Well, this may seem irrelevant as it is Greek Christmas bread and Christmas was two days ago, but it looked too good to wait another 362 more days.
Christopsomos, Christ’s Bread, plays an essential part of Christmas in Greece. Greek celebration breads are generally called Artos, but are given specific names and shapes depending on their corresponding holiday. Specialty holiday breads include Lambropsomo is the Greek Easter Bread topped with hard-boiled eggs and Vassilopita which is the New Year’s bread which has a hidden gold coin. Key differences between these breads use different fruits, have different shapes, and various additions associated with the holiday.
Peter Reinhart’s Cristopsomos is topped with a traditional cross. Other variations of this Christmas bread are decorated with pieces of dough which represent family in symbols or in cut outs of animals. Cristopsomos is a sacred Greek Orthodox bread, which is often times blessed by a priest. This bread is such a rarity that baker’s splurge on expensive, luxurious ingredients like dried fruits, spices, and nuts.
Authentic spices include mahleb and mastic, but these are difficult to find in America. Mahleb is a spice made from the pits of dark cherries from the Mediterranean area. It is fragrant, nutty, and a bit bitter tasting. Mastic is the hardened sap from a tree, and is ground and used for its ceder-like taste.
It begins with a poolish overnight, which adds more flavor to the bread. The next morning, the dry ingredients are mixed, and then the poolish and the wet ingedients are added. This bread is an enrcihed bread, meaning it contains honey, oil and eggs. The texture should be soft, and the flavor should be rich and slightly sweet, much like a challah.
After the ingredients are mixed, the dough is needed until soft and supple. This was initially sticky, but after some added flour and some kneading (about ten minutes!) the dough was soft. I kneaded in cranberries, walnuts, and raisins to the dough.
I let the dough rise once for about an hour, and then divided it into thirds. One third serves the purpose of the cross, while the other 2/3 is shaped into a boule. The “cross” dough is put into the refrigerator. I let it rise for the second time for about an hour and a half, until it was double in size. However, I left to go to my friends house, so I put the dough in the fridge overnight, to retard the yeast and would allow me to have time to bake the next day.
In the morning, I took the dough out to warm up. After it became room-temperature, I took the third of the “cross” dough and cut it in two. I rolled each piece into a long snake, rocking my hands back and forth, elongating it into a ten inch rope. I placed the ropes in an X shape over the boule. With the ends that hung over the bread, I cut them in half, and curled the dough into a spiral. Mine kind of look deformed, but Peter’s look brilliant, and make it a very beautiful bread.
The dough is baked until it reached 190F and a deep golden brown. Immediately after it is taken out of the oven, I brushed over a glaze consisting of water, dissolved sugar, honey and lemon extract. The glaze made the loaf glisten, and made the crust sticky, and I sprinkled over sesame seeds.
The bread was delicious! It has been one of my favorite breads that I’ve ever made. It’s sweet-it tastes of warm spices and lemon, has a nice chew from the glaze and the dried fruit, and the crunch of the seeds and nuts. Mine wasn’t beautiful-my swirls looked pretty unappetizing, but, I will definitely make this again, and hopefully, I will improve at making Christopsomos.
http://www.theepicentre.com/Spices/mahlab.html
http://www.theepicentre.com/Spices/mastic.html
http://www.greekliving.net/christopsomo-or-christs-bread/