“Politiki” Cuisine- Easter Bun “Politiko”

What better than a handmade Easter bun (tsoureki)? We can happily spend our time creating specialties….And because cooking and pastry is a fun and useful way for us to stay busy and creative, we suggest you make, this year, your own Easter Bun with the “Politiki” Cuisine-recipe. So…let's feel the wonderful smells of the special aromas of this homemade sweet brioche…

MATERIALS

• Hard flour or flour for all uses 1 kg
• Fresh yeast 100 grams
• Ηot Milk 120 grams
• 400 grams of sugar
• Warm water 120 grams
• Grated mahlepi, 1 tablespoon full
• Salt 1/2 teaspoon
• Grated mastic, 1 teaspoon
• Corn oil 1 tablespoon full
• Eggs-5 pieces
• Anise 1 teaspoon
• Melted cow butter 200 grams
• Grated almonds (optionally) or
• White and black sesame for sprinkling

IMPLEMENTATION

• In a bowl, dissolve the yeast with warm water, a little sugar and 1 tablespoon of flour, stir well and let the mixture rise.
• In another bowl, first put the sugar, salt, mahlepi (wild cherry bark), mastic, anise and oil, stir a little, add the hot milk and stir the mixture again. Break the 4 eggs and mix them in your dough.
• Then add the puffed yeast. Mix by hand (not mixer) and start to add the flour slowly. Once the flour is wet with the rest of the ingredients, add the hot butter gradually and work it by hand, folding the dough until it absorbs all the butter (don't knead the mixture  too much). Cover it and allow doubling in volume.
• When it is ready, cut 3 balls (one for each bun), shape into strips and knit into braids. Spread all these with the yolk of an egg that you dissolved with a little oil and sprinkle them with the grated almonds (optionally) or with white and black sesame seeds.
• Leave for 60 minutes. Put baking paper in a baking pan, place the buns inside and bake them at 170 degrees for 35-40 minutes (depending on your oven).

Good Luck and HAPPY EASTER!

Recipe from: http://constantinoupoli.com/