Posted on by Lesley

Easter bread and no eggs

The chocolate eggs I ordered two weeks ago for the family didn’t arrive in time for the Easter weekend. This feels like a bit of a first world problem, to be honest, so we’ve all agreed that we’ll enjoy them if and when they arrive later this week, and in the meantime to mark the day, I made Tsoureki.

Hugh remembers this from his days in Istanbul. I’d never tasted it before, but was up for a voyage of discovery, and bizarrely I had most of the ingredients needed in the cupboard.

This is a special Greek Easter bread sweetened with sugar, enriched with egg yolks and made fragrant with orange zest and mahlep, a curious spice made from cherry kernels. I had a packet of mahlep powder gifted from a visit from relatives a year ago and had never used it, not really understanding what it was or what it added.

The bread was soft and doughy, a cross between cake and bread in texture, and sweetly fragrant. We nibbled some as it came out of the oven yesterday, and will eat the rest with honey for breakfast with our coffee this morning.

Thinking about it, if the chocolate eggs had arrived in time I wouldn’t have searched for a celebratory alternative. A perfect example of creativity blossoming in adversity in our current captivity! And a delicious one that will form a part of our Easter celebrations from now onwards, I think.

New beginnings.

13 Replies to “Easter bread and no eggs”

    1. Thank you. I’m still learning. But I love making bread – working with dough is a uniquely tactile experience. It feels alive. I guess with the yeasts, in the broadest sense of the word, it is!
      We have no way of milling our own here in an urban environment in London, so it’s always shop bought. At the moment I use whatever I can find as it’s all in short supply, but the small mills produce wonderfully characterful flour if you can get it.

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      1. We make our own bread and pizza dough every Saturday without fail. I agree, dough making is a great, therapeutic and satisfying experience.

        I’m going to try and source some ‘hard’ wheat grain this week and mill it in our food processor and see how that goes.

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    1. Thankyou! My first time making them and I made them a bit too large – they would have been better smaller and thinner, but we learn as we go!

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