Artos, or Greek celebration bread, is the second in the BBA Challenge series. It takes 1 or 2 days to make depending on the starter; wild yeast starter takes one day and poolish 2 days. I used poolish for this bread. The dough looked a bit large and so I halved it leaving one half plain and the other half I made into Christopsomos adding golden raisins, a combination of dried cranberries, Rainier cherries, and calimyrna figs, and almonds (I couldn't find my large bag of walnuts). I didn't bother to make the decorative strips on top of the bread, perhaps come Christmastime I will. As usual I mixed and kneaded the dough in the Kitchen Aid mixer which always does a better job of mixing in the fruits and nuts. It's a very easy dough to handle and of course shape. I don't know about those thingies on top, they might be difficult to do.
Both grew nice and tall in the oven, the plain one slightly taller (but a tad lopsided) and with the glaze and sesame seeds it looks like a giant burger roll. Both have tight soft crumb although the plain one has small holes in them which I don't mind really. The flavor of the slightly more moist Christopsomos reminds me of German stollen, a favorite in my house during the Christmas season for the last 20 years or so. I will make Christopsomos again with wild yeast starter and will definitely add it to our Christmas goodies later this year.
You can view the recipe here.
christopsomos
teensy bit lopsided plain Greek celebration bread (or maybe giant burger roll)
soft crumb, very good toasted
flavor 5
texture 5
visual appeal 4
ease of preparation 5
performance 5
worth 5
Total: 29
Average: 4.83