Greek Christmas bread - Christopsomo
Christopsomo is one of the oldest Greek Christmas customs and is an integral part of the Christmas table. According to tradition, housewives made the blessed "bread of Christ" on Christmas Eve and decorated it with symbolic ornaments. It is usually round in shape and in the center there is always a dough cross. It is decorates with various carved dough designs that symbolize the households desire for prosperity. So the decorations were different in each family, depending on the occupations of each household, eg grapes, ears of corn, animals, etc. Make this easy traditional recipe with a few ingredients and you will have a perfect, fluffy Christmas bread on your Christmas table.
We sift the flours and pour them into the bowl where we will knead the bread.
We add the yeast, salt, cloves, cinnamon, cardamon to the bowl and mix well.
We pour warm water, enough so that the dough doesn't stick to our hands and knead.
We set aside a large piece of dough and keep it for later.
We add all the other ingredients except the sesame to the rest of the dough and knead well.
We form a round loaf and add it in a pan.
We make a large cross with the dough we saved and place it on the loaf.
We sprinkle the loaf with warm water and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
We cover the bread with a towel and let it rise in a warm place.
We bake the bread in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for about an hour.
The cross can be made either with two simple dough cords or with two dough braids.
We can decorate the Christmas bread with a few more handmade decorations from dough such as ears of corn, etc.
If we want, we can put a walnut with its shell in the center of the bread.
