Vasilopita -a New Year’s Day bread or cake in Greece and many other areas in Eastern Europe and the Balkans- goes hand-in-hand with the New Year’s Day, even if you are a vegan. The Vasilopita recipe that follows contains nor eggs neither any other ingredient of animal origin, without being short on taste! So just prepare it and do not forget to put inside a foiled coin the way grandmas used to do! BTW, in case you’ll be the receiver, lend us some of your luck STP!
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Ingredients
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- 500 g self-rising flour ,
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon powder ,
- 1 teaspoon clove powder ,
- 1 monodose vial of vanillin powder ,
- 1 soupçon of salt ,
- ½ of teaspoon mahleb ,
- ½ of teaspoon mastic gum tears ,
- 150 g sugar ,
- 170 ml olive oil (preferable from Mytilini) ,
- 500 ml fresh orange juice ,
- Zest of 1 orange (or of 2 if you fancy its flavour) ,
- 40 ml rum ,
- 150 g coarsely smashed walnuts ,
- Semolina to flour the baking pan
Instructions
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- In a mortar, grind the mastic and the mahleb with a bit of sugar until they have turned dust. ,
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (both top and bottom heat, without convection fan). ,
- In a bowl, using an eggwhisk, stir properly the solid ingredients (except of the sugar and the zest): the flour with the cinnamon, the clove, the vanillin, the salt, the mahleb and the mastic. Then add the walnuts and fold the mixture. ,
- In another bowl, stir all liquid ingredients, sugar and orange zest. ,
- First of all, pour inside the olive oil and gradually add the sugar, while stirring the mixture with an eggwhisk until sugar has melted. ,
- Then add the orange juice, the rum and the orange zest and stir properly. ,
- Finally, add gradually the flour mix, while folding with a rubber spatula until you come up with thick dough. ,
- Bake in properly preheated oven at 180 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour. ,
- After 40-45 minutes of baking, insert a knife into the centre of the Vasilopita and if it comes out clean you remove the Vasilopita from oven. ,
- Let it cool down, unmold and decorate with glaze of your choice! ,
- Ups! Do not forget to insert inside it a foiled coin!
