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A square picture with Greek Easter bread topped with yellow eggs, on a white baking paper. A white background

Tsoureki (Greek Easter Bread)

Andréa
Tsoureki is a traditional Greek Easter bread that combines the sweetness of a brioche-like dough with the fragrant taste of delicious aromatic spices. This delicious festive bread is usually decorated with colored hard-boiled eggs and braided to make it look pretty. While baking, your whole house smells wonderful. Yes, this tsoureki bread is soft, slightly sweet, and perfect for enjoying with friends and family during Easter.
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Rise time 3 hours
Total Time 3 hours 50 minutes
Course Bread Baking, Breakfast
Cuisine European Cuisine, Mediterranean
Servings 1 bread
Calories 2868 kcal

Equipment

  • Hand Mixer
  • A conventional oven is used. When using a convection oven (with air fan) decrease the temperature with 30 °F / 20 °C
  • baking plate
  • Parchment paper

Ingredients
 

Bread

  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoons yeast instant
  • ½ cup whole milk lukewarm
  • 2 eggs size L
  • ½ stick butter unsalted, room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon ground aniseed
  • 1 teaspoon lemon zest grated
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Egg brush and Topping

  • 5 hard-boiled eggs Optional: colored
  • 1 egg size S

Ingredients you need per step are listed below the step in Italic

Instructions
 

Dough

  • Add half the flour, sugar, yeast and milk in a bowl and mix until well blended.
    3 cups all-purpose flour, ½ cup sugar, 2 teaspoons yeast, ½ cup whole milk

First rise

  • Place a wet towel and plastic foil over the bowl and let it stand for half an hour in a warm place until air bubbles appear.
  • Take the dough and add the eggs one at a time, while mixing. Add the second egg when the first egg is incorporated.
    2 eggs
  • Mix in the flour.
  • Cut the butter into cubes and add them, while continuing to mix, block for block.
    ½ stick butter
  • Finally you add the salt, cinnamon, anise, zest, lemon juice and vanilla extract.
    1 teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon ground aniseed, 1 teaspoon lemon zest, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Continue mixing until you get an elastic dough and place the dough in a greased bowl.

Second rise

  • Place a wet towel and a plastic wrap over the bowl and leave for an hour in a warm place to rise.

Forming bread

  • Press the air out of the dough and divide it into three pieces.
  • Roll each piece of dough into a roll of 14 inches (35 cm) in length.
  • Braid these strands lose, so you get a braided bread.
  • Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the bread on the paper.
  • Cover with a slightly wet towel and plastic wrap and let it rise for 60 minutes until the dough is doubled.
  • Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 390 °F (200 °C).

Baking

  • Bake the bread for 10 minutes and take it out of the oven.
  • Divide the eggs over the bread and press them into the dough.
    5 hard-boiled eggs
  • Brush the bread with a beaten egg.
    1 egg
  • Put the bread back in the oven and reduce the temperature to 355 °F (180 °C).
  • Bake for 25 minutes, remove from the oven and let cool on a rack.

NOTES

1. Yeast -
  • This recipe uses ⅓ oz. (8 grams, two teaspoons) of instant yeast. If you prefer to use fresh yeast, you need ⅔ oz. (16 grams). If you use dry yeast, you need ⅓ oz. (8 grams). Note: with both fresh yeast and dry yeast, you must first dissolve the yeast in lukewarm milk.
  • In the recipe, you add lukewarm milk and sugar to the yeast. This way, you can quickly and easily test whether the yeast is still active. Start over and use a new yeast package if you do not see any bubbles after 5 minutes.
  • You add the sugar as "food" for the yeast because this must become sweet bread. 
  • Use lukewarm milk and soft butter, and neither should be too cold. Yeast works best at 100 °F (37 °C).
  • Only add the salt after 5 minutes. Yeast absolutely cannot tolerate concentrated salt. So by only adding it after five minutes, the yeast is already well distributed in the dough.
2. Hard-boiled eggs - Boil the eggs until they are hard. With the method described in this blog, you cook perfect hard-boiled eggs (every time). If you want colored eggs, add a tablespoon of vinegar and 20 drops of coloring (food coloring) to the water before cooking the eggs. Then add the eggs and boil them hard.
3. Dough is ready? - Do you find it difficult to determine whether your dough is ready? Assume it will take 10 minutes with the mixer and 15 minutes by hand anyway. You can feel whether the dough is ready for the first rise; it then feels soft, supple, and elastic. 
 4. Pre dough and Tsoureki dough -
  • The pre-dough is almost runny.
  • The bread dough sticks. This is normal. Do not add extra flour, as the dough may become too firm. 
  • Before braiding, flatten the ends a little so that they stick better. 
5. Substitutions
  • If you prefer traditional spices, add ½ teaspoon of mahlab and ¼ teaspoon of mastic, both finely ground. Discard the cinnamon and anise seed.
6. Oven
When you use a conventional oven, set the temperature to 400 °F / 350 °F (200 °C / 180 °C). In a convection oven, 350 °F / 320 °F (180 °C /160 °C) is sufficient.
7. Storage 
  • You usually eat the Tsoureki the same day; otherwise, it is no longer fresh. If you want to store the bread, remove the hard-boiled eggs and store them separately in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
  • The bread stays fresh for up to 3 days in a special bread bin or wrapped in plastic foil.
  • Do not keep bread in the refrigerator because it changes the structure of the bread due to moisture.
  • You cannot freeze this bread because you bake it with eggs. So eat it as soon as possible.
  • Leftover slices of bread are great for preparing French toast.
8. The nutritional value is per loaf.

Nutrition

Calories: 2868kcal | Carbohydrates: 405g | Protein: 95g | Fat: 93g | Saturated Fat: 44g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 10g | Monounsaturated Fat: 28g | Trans Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 1560mg | Sodium: 3279mg | Fiber: 13g | Sugar: 112g | Vitamin A: 3630IU | Vitamin C: 5mg | Iron: 23mg
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