Ingredients
1 lb sweet butter
3 cups sugar
1 dozen jumbo eggs
1 quart milk
4 packages dry yeast
6-7 lbs Heckers’s flour (Buy 4 - 2 lb bags. It helps to keep track of the flour used)
2 teaspoons salt
1 tsp ground mahlepi (optional) – found in Greek stores or online.
1 stick sweet butter
1 egg
Sesame seeds (optional)
5 Red Easter eggs (optional)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 200 degrees and turn off.
Place yeast in a large bowl. Add 2 cups of warm milk and 2 cups of flour. Blend well using a whisk. Cover and let rest for one hour in oven.
Melt butter with 2 cups of milk and 3 cups of sugar over low flame in a saucepan. Let cool.
Add salt and mahlepi to the butter mixture
Beat 12 eggs one at a time until frothy. Add milk mixture and yeast mixture. Blend well.
Add flour a little at a time. Knead it into mixture before adding more flour. Continue kneading and adding flour until dough is still a little sticky but shapes into a nice ball. DO NOT ADD TOO MUCH FLOUR. (It usually takes a total of 6-6 ½ lbs-including the amount used in Step 1-but the amount can vary.)
Preheat oven to 200 degrees and turn it off.
Shape the dough into a ball and wipe the top with melted butter so it doesn’t dry. Cover loosely with saran wrap and a large lightly damp towel. Put in warm oven (heat off) and allow to rise. It should double in size – about 2 ½ to 3 hours.
Knead dough VERY WELL (you can be rough) until air bubbles are broken and dough is shiny.
Grease 5 9” round cake pans (or any variation desired)
Cut dough into 15 pieces.
Take three pieces. Roll each piece into a 16” log. Place the three logs side by side and braid them together sealing the ends. Tightly roll the braid into a circle and put end piece under the circle. Put bread into 9” round greased pan. Brush with butter. Cover loosely with saran wrap and then with towel.
Repeat this process 4 more times. Let breads sit in oven or, if not enough room, on the counter (warm/no draft) for 1-1 ½ hours until they rise.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Brush breads with egg that has been beaten with 1 tbl of water. Sprinkle breads with sesame seeds (optional).
Bake (in several batches) in 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes or until done. Cool on rack thoroughly before wrapping. Cut a small circle in the center of bread and place a red egg in hole (optional).
Bread can be frozen. Freeze right after it has been wrapped for freshest results.