Traditional Greek Bread Recipe

How to make it

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• Dissolve yeast in the warm water. In a mixing bowl combine 1 ½ cups of flour, salt, sugar, oil, and dissolved yeast and mix until blended. Cover and let sit for 30 minutes.
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• With a Mixer:
• Mixing with pastry hooks, slowly add 2 cups of flour to the yeast mixture and knead until smooth. The dough will be very sticky and just needs additional flour so it can be handled.
• Sprinkle a work surface with the remaining ¼ cup of flour and turn out the dough, kneading briefly by hand, pulling in the flour, until it doesn’t stick to hands.
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• By Hand:
• Add 1 ½ cups of flour to the yeast mixture and combine with hands to form a cohesive dough. Turn out onto a floured work surface and knead in as much of the remaining flour as needed until the dough is smooth and doesn’t stick to hands.
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• Shape into two loaves, place on a non-stick cookie sheet, and on the middle rack in a cold oven for 15 minutes. Heat oven to 425 F (220 C) and bake on the middle rack for 30 minutes or until golden. Then, cool on a rack.
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• Tips
• -To create a crustier top, just before baking score the loaves 3 times diagonally across the top.
• -Optionally, just before baking, brush the top of the loaves with water and sprinkle with sesame seeds before placing in the oven.