Christopsomo

Hello and welcome in our chiosRadio.gr-Kitchen! Because Christmas is coming closer and closer, it is now time to bake something in order to get some Christmas mood. Christopsomo is called the traditional Greek Christmas bread.

It is not only famous for its special ingredients, like Mastic which just grows on the Greek island Chios, but also for its decorations on the top.
First of all, as I mentioned it before, Mastic is one very important ingredient, but it just grows on the Greek Island Chios. If you don’t have the unique possibility to buy it somewhere, you can also use anise, ouzo (which is anise liqueur) or vanilla if you don’t like the taste of anise.
Of course it is not necessary to decorate the bread, but it is usual and nice. The decorations consist of a cross on the top, which symbolizes the Greek word Χριστός, which means Christ.
Maybe it is not so easy to make this tasty Christmas bread, but it is definitely worth trying it, and with a bit of patience and good Christmas music it will for sure turn out quite well! So let’s start with the ingredients:

• One packet of dried yeast (around 7 grams)
• 60 millilitre Water
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 50 gram olive oil
• 1 tablespoon of cognac
• 80 gram warm milk
• ½ tablespoon of crumbled Mastic
• 3 eggs
• 110 ml melted butter
• ½ tablespoon of lemon zest
• ½ tablespoon of orange zest
• 700 gram of flour (650 + 50)
• 40 gram raisins

How to prepare:
First, put in one cup the yeast, the water, the sugar, the Sea salt, the oil, the cognac, the milk, the Mastic, the 2 eggs, the butter, lemon and orange zest and mix well. Now add the flour from time to time and keep mixing. If the flour is added and everything is mixed well, add the raisins. Now you have to knead the dough for 10 minutes on a floured surface. Now let the dough rise until it has doubled size for about one hour. For this I can recommend you an oiled bowl. Knead the dough for a short time until a bit of the air comes out. After that divide it into two parts and form it round. If you want you can also break off a bit of the dough and decorate the top of the two doughs. After that, sit the dough and let it rise for 30 min. Before you take your bread for about 35-40 in the oven, I would add a bit of egg wash on the top