Is Easter possible without Tsoureki?

You thought there was any chance that I wouldn’t share this recipe with you? As a fan of sweet breads like this, I couldn’t omit creating this recipe that I have loved since I was a little kid. To be honest, I was waiting for this time of year to come to get my presents and of course to wake up and eat one (maybe two) slices of my favourite tsoureki with chocolate spread and a glass of milk every morning. I veganized this tradition and now I enjoy my vegan tsoureki with dark chocolate spread (you can also find vegan milk chocolate spread on the market) and vegetable milk (I love oat milk and soy milk with vanilla). Try this combination and… you can thank me later!

But tsoureki is a difficult recipe…

This is a phrase that I hear quite often and I used to say it in the past as well. So, I was ending up getting tsoureki from supermarkets or bakeries. However, at some point in previous years, I said why not? I will give it a try and if I fail, I will follow my already known path again and resort to the ready ones! To my surprise, however, the recipe was really easy and quite successful too, if I count the people who tried it and asked me for the recipe. All you need is patience, because you will have to wait a long time. Nothing more and I mean it! So, let’s go and see the recipe for this delicious, fluffy tsoureki, shall we?

Vegan Fluffy Tsoureki: Greek Sweet Bread

whenhelencooks

Delicious, fluffy and vegan? What else do you want? Try the best recipe for Easter Tsoureki and enjoy the process and the final result as never before!

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Prep Time 30

Cook Time 30

Resting Time 1 30

Total Time 2 30

Course Dessert

Cuisine Greek

Servings 2 Big Tsoureki

Ingredients

For the pre-ferment:

10 g dry yeast
15 g granulated sugar
15 g flour for tsoureki
120 ml almond milk

For the dough:

700 g tsoureki flour
110 ml almond milk
150 ml orange juice
100 ml sunflower oil
100 g granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 tsp mastic (masticha)
1/3 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp mahlep
zest of 3 oranges
1 pinch of salt

For the coating:

40 ml almond milk
1 tbsp molasses
almond fillet

Instructions

For the pre-ferment:

Starting with the pre-ferment, we put the dry yeast, the sugar, the flour and the almond milk in a bowl and we use a hand whisk to mix them well. We cover the mixture and set it aside for 20 minutes to activate the yeast.

For the dough:

Continuing with the dough, we add the almond milk, the orange juice, the sunflower oil, the vanilla extract and the salt in a bowl and we mix them well with a hand whisk.
Then, we beat the mastic, the mahlep, the cardamom and 1 tsp. sweet sugar in a mortar.
We add all the ingredients in the mixer bucket and we beat them on medium speed for 10 minutes.
We flour a bowl and put the dough in by throwing flour on top as well.
We cover the dough and we leave it for 1 hour in a warm place to rise.
Next step is to divide the dough into 2 equal pieces and each piece into 4 smaller pieces.
With these pieces we make equal strips and join the ends all together on one side.
We knit our braid by putting the first strip over the third and the second over the fourth.
When the braid is ready, we join the ends to close it.
We follow the same procedure for the other half of the dough.
We transfer the tsoureki to a baking tray and let them rise for 30 minutes in a warm place in the house.

For the coating:

We put the milk and molasses in a bowl and mix them well.
We spread the mixture over tsoureki with a brush.
Sprinkle tsoureki with almond fillet.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius and bake them for 30 minutes in the air fry.
Once they are ready, leave them to cool and then serve.