Recipes for Greek Bread
One of the things that I used to love when I used to visit Greece was the bread! Crispy, delicious and if you are lucky and go to the local bakery early, you can get it warm from the oven. There are certain types of Greek bread (psomi) that is specialized for certain holidays, such as Easter or Christmas. The Easter bread is called Tsoureki or Pascha and is softer and sweeter than usual bread. Three ropes of dough are braided together and served with a boiled egg in the middle. Greek Christmas bread is known as Christopsomo and is light, buttery, and also sweeter than usual Greek bread.
Traditional Greek bread recipe
Ingredients
500 grams of self-rising flour (17.5 ounces)
330 milliliters of beer, blonde pale lager such as bottled Heineken (1 1/3 of a cup)
1/2 tea spoons of salt
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Instructions
To prepare this easy bread recipe, add into a basin all the ingredients and blend with your hands, until the dough becomes an elastic ball. Alternatively, add all the ingredients into a bowl and mix using your hand-mixer with the dough hook attached until the dough is soft and does not crumble. Depending on the kind of flour used, the weather and many other factors, you may not need to use all the flour, or you may need some more. Leave 50 grams of flour aside and add a little bit at a time, until the dough is firm and not too sticky.
Preheat the oven to 200 C (with both top and bottom heating elements on). Because for this easy bread recipe you are using self-rising flour and beer it is not necessary to wait for the dough to rise.
Turn the dough out onto a floured board, wet your hands and split it in half. Knead each half with your hands, to form two round loafs.
Sprinkle the bread loafs with some water and sieve with some flour. You can also sprinkle with some sesame seeds for some extra crunchiness.
With a sharp knife, score the top of each loaf ; make 3-4 slashes across the top with a few deeper than the others.
Layer the bottom of a baking tray with some grease proof paper and place the loafs on top. Bake in the preheated oven at 200C with the bottom heating element on only for 20 minutes and then switch both top and bottom heating elements and bake for another 40-50 minutes, until a nicely colored crust forms and is cooked throughout.
MORE RECIPES COMING SOON!!!!!