Classic Easter Tsoureki, Greek sweet bread

A sweet bread that is served on Greek Orthodox Easter.

Ingredients

• Ingredients
• 600 gr. bread flour (sifted)
• 1 cube of fresh yeast of 25 g. (or 1 envelope of dry yeast 8 g.)
• 100 gr. butter
• 200 gr. sugar
• 200 gr. fresh milk
• 50 gr. fresh orange juice
• 2 large eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tbsp ground mahleb powder
• 1 tbsp ground kakoule powder
• 1 whole orange (the zest)
• 3 tears of mastic chios
• 1 vanilla
• For the top before baking:
• Egg solution:
• 1 yolk with 1 tbsp of water and 2 pinches of sugar for the spread
• 50 gr. almond fillet (optional)
• 50 gr. melted butter for kneading

Directions

1. For the dough
2. You can knead the dough and let it rest overnight.
4. If you use fresh yeast, you must activate it as follows: Dissolve the yeast in a small bowl, add a spoonful of the total sugar of the recipe and a little of the total milk. Mix with a spoon, cover the bowl and let the yeast activate for about 10 minutes.
6. If you use yeast powder, you will pour it into the flour and mix it with a spoon.
7. In a saucepan, over low heat, melt the butter, adding the milk and sugar.
8. Stir until the sugar melts completely but does not get too hot.
9. Remove the liquid mixture from the heat. The temperature of the mixture should not exceed 35ºC. If it burns too much, wait a few minutes for it to become lukewarm.
10. Add the orange juice and the beaten eggs.
11. Beat the mixture with an egg beater to combine the ingredients.
12. In a large bowl, put the flour for the bun, mastic, machete, kakoule and mix with a spoon.
13. Make a well in the flour and pour in all the wet ingredients.
14. Add the activated yeast and the orange zest.
15. Mix with a wooden spoon or a spatula.
16. The dough will be sticky, fluffy, buttery and slightly sticky, not sticky.
17. We do not add any more flour.
18. Cover the dough with cling film.
19. Let the dough for the no-knead buns rest.
21. For the rising
22. Cover the bowl with cling film and let the dough triple in volume for about 3 hours (the resting and rising time of the dough always depends on the ambient temperature).
23. Dip a spatula or a handful of dough in butter and peel the dough off the sides of the bowl.
24. Fold the sides of the dough, bringing them towards the center. This is how we deflate the dough.
25. We fold it 2-3 times.
26. Whenever the dough sticks to the spatula, dip it in melted butter.
28. We don't use flour for any reason.
29. We put the dough in a clean oiled bowl, cover it very well and let it rest and rise for about 2-3 hours, that is, we do the second rise.
31. ⭐️ For fluffier buns and if you have patience, cover the dough and leave it overnight in the refrigerator for the gluten network to develop, the bun dough to mature and become very elastic.
32. If you put the dough in your refrigerator, the next day you should leave it on the counter to come to room temperature.
33. The dough continues to rise even in the refrigerator.
34. Alternatively, you can leave the dough at room temperature for a whole night.
35. So the dough has all the time to rise and become fantastic.
36. If the indentation remains in the dough, then the dough has risen properly
38. For shaping
39. After the dough has risen, take it with oiled hands, take it out on a lightly oiled counter and knead it lightly, so that it deflates.
40. The dough weighs 1,250 g.
41. We divide it into 2 pieces.
42. Divide each piece of dough into three parts.
43. We form three thick strands and braid them into a braid.
44. Insert the joint under the bun.
45. Place the shaped buns on buttered pans or lined with non-stick paper thinly between them.
46. To prevent the buns from spreading during baking, you can put them in long narrow cake tins by putting non-stick paper inside.
47. Two tins with a diameter of 28x10 cm are ideal.
48. Cover the buns well with towels, so that the surface does not dry out.
50. For baking
51. We leave a distance between the buns on the sheet, because they swell.
52. Let them double in volume for about 1 hour and 15 minutes in a warm place.
53. After the buns have risen, brush them with egg solution with a brush.
54. Because they shrink slightly with the spread, we leave them for 10 minutes for their surface to swell again and to stretch.
55. Sprinkle with the almonds (if using).
56. Bake the fluffy buns in a preheated oven at 160°C, in the air, on the middle rack and bake them for about 30 minutes until golden.
57. In the oven where the buns are baked, put a pan with boiling water so that they are moist during baking and shiny.
58. For the egg solution for the spread, mix egg yolk, a little sugar and a little water.
59. With yolk solution, the buns get a dark color.