Greek Celebration Bread : Christopsomos

Week two of the Bread Bakers Challenge came and went without a hitch. After checking out the ingredient list I was prepared for a super sweet bread, but the finished product was mild and slightly cakey. What is wonderful about this bread is its versatility. You can switch out any of the dried fruits, or try another citrus base. I would love to try this again with dried cherries and pecans!

Although this one was not my favorite Sugar ate almost the entire loaf, literally! All that remained after two days were tiny slivers of the ends.

If you want to try this recipe as is, I would recommend adding orange extract rather than juice, to increase the sweetness a little.

Christopomos

7 ounces of poolish (receipe follows)

16 ounces unbleached bread flour

1 tsp salt

1 and 1/2 tsp instant yeast

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1 tsp minced orange zest

1 tsp almond extract

2 eggs slightly beaten

1/4 cup of honey

1/4 cup of olive oil

3/4 cup of milk

1/2 cup golden raisens

1/2 cup crasins

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Glaze:

2 tbsp water

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp honey

1 tsp orange juice

Poolish: (makes 11.5 ounces)

1.25 cups unbleach bread flour

3/4 cups of water, room temp

1/8 tsp instant yeast

Day 1, make the poolish:

Stir together ingredients in the bowl of your mixer until flour is hydrated (it should look like a really thinck pancake batter). Cover bowl with plastic wrap and leave at room temp for ¾ hours. Put in the fridge overnight.

Day 2, make the dough:

Remove poolish from fridge and let come to room temperature

Mix together poolish, flour, salt, yeast, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves. Mix on low until dough forms a ball then increase speed to medium and kneed for 5 minutes, add in the raisns, crasins, and walnuts, kneed for 5 more minutes on medium speed. The dough should be tacky and supple.

Transfer dough to a slightly oiled bowl, roll to cover in oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let ferment for 90 minutes, dough should double in size.

Divide dough into two pieces, one should be double the size of the other. Shape the larger piece into a ball and transfer to a sheet pan lined with parchement, mist the top of the dough with cooking spray and cover with plastic wrap. Let proof for 90 minutes, dough ball should double in size again. Place the smaller piece of dough in a plastic bag and let chill in the fridge.

Preheat overn to 350 degrees with the oven rack on the middle shelf.

After the 90 minute proof time, take the small piece out of the fridge, divide in two, and roll each into a 10 inch strand. Drape each piece over the ball creating an X. You can get fancy here and create a little design with the ends. I split each end with a pastry scraper and coiled them around the base of the bread.

Bake for 20 minutes then rotate back 180 degrees and continue baking for another 20 minutes. It should be golden brown and register about 190 internal temp. Glaze the bread as soon as it comes out of the oven.

To make the glaze:

Combine the water and sugar in a sauce pan and bring to boil. Add honey and juice, and cook lightly.

Cool bread 1 hour before slicing