Homemade Christmas bread
Homemade Christopsomo
The Christopsomo is one of the most beautiful Greek traditions of Christmas. There are several variations of the Christopsomo in addition to a basic bread ingredients (flour, water, yeast) are added to a dough a combination of ingredients such as honey, cinnamon, sesame seeds, rose water, anise, pine nuts, walnuts, almonds, gum or machlepi.
On Christmas day, the landlord takes the Christopsomo, he crossed it 3 times, he cuts it and divides it to those who attended the Christmas table.
Ingredients
- 1kgr all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup lukewarm water
- 35gr fresh yeast
- 1.5 cup golden raisins
- 1 cup orange zest
- 1 cup lemon zest
- 1 cup walnuts (chopped)
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 teaspoons of mastic (powder)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon cloves
- sesame seeds and walnuts (whole in shell) for decoration
Method
- In a large bowl, add water and dissolve the yeast.
- Add the flour and knead well until dough is soft.
- Then add all remaining ingredients and knead well until homogenized.
- Cover the dough and let rise in warm place (1.5 hour).
- Keep some of the dough for decoration and lubricate a large baking pan and pour the remaining dough.
- With the dough you kept make a strip and create a cross or another Christmas element on top.
- With a scissors cut slightly the decoration strip on top of the dough.
- Decorate with the whole walnuts, sprinkle some sesame seeds and bake in preheated oven at 200oC for 1h and 15 minutes until golden brown.
Tips:
You can also use the Homemade bread with sourdough starter or Quick homemade bread and just decorate it on top with whole walnuts, sesame seeds or dough decorations.
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