In Greek culture, celebrations with family and friends are an important part of community life. When it comes to breaking bread together, Easter is no exception.

The Kontos Foods  family of Patterson, NJ, providers of traditional Mediterranean foods, has sent us a holiday recipe  for a delicious Easter bread called Tsoureki  (Hear how this word is pronounced), from their private cookbook.

A braided yeast bread, Tsoureki is known for the decorative red eggs that are baked right into the loaf.  For a colorful variation on this tradition, you can also bake multicolored eggs into your braided bread.  Every family has its own version of this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 2 pkgs. yeast
• ¼ cup sugar
• Flour (follow below instruction)
• 2 cups warm water
• 1 tsp. salt
• ¼ cup oil
• 2 eggs beaten
• Couple/few colored hard-boiled eggs

The Bread:

• Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Add enough flour to mix to heavy batter.
• Add salt, oil and all but 2 teaspoons of beaten eggs.
• Add enough flour to make a firm dough. Knead for 5 minutes.
• Cut dough in half, and each half into thirds. Make 3 long ropes and braid. Bend braid into a tight straight, or circle, loaf.
• Let dough rise for 45 minutes. Use remaining 2 teaspoons of egg to brush on dough.
• To decorate your bread, gently press a red, or other color, egg into the center of your loaf.
• Bake at 400 degrees for 35 minutes.

Not sure how to braid dough?  Here’s how to do it.  This recipe calls for three braids:

To learn more about Kontos Foods visit: www.kontos.com or www.Flatbread.com.

You can also find Kontos Foods on Twitter @KontosFoods or on Facebook at: www.facebook/KontosFoods.