Bake Easter Buns (“Tsourekia”), pair them with “Oenou Yi – Ktima Vassiliades” “Commandaria” and let your house be filled with spring smells and flavours.
Ingredients for 2 buns:
- 700g. flour
- 1 ½ fresh yeast cube (40g) or 2 sachets of dry yeast
- 200g. lukewarm water
- 120g. milk butter (better sheep and goat)
- 180g. granulated sugar
- 3 eggs
- zest of 1 orange
- 1 tsp. mehlepi
- 1/2 tsp. cardamom
- 1/2 tsp. anise
- a good pinch of mastic
- pinch of salt
- egg and water for rubbing
- 20g. almond fillet, for sprinkling
Preparation:
- First, crumble the yeast cubes or put the dry yeast in a bowl with lukewarm water, 1 tbsp. of sugar and about 150g. flour to form a thin dough. Mix very well.
- Cover the bowl and leave in a warm place (near the heating or hobs) for about 20 minutes. Do not move or shake the bowl. The mixture will rise and bubbles will form on the surface.
- In a saucepan over very low heat or in a bain-marie, melt the butter, add sugar and stir well until dissolved.
- Then add the eggs and stirring well with a whisk.
- In a mortar, beat the mehlepi, mastic, cardamom seeds (inside) and anise, with 1 tbsp. from the sugar. Mix in the orange zest.
- Sift the flour into a bowl. Add the yeast mixture and the egg-butter-sugar mixture. Add the herb mixture (mehlepi, mastic, cardamom, sugar, zest) and start kneading until the dough does not stick to your hands. If necessary, sprinkle with a little extra flour.
- Cover the bowl with the dough and let it double in volume, about 1 hour if it is in a warm place. When the dough is done, divide it into 2 balls and then each ball into three parts. Make 6 wicks and then braid each 3 into two Easter buns. If you want, attach red eggs to the compounds.
- Place on parchment paper and cover them again so that they double in volume. Before baking, spread them with beaten egg and/or water and sprinkle with almond fillets.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 160-170°C for 45 minutes until well golden. Once they cool, wrap them with cling film so that they don’t dry out.
- Enjoy them with “Oenou Yi – Ktima Vassiliades” “Commandaria” and let your house be filled with spring smells and flavours.
