breadsecrets blog

Artos is the general term for a Greek celebration bread, usually enriched with eggs. The variation I baked from the Bread Baker’s Apprentice (buy the book here) is called Christopsomos (literally, Christ bread) and is normally eaten at Christmas. As well as the enriched dough which contained sourdough starter (as well as regular bakers’ yeast), olive oil, milk, egg, honey, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, orange zest, and almond extract, this version contains dried fruit and nuts. I used sultanas, dried cherries, dried figs, and walnuts.

Finished Christopsomos loaf

Making the dough was straightforward - I decided to have the decorative cross free of fruit and nuts to give it a contrast from the main loaf, so I removed about 1/4 of the dough before adding the dried fruit and nuts (the book said to use 1/3 of the dough for the cross, but I thought it would look better with slightly thinner “ropes”). I incorporated the fruit and nuts in the main part of the dough by flattening the dough, covering with a third of these ingredients and rolling up, then repeating the process two more times. The un-fruited portion for the cross stayed in a bowl in the fridge while the main portion rose. The dough rose more slowly than I’d expected, despite the extra sugar from the honey, which I’d thought would give the yeast a boost. When it had risen, I shaped the main part into a boule:

Risen Christopsomos dough, shaped into boule

The book says to divide the smaller portion of dough into two and form them into two ten-inch ropes. I tried this, and they just weren’t long enough to go over the boule with enough left at the end to form the scrolls, so I had to roll them out further. I found the ideal length was around 19 inches. (Humorous comments are left as an exercise for the reader …) This process took quite a few minutes as the gluten caused the ropes to shrink, so I had to stretch and roll them then let them relax several times.

How long is my rope?

I split the ends of the ropes with a dough scraper, and coiled them into scrolls as shown before putting into the oven.

I baked the loaf for about 30 minutes before applying an egg wash glaze - other people on the challenge had said the recommended honey glaze was rather sticky, so I decided to make a substitution. After glazing the main part of the loaf and sprinkling with sesame seeds, I brushed the egg wash on the decorative cross, so there was a contrast between the seeded & unseeded parts.

Partly baked Christopsomos loaf before egg wash & sesame seeds.

Slice of Christopsomos loaf

So, the finished loaf looked pretty good, if I say so myself, and smelled great. When I cut it, the texture was slightly more closed than I’d expected, and it tasted very much like English tea bread, which I used to eat frequently as a child. Haven’t seen any for sale in years - maybe it was just a northern/midlands thing? It was particularly good toasted, although it burns very quickly due to the high sugar content.

Next week’s challenge is bagels: I’ve made these many times, and will be using my own adaptation of Peter Reinhart’s recipe, which I’ve always found very successful.