Greek Vasilopita Bread Recipe #BreadBakers

Vasilopita, also known as Saint Basil’s Good Luck Bread, is a popular traditional Greek bread. In Greece and in many parts of Eastern Europe, Vasilopita is baked to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Following the Vasilopita tradition, the baker hides a coin in the bread and is considered a sign of good luck for the receiver.

Our host for the month Felice Geoghegan, when announced the Good Luck Bread Theme, I was extremely excited. I had this good luck bread, Vasilopita, for a long time in my head and now I had the reason too.

Saint Basil was known for his care for the poor. To help the poor, Saint Basil came up with a unique idea. He would ask the ladies of the church to bake bread with a hidden coin. The bread was then distributed among the needy. This way he could distribute money to the needy without demeaning them. And the bread followed the name, Saint Basil’s Good Luck Bread.

Like traditional bread? Then you may be interested in:

• Amritsari Kulcha
• French Bread Baguette
• Nan-e-Barbari

There are tons of recipes on the internet for this famous Greek Vasilopita bread recipe. Traditionally this bread is baked with lots of sugar and eggs. I am a vegetarian and also keeps a check on the sugar intake. So it was time for me to make modifications in the traditional recipe. I baked Vasilopita recipe without eggs and with moderate sweetness. So for people who follow a strict vegetarian diet, this is going to be best Vasilopita ever.

Quick Notes

I have curated the list of recommended tools and ingredients for baking. I recommend only tried and tested products that have given satisfactory results in my kitchen.

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Vasilopita Bread Recipe

Every ingredient is important and plays a significant role, but when it comes to baking, I consider yeast to be the most important ingredient. I have been asked so many times now about the brand of yeast I use for my baking that I feel the need of making it public information rather than giving it one-on-one every time.

I have so far used almost 18 different brands and a variety of yeast. All of them are good, however, the brand that I have liked the most is Prime. Ever since I have used Prime Instant dry yeast, I have never tried any other brand. The results are wonderful, no aftertaste, good shelf life and easy to work with. If you plan to buy yeast and looking for a recommendation, go for it.

To start, in a jar/cup take lukewarm milk. Don’t overheat the milk as we are going to dissolve yeast into it and hot milk can kill the yeast. So the temperature of the milk should be between 36° C to 40°C. In lukewarm milk, dissolve 2 tablespoons of sugar and ¾ tsp yeast. Let the solution sit until it froths. In normal weather conditions, it will take approximately 5-10 min to activate.

This recipe reminds me of my Hokkaido Bread. In that bread, I have used milk for kneading, and water for making the tangzhong, however in this good luck bread I have used only milk.

Continue to knead the dough until you get the soft, non-sticky and stretchable dough. Now place the kneaded dough into a greased bowl and cover it with a clean kitchen towel. Keep the bowl at some warm place until dough doubles.

Presently the temperature at my place remains between 17 °C to 24 °C. So my dough took 50 minutes to rise. You don’t go by the time, but keep checking the volume. Depending on weather conditions at your place it can take lesser or longer time.

When dough doubles, gently punch it to release the air. Knead it for a minute or two. Shape it into a boule. And place it in greased 8” round pan. I have used 8” spring pan. Because of its loose bottom, it becomes easy to demold the bread after baking.

Cover the dough again with a kitchen towel and let the dough rest until it doubles. For the second rise, the dough took 40 minutes. After 40 minutes I kept my oven for preheating at 200 °C. When my oven was getting ready, I made some pattern on my bread using a sharp knife. Because this bread is known as Saint Basil’s Good luck bread, so I carved basil leaves on the boule and brushed it with milk.

I then decorated the bread with some sesame seeds and pumpkin seeds. This all is optional. You can do any design you want. Generally, people write a number of the year or make a cross.

My bread is now ready to go inside the preheated oven. Isn’t it looking pretty? When I made the Pumpkin Dinner Rolls the little pumpkin shaped bread stole people heart. I am sure the beauty of this bread is going to be a tough competition for my Pumpkin rolls.

We will bake this bread in the preheated oven at 200 °C using the middle rack for 30 minutes. If you are not sure about the temperature of your oven, then I would suggest you to start using Oven thermometer for more accuracy.

My bread was done in 30 minutes and so I took it out from the oven. After resting it for 5 minutes, I demolded the bread. This is the time when I inserted the coin into my bread. Few people like to insert the coin into the dough before baking and few after baking. I feel it safe after baking. So using a sharp knife I made a cut in the base and inserted the coin and let the bread rest on cooling rack for overnight.

Next day in the morning, the bread was ready to serve.  Overnight resting gave enough time to bread to cool down and made the crust soft. The texture of this Vasilopita recipe with orange zest stole my heart.

My son and his father fought a little on cutting the Vasilopita but finally, the son took over his dad. He was too excited to cut the bread. And he is the one who got the coin. I wish all the luck to him for this coming year and ever.

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#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our of lovely bread by following our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated after each event on the #BreadBakers home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send Stacy an email with your blog URL to foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com.

This month, the Bread Bakers are making Good Luck Breads, a theme chosen by Felice from All That's Left Are The Crumbs.

And don’t forget to check out all the amazing bread baked by our talented bakers ~

• Buttermilk Cornbread from Cindy's Recipes and Writings
• Cloverleaf Rolls from Sneha's Recipe
• Coriander Garlic Four Leaf Clover Bread from Sara's Tasty Buds
• Four Leaf Clover Good Luck Rolls from Cook With Renu
• Golden Pineapple Buns from Food Lust People Love
• Grosse Neujahrs-Breze from All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Honey Butter Cloverleaf Rolls from Ambrosia
• Irish Barmbrack from Gayathri's Cook Spot
• Jewish Challah from Veena's Veg Nation
• Three King's Cake from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Lucky Horseshoe Shaped Stuffed Bread from The Mad Scientist's Kitchen
• Steamed Piglet Buns from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Vasilopita from Anybodycanbake

Greek Vasilopita Bread Recipe

Greek Vasilopita is a New Year Bread. This sweet bread is made during the New Year Time. The hidden coin inside the bread is supposed to bring good luck for the person who gets it. Vasilopita bread is also known as Saint Basil's Good Luck Bread.