All Greek Easter traditions and celebrations include the making of Tsoureki buns. In the morning of Holy Thursday every household makes Tsoureki buns among other traditional Easter sweets. The smell of freshly baked tsoureki buns is a highlight of Greek Pascha. To honour the traditions, we present an alternative recipe for a healthier Tsoureki bun with no butter and eggs so we can save some calories without losing the flavor. Kalo Pascha!
Ingredients for 3 medium buns
- 1 kg of flour for bun
- 150 ml. coconut milk
- 100 ml of fresh orange juice
- 200 gr. olive oil
- 1 cup lukewarm water
- 200 gr. Brown sugar
- 1 sachet of vanilla powder
- 2 sachets of dry yeast
- ½ sugar spoon of mahleb powder
- ½ sugar spoon of mastic powder
- Orange zest
Preparation Method:
- To make our dough, mix 200gr of the flour to a bowl, the yeast and the lukewarm water. Cover with a lid or a towel and leave for 20-30 minutes for the yeast to be activated.
- In another bowl add the remaining flour, coconut milk, olive oil, sugar, vanilla, mastic, machete, juice and orange zest, and the yeast mixture that we made previously. Mix them by hand until the ingredients come together well. Be careful not to knead. The mixture is our dough and it should be soft and sticky. Cover the dough with a blanket and leave it in a warm place for 2 hours, so that it swells. Our dough will double, so we gently press it with our hand to deflate.
- Divide the dough into 9 balls and sprinkle our workbench with flour to form the buns. We open each ball in a straight long strip and fold it in half lengthwise and open it again. Repeat the process for another 3-4 times for each ball to create fibers. We take 3 strips of dough to make a bun braid. In total, our mixture makes 3 medium braids.
- Place the buns at a distance from each other in a pan with non-stick paper. Before putting them for baking, leave them covered for 30-45 minutes to rise.
- Optionally we can spread them with beaten egg to polish them.
- Finally, bake them in the air, at 160 o C for about 40-45 minutes.
