
3.We add the eggs...
4...the yeast mixture..
5...and the rest of the milk.
6. We mould the ingredients in medium speed until well blended.
7.We partially add the butter and keep moulding.
8.At first, the dough will be sticky. DON"T get carried away and add more flour.As you keep moulding you will see that the dough gathers on the mixer hook. Then it is ready.
9.We add the mastic and the machlepi and mould for a few more seconds.
10.We make a ball with the dough, put it in a bowl, cover it with a towel and let it in a warm place for 2-3 hours(maybe more) to double in size.
11.We transfer the dough on a surface and mould it a little with our hands, so that the air leaves.
12.We divide the dough in pieces. Depends if you want to make big tsourekia or little ones. I divided it in 100 gr.each. Make little balls and then shape it however you like.

13.Place them in the oven pan on baking paper and let it double in size again, for about 1 hour in warm place.
14.Mix the 2 remaining eggs with a liitle water and with a brush, spread it over the tsourekia. Carefully, because if you pinch it, the air will go and it will flatten.
15.Sprinkle with the almonds and bake in preheated oven at 170 C for about 30 mins, until it becomes golden brown.
The house will smell like Easter and your bellies will crave for that delicious treat!!!
Enjoy with a glass of hot cocoa, spread with honey, jam or nutella, or even as it is with red boiled eggs!!!
Good luck!!!:)
And Happy Easter to u all!!! May the Holy Spirit fill our hearts with love, faith and compassion!!

xoxo
B.

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Easter Cookies

And since greek orthodox Easter is just around the corner..it's perfect time for baking some cookies too..:)
Ingredients:
500 gr. milk butter at room temperature
500 gr. sugar
4 eggs
1/2 water glass of fresh orange juice
Grind of 3 oranges
10 gr. baking powder
1 tsp. not full baking soda
2 vanillas
1 pinch mastic crushed
1 pinch salt
1.350 gr. all purpose sieved flour
Preparation:
Beat the butter with the sugar, the salt, the mastic, the grind and vanillas for 6-7 mins until fluffy. In a bowl we beat the eggs and add them in the mixer bowl. We add the baking soda well mixed with the orange juice. We slowly add the flour with the baking powder. We must have a fluffy and easy to mould dough.

We cover it and let it rest for at least 30 mins.
We shape the cookies in whatever we like and add them in pans covered with baking paper. We beat an egg yolk with a little sugar in a bowl and spread it with a brush over the cookies.

We bake in preheated oven at 180C for 20-25 mins, until golden brown. We let them cool in a rack and keep them in airtight box.

Good luck!!
You should definitely try them!! They are mmmm....delicious!!! :)

xoxo
B.

P.S. Stay tuned for Greek Easter Bread (Tsoureki) recipe!!! ;)

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Clean Monday - Lagana

Clean Monday today here in Greece. It's the first day of the Eastern Orthodox Christian. The name refers to the leaving behind of sinful attitudes and non-fasting food.
It's a public holiday and is celebrated with outdoor excursions, consumption of fasting food and the custom of flying kites.
One of our traditional food is a special kind of bread eaten only at this day called "lagana". It's thin and crispy and yiammee!!! :)
Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

20 gr. fresh yeast
1/2 cup warm water (40C)
1 kg all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons superfine sugar
sesame for sprinkling
Preparation:
Mix the yeast in the warm water until it is dissolved. Add some flour until it becomes a thick mash. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place for 12 hours. It will double in size and then "sit".

Sieve the remaining flour and the salt in a bowl. Make a hole in the middle and add the sugar, the olive oil, the yeast mixture and 2 cups of warm water.

Start moulding, until you have a soft, elastic, easy to mould dough. If the dough is too dry, add a little extra water, 1 tablespoon at a time. If the dough is too sticky, add extra flour, 1 tablespoon at a time. Cover it and let it double in size.
Then divide the dough in  half , put them in lightly floured surface and roll the doughs half finger thick, giving them a rectangular shape.

Put them in pans covered with baking paper and let them double in size.
With a fork pinch the doughs all around, sprinkle with a little water and sesame on top. Bake in 200C for about 40 mins.

Enjoy with halva or butter and jam!!

Good luck!!;)

xoxo

B.

"Wash yourselves and ye shall be clean; put away the wicked ways from your souls before Mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well. Seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, consider the fatherless, and plead for the widow. Come then, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow; and though they be red like crimson, I will make them white as wool (vv. 16–8)." Isaiah 1:1-20

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