I’ve always wanted to make this bread just because the shape of one of the variations is so cool. It’s a round loaf with strips of dough crossed over the top, the ends split and curled around.
I ended up not using that shape though. The bread is flavored with all sorts of things – almond extract, lemon zest, fall spices, olive oil, honey – so I thought it would make a particularly good French toast, and a round loaf didn’t seem practical for that. Instead, I tried a 4-strand braid, which looks pretty much like a 3-strand braid after baking. That’s okay, it was easy to do.
When Dave tried the bread, he said “This smells like Christmas. Did you put Christmas in this? The bread did, indeed, make for some pretty amazing French toast. Except I think it needs more salt. I’m a broken record.
For the recipe for this bread, check Michelle’s blog. She also shows the shape I described above. However, I skipped the dried fruit, nuts, and glaze, plus I used sourdough starter instead of the poolish.
First off, am a huge fan of your piece of cyberspace! I have consumed more pieces of artos or tsoureki that I care to admit and your shape looks perfect. Besides french toast, bread pudding is another excellent spin off. A bit of egg wash will also give it a bit of shine, not that your version needed anything.
This sounds delicious. I would love some bread that tastes like Christmas!
Beautiful plait Bridget! I’m looking forward to the French toast, hee hee 🙂
That is such a beautiful loaf of bread!
I love the shape of yours. It really smells like Christmas.
What a great looking bread! Oh yes I could see some pretty terrific french toast being made with this!
Your artos looks wonderful. Perfect braid.
Wow. Your bread looks like it walked off the cover of a magazine. It’s gorgeous!
Who are you kidding!? That 4-strand braid is far, far, more impressive than the 3 strand variety. 🙂 Dave’s comment is super cute, too.