The best traditional, fragrant and well adorned gluten free Christmas Βread - Christopsomo for the festive meals and beyond…
Boil the water with the aniseed for 5 minutes and leave it aside to cool, while we are waiting for the yeast to activate.
Sift the flour into a bowl, make a small pit in the middle and add the yeast, sugar and 2 tbsp. lukewarm water. Wait about 30 minutes until the yeast activates and rises
As soon as the yeast is ready and the water that we boiled in the aniseed, has cooled, we make the dough by adding to the bowl with the sifted the active yeast, the olive oil , the salt and 300ml drained water that we boiled, the aniseed.
Knead our dough very well.
Once our dough is ready, add the walnuts and knead so that the walnuts go everywhere.
From this dough, we divide it and keep aside about ¼ to make the designs. The rest dough we placed in an about Ø 20cm/8” diameter pan after having first lined it with a greaseproof/baking paper.
On a floured surface, make 4 cords with the dough we kept aside.
With these cords, we decorate our bun by making designs and place the whole unpeeled walnuts and cloves on top.
Cover and set aside to rise again for about 45 minutes. For greater convenience and in order not to spoil our design, I place the pan in a shell-type pan and cover it with the lid. If my kitchen is not warm enough, I place it in the oven at 50°C/120°F.
As soon as our bun has risen, lightly beat the egg yolk and brush it over its entire surface.
Bake it open, without the lid, in a preheated oven at 200°C/400°F for about 50 minutes, adding a tray/pan with water at the base of the oven.
