I am really excited about this week’s episode on Backyard Bachelor because it features one of my favorite traditions during the holiday season (aside from Christmas), New Year’s Day.
The Greek sweet bread, Vasilopita, commemorates the New Year. It commemorates blessings and good luck in the new year. New Year’s Day falls on the 8th day of Christmas in the Greek Orthodox Church. In addition, it commemorates St. Basil the Great’s feast day (Xronia polla to those who celebrate their name’s day as I do on this day)! This is not the most difficult bread to bake but it is definitely the longest.
It is by far one of my favorite traditions and today, I am going to show you how to make it. With Vasilopita and baking bread, start early.
Ingredients:
- ¾ cup of butter
- 3-4 tablespoons of shortening
- ¾ cup of sugar
- ½ cup of milk
- 1 cup of water
- 4 eggs
- 4 teaspoons of yeast
- 6-7.5 cups of flour
Method:
- On the stovetop on low heat, gently warm the butter (sliced into pieces) and shortening until it is soft, not melted. This should only take a couple minutes.
- In a bowl, place a cup of warm water alongside about 4 teaspoons of yeast and let sit for about 15 minutes
- Once these two are completed, take off the heat and bring it to your electric mixer. This is going to take some time.
- Pour the butter mixture into a large bowl and slowly start cracking eggs into the electric mixer. After the eggs are added, pour in ¾ cup of sugar and let the mixer until all are combined.
- Add the yeast and water to the mix as well.
- Once combined, keep the mixer on medium-low and slowly add a cup of flour to the bowl, and continue to mix. Repeat this until you have about 6-6.5 cups of flour in your bowl.
- Let your mixer go to medium and keep making sure the flour and other materials are all combined. Don’t worry this takes some time.
- Keep the mixer going until the dough is no longer sticky but soft to touch.
- In a buttered pan, gently place the dough and cover to let rise until it is doubled in size. This is going to take some time. This dough took about 3 hours to rise.
- Once the dough doubles in size, divide the dough into two buttered loaf pans and gently cover with foil.
- Place the pans in a 350 F* oven for about 20-30 minutes.
- Remove the foil and let it cook for about another 30 minutes or until it has browned.
- Once the loaves are cooked, let the bread completely cool. I cannot emphasize that enough because the crumb structure is so light and fragile, and you don’t want it to break apart. It should take about 30-45 minutes.
- Slice and serve.
Making the vasilopita is a long process but it is so worth all the effort! If you have the opportunity to try making it, plan ahead and enjoy the process! Hopefully, this guide will help ease the process!
I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season! Also, don't forget to check out the full video on YouTube and the other cocktails that I have recorded so far! One of my goals for next year is to keep improving on presenting and sharing wonderful dishes and cocktails. Although this will be my last post for the year, expect this video as well as next week's cocktail video posted next week that everyone should have to drink, The French 75!