AROUND GREECE
Christmas Bread
Ingredients
What you need:
- 2 kg of strong flour
- 2 cubes of fresh yeast or 4 sachets of dried yeast
- 1 tbsp of salt
- 4 tbsp of sugar
- 2 cups of shelled walnuts medium cut
- 4 tbsp of aniseed
- 100 g. of sesame seed
- 2 sachets of pine seed
- 1 level tbsp of powdered mastic
- 1 tsp of powdered mahlab
- 1 packet of margarine or butter
- Almonds and walnuts unshelled for decoration
Method
- Boil the aniseed in 3 cups or water for 5 minutes
- Pile flour in a bowl and make a small well in the centre.
- Add the salt, sugar, mahlab, some cubes of butter, the mastic, and the tepid water with the aniseed
- Knead the mixture until you have a silky and elastic dough.
- Add the pine seed and – if necessary – some more water.
- Place the bread dough on to 2 buttered baking trays, saving a small quantity for decoration.
- Cover them and allow the dough to prove.
- Re-knead for a little more and place on the trays.
- Make strands of dough with the quantity saved earlier and place them in a cross-like pattern on the breads, adding the walnut in the centre.
- Decorate with almonds, spread with water and milk, dredge with sesame seed and bake in a preheated oven at 130˚C for over one hour.
