Description
This is a favorite bread of Greeks and non-Greeks. It is great even for another day besides Pasca. It works great as French toast as well. Not a diet bread though!
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups milk
- 1 cup sugar
- ¼ cup sweet butter
- 1 teaspoon yeast
- 8 cups unbleached bread flour, or more as needed
- 4 eggs
- 1 egg white
- 1 cup chopped blanched almonds
- 1 pound chopped dried apricots
- 1 orange, zested and juiced
- 1 lemon, zested
- 1 tablespoon mahlepi
- 1 egg yolk
- ¼ cup milk
- ½ cup slivered almonds
Instructions
- Combine milk
- sugar
- and butter in a saucepan over low heat and warm to 112 degrees F (44 degrees C). Remove from heat. Stir in yeast and wait for mixture to bubble.
- Place flour in a large bowl. Add yeast mixture
- whole eggs
- egg white
- chopped almonds
- apricots
- orange zest and juice
- lemon zest
- and mahlepi. Mix together. Knead dough until well mixed
- adding extra flour if necessary until dough is only slightly sticky. Set dough aside until doubled in size
- about 1 hour.
- Combine egg yolk and 1/4 cup milk in a bowl and place in the refrigerator.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Knead risen dough to expel bubbles and divide into 2 equal parts. Divide each half into 3 equal balls. Roll each ball into a rope about 18 inches long. Braid 3 ropes to make a loaf and tuck the ends underneath and place on a baking sheet. Repeat with remaining 3 ropes to form a second loaf. Brush egg yolk mixture on top of each loaf and sprinkle with slivered almonds. Brush again with egg yolk mixture.
- Bake in the preheated oven until loaves are brown and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom
- about 40 minutes.
Prep Time: 45 mins
Cook Time: 40 mins
Total Time: 2 hrs 25 mins
Servings: 16