Christopsomo (Greek Christmas Bread)

Recipe
1. 500 gr. of flour
2. 20 gr. of wet yeast
3. 4 tbsp of honey
4. 4 tbsp of olive oil
5. 300 ml. of freshly squeezed orange juice
6. ¼ tsp of ground mastic
7. ¼ tsp of ground mahlepi
8. ¼ tsp of salt
9. 100 gr. of ground walnuts
10. 100 gr. of raisins

For the decoration
1. Sesame
2. Walnuts for the top
3. Almonds
4. Raisins

Bake at 180 C (fan assisted) for 45 min.

Procedure
I have prepared this recipe for those of you who cannot eat sugar (i.e. prediabetic). For this reason, I have replaced sugar with honey, and the orange juice must be freshly squeezed. Christopsomo usually has a whole walnut in the middle on the top. I have replaced the walnut with cleaned walnuts. Please note, that mastic and mahlepi are ordinary spices that are usually used in combination in the Greek cuisine. Other ordinary spices usually used in combination are cinnamon and carnation seeds. To use them, these spices must first be ground to powder. This can be done either in a mortar with pestle or in an electric chopper, where these spices are put together with some sugar, which helps the grinding process.

Christopsomo must have a cross in the middle, and for this reason we remove a piece from the dough, which we divide into two other pieces. The orange juice must be at room temperature, so that the dough can increase in size quite quickly. For the dough to double in size we first wait for one hour, and then, after making the bread, for other half an hour.

Description
Christopsomo is a bread prepared 2-3 days before Christmas. The difference between the other ordinary bread loaves is in its rich decoration with various embroideries or "plumidia" as they are called. The bread is dedicated to the Birth of Christ who will be able to transform the plumidia into blessed realization. This bread is considered blessed and is usually given to the priest in a typical ecclesiastic ritual before being cut.

The word "Christopsomo" is comprised of two words, Christos and psomi (meaning bread). It can be sweet or savory.