Name: Orange and Saffron Olive Oil Bread (Vegan Tsoureki)
Yield: Makes 2 large or 4 small loaves
Cuisine: Greece
Ingredients: 3 tablespoons fresh orange juice; ⅓ cup (80 ml) olive oil, plus more as needed; 5 tablespoons (80 g) thick almond butter; 3 tablespoons granulated sugar; Juice of 1 orange; 1 tangerine, preferably organic, unpeeled, washed, dried, and quartered to remove any pips; 3 cups (360 g) whole-wheat flour; ⅔ teaspoon saffron threads, diluted in ¼ cup (60 ml) boiling water and set aside for 15 minutes; 1 tablespoon freshly ground mahlep; 1 envelope (2¼ teaspoons/7 g) instant active-dry yeast; 1½ teaspoons salt; 4 cups (500 g) all-purpose flour; 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Preparation info

Makes
2
large

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Mediterranean Vegetarian Feasts

By Aglaia Kremezi

Published 2014

About

A friend asked me if I could get him a vegan recipe for tsoureki—the traditional festive Greek bread baked from a rich dough of milk, eggs, and butter, and usually braided, much like challah. No such recipe existed, so I set out to invent one, and here is the result. The dough is soft and easy to manipulate, so you can give it any shape you like. Inspired by a traditional wedding bread from Thrace, in the northeastern corner of Greece, I used part of the dough to make a coiled bread