Lambropsomo – Greek Easter Bread #BreadBakers

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Greek Easter Bread

The lampropsomo is the traditional Greek Easter bread. Braided with three strings of dough that symbolize the Holy Trinity, and tucked into the dough are four red eggs that symbolize the blood of Jesus Christ. This bread is traditionally prepared with an essence makhlep, or is flavored with mastic. I used cardamom to add the aroma and shaped it into a round bread. The bread has a nice crust  and a tender crumb. Just perfect to eat some lamb with.

Greek Easter Bread

Though it was a bitter sweet time for us at Easter, I did make it a point to celebrate.  My uncle, dad’s elder brother, died last June after a long battle with cancer. He was a very religious Christian, although he was not born into the religion. He found his true calling in Christianity and once he converted to it, he was true to it.  Though the rest of the family did not understand his choice, they sure respected it. As a result,  I was brought up knowing and understanding more than one religion.

My Uncle always observed the lenten period.  And he always celebrated Easter. There were no egg hunts or glorious breads but there was prayer and singing of the hymns.  Though he celebrated it simply, I know he would have loved this bread on his Easter Table. Here is to you DaddySahib!

Greek Easter Bread

This is my bread for the #BreadBakers for April. This month, Camilla at Culinary Adventures with Camilla has chosen breads from around the world that are traditional for Easter, Passover or Springtime.

BreadBakers

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our of lovely bread by following our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated after each event on the BreadBakers home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send an email with your blog URL to Stacy at foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com.

Here’s our International Easter/Passover/Spring Bread Basket – Enjoy!

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Lambropsomo – Greek Easter Bread #BreadBakers

Ingredients

  • 4 Tablespoons butter
  • 2 heaping dessertspoons of honey
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons dry yeast
  • 1½ teaspoons salt
  • 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
  • 4 C all purpose flour
  • 1 1/3 cup water at room temperature
  • ¾ cup additional flour for bench work
  • 4 eggs dyed in red color
  • 1 Tbs sesame seeds
  • 1 egg yolk for egg wash with 1 tsp of water

Instructions

Make the dough

  1. In a mixer fitted with a flat beater, cream together the butter, honey, eggs, yeast, salt, cardamom and 1 cup of the flour. Beat well for 2 minutes. Gradually add in the water and flour altrnating between flour and water until all the flour is incorporated.
  2. Switch to the dough hook and knead for about 5- 6 minutes. The dough will need some hand kneading afterwards so don't worry about the texture right now.

Hand Knead the dough:

  1. Sprinkle half of the benchwork flour onto a counter or board, scrape the dough onto it and Knead for 5 minutes, adding flour as necessary until you have used up the ¾ cup of extra flour.

First rise

  1. Put the dough into the bowl, cover and let rise at room temperature for 3 hours or until it doubles up.

Second rise :-

  1. Punch the dough down, releasing the air, and then let rise at least an hour.

Shape the Bread:

  1. Turn the dough out onto a barely floured counter. Cut a 5-ounce piece of dough off and put it to one side, covered. Now, make bulk of the dough into a snake about 2 feet long, rolling it on the counter under your hands to stretch it out. Let it rest for a few minutes. For the next step you will want a clean section of counter 3' wide, with no flour on it or the dough will slip instead of roll.
  2. Roll the dough snake out to 3' long, and cut into three equal pieces of about 12 ounces by weight. Roll each of the three pieces out to nearly 3' long. Your dough ropes should be 5/8" in diameter and roughly uniform.
  3. Put 3 ends together, cross two ropes and throw the third across the Y. Braid until the ropes are used up, keeping the dough slack to keep the braids loose and thick.
  4. Lift one end of the braid off the counter and slip the parchment lined pan under it, and then lift the other end around to form a circle. Overlap the two ends of the braid by an inch, and push your thumb down in at that point. The first egg will go into that depression.
  5. Adjust the braided ring on the parchment to make it as round as you can, and push your thumb down to make depressions at the other 3 quadrants. Carefully put in the eggs.
  6. Roll the leftover piece of dough into a snake the thickness of a pencil. Around the eggs, snip 4 places with scissors to receive the ends of the dough that crosses over them. Cut pieces of dough to make the crosses.
  7. Final rise: Cover lightly with a cloth and let rise for 40 minutes.
  8. Preheat oven to 375º. Mix the egg yolk and the water in a ramekin, and brush the egg wash over the dough, being careful not to cover the eggs. For best coverage, brush a second time. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
  9. Bake for 25- 30 minutes.

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