Tsoureki is either loved or adored. The Greeks serve it with coffee.

Tsoureki is a Greek sweet bread. Traditionally made for Easter, but can be found throughout the year in pastry shops.

The basic shape is a braid, and if prepared for Easter, a red egg is placed in the middle.

If you find yourself in Thessaloniki, be sure to try tsoureki from the Terkenlis pastry shop. This pastry shop and bakery has been making the best tsoureki (and many other delicious pastries) since 1948. In recent years, tsoureki has been enriched with various toppings and fillings: chocolate, hazelnut, orange, lemon, and my favorite is with white chocolate and chestnut.

One of the Terkenlis chain pastry shops is located on Aristotle Square, with ten more places in Thessaloniki, including the airport, bus and train station, and the Cosmos shopping center. There are 6 Terkenlis pastry shops in Thessaloniki.

If you are vacationing in Leptokarya or Kalitea, you can also enjoy the rich taste of tsoureki.

The taste is unique and you may not like it at first bite. The specific taste comes from mahleb and mastic, resin from the mastic tree that grows on the island of Chios, (read more about it here), mahleb, orange peel.

You can find mastic and mahleb in spice shops, and they are also used in Arab cuisine.

We have written a basic recipe (larger amount), you can add chocolate or something else of your choice for the topping.
Ingredients:
12 eggs
5 cups of warm milk
5 cups of sugar
2 cups of warm water
2 cups of oil
1 cup of orange juice and zest
1 teaspoon of mahleb
1 teaspoon of mastic
1⁄2 teaspoon of salt
1⁄2 teaspoon of cardamom
1 teaspoon of powdered vanilla
6 tablespoons of dry yeast
Soak the yeast in a little milk and sugar, then combine with flour (all-purpose flour, as needed, about 20-26 cups of flour).
Mix all wet ingredients, then all dry ingredients with the wet ones.
After mixing, let the dough rise for several hours in a warm place until it doubles in size.
Then knead it a little. Make braids or another shape (like bread loaves for example). Let them rise for another hour.
Preheat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius.
Bake for 45 minutes.
Note: the yeast must be fresh.
Enjoy!

Tsoureki is beautifully packaged, so it can also be a great gift. I have noticed that when excursions from smaller Greek cities come to Thessaloniki, one of the mandatory stops is Terkenlis. It does not need to be stored in the refrigerator.