Heavenly fluffy brioche with machlepi

Easter and new year can't be celebrated without this brioche. It is originally called tsoureki. It is a gist bake-off, with eggs and butter, very similar to brioche, but with an exceptional flavor of the machlepi herb.

 

During Easter, we add an red colored egg with the cell and for new year a lucky coin :)
This recipe will take all your morning, as the dough will need to rise three times, so you need to book some extra time for this one. But trust me, the result will be amazing!

This is my grandma's recipe <3

Heavenly fluffy brioche with machlepi

ingredients 

• 1 tea cup of warm water (not boiling-just a bit above room temperature)
• 2 bags of dry yeast
• 500 gr hard white flour
• 500 gr Robin flour (this is an american flour, can be replaced with hard white flour)
• Self raising flour (in case you need need some extra from knitting the dough)
• 320 gr of sugar
• 250 gr milk
• 190 gr butter
• 5 eggs + one for making the brioche shiny
• 2 tea spoons ground machlepi

instructions 

1. Melt the dry yeast in the water and half the milk in a large bowl.
2. Dissolve 5 table spoons of flour in the mix.
3. Let it rise for 3 hours in a warm environment, bowl should be covered with a towel.
4. After the 3 hours, melt the butter in a pan, add the milk and dissolve the sugar in the mix.
5. Mix the eggs by using a fork. 
6. Add the egg mix little by little to the butter-milk-sugar mix.
7. Add the mix in the yeast mix (not too hot)
8. Add gradually the flour and knit the dough until it doesn't stick on the sides of the bowl.
9. If you need more flour add a bit of the self raising flour.
10. Let the dough rise for 1,5 hours in warm environment, cover the bowl with a towel.
11. After the 1,5 hours your dough should be 3 times the size you began with.
12. Separate the dough into 6 or 9 pieces (6 if you want make 2 small brioche, 9 for 3 large brioche)
13. Make is dough ball long and make a braided brioche. 
14. Place the brioche on baking paper and on the oven tray.
15. Let the brioche rise for another 1, 5 hours, it will become double.
16. Use a brush to cover the brioche with a thin layer of egg yolk.
17. After the 1,5 hours, put in pre-warmed oven (150C) and bake for 25 to 30 minutes.
18. When gold color, they are ready :)

This is how the yeast looks like after 3 hours.

This is how the mix looks after adding the eggs.

This is how the dough looks when it is ready (before rising).

This is how much the dough should rise.

Separate the dough to 6 (or 9) pieces.

Roll each piece to a long dough.

Braid the dough.

Place the dough on baking paper and let it rise for 1,5 hours. Leave distance between the braids, as they will become double in size.

After the 1,5 have passed your brioche is doubled. Don't forged to brush the egg yolk for extra shine!

This is how the look when done.

After a couple of days the brioche will dry out.  S once it is ready and cooled down, you can better preserve it wrapped in plastic membrane. When it becomes more dry, you can eat it by dipping in it tea  or by adding marmalade :)