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Sweet holiday bread

Tsoureki (τσουρέκι) also known as šurēk (شُريك, Arabic), čöreg, čʿorek, katʿnahuncʿ (Armenian չէօրէկ, չորեկ, կաթնահունց), çörək (Azerbaijani), çyrek (Albanian), kozunak (Bulgarian козунак), cozonac (Romanian) or paskalya çöreği (Turkish) is a sweet holiday bread made with flour, milk, butter, eggs, and sugar and commonly seasoned with orange zest, mastic resin, or mahlab. Lampropsomo, a variation of tsoureki commonly called "Greek Easter bread," is made by Greek communities during Easter, not only in Greece, but also in other countries with Greek communities. It is also called Armenian Easter bread and gets eaten during Easter in Armenia and the Armenian diaspora.

The Greek word tsoureki is borrowed from Turkish çörek, meaning "round bread" in Old Turkic dialect. Some dictionaries claim that this is derived from the Old Turkish root çevir 'turn' or 'to make it round'. The ancient Armenian name was "bsatir պսադիր" ("bsag պսակ" "crown" and "tir դիր", is the root of "tnel դնել" verb: "to put"). This Armenian name is in allusion to Christ’s crown of thorns.

There are different variations of the Greek tsoureki holiday breads including a round Christmas loaf with a cross decoration called Christopsomo, a braided Easter bread with whole dyed eggs pressed into the dough called lampropsomo, and a loaf with a coin hidden inside for good luck called vasilopita that is baked for St. Basil's Day (New Year's Day).

Tsoureki is made for Easter in Greece and among the Greek diaspora. It is made from a sweet yeast dough of flour, sugar, eggs, butter and milk, with dyed red Easter eggs pressed into the dough. The dough is brushed with egg wash before baking, and sometimes flavored with mahlep, mastic resin or orange zest. Other flavorings might include almond extract, cinnamon, sultanas or fennel seed. This bread is sometimes called "Armenian Easter bread". In Armenian, the common name is choreg (չորեկ) or chöreg (չէօրէկ), from the Turkish, with the Armenian name gatnahunts (կաթնահունց) being less common. Before baking choreg, the surface is painted with egg yolk, and the heat of the oven browns it until it acquires a reddish brown tone that represents the blood of Christ. Traditional Armenian choreg omits the dyed Easter eggs. Its Turkish name is paskalya çöreği 'Easter çörek'. It does not include whole eggs pressed into the dough as decoration. Some recipes substitute a neutral flavored oil, such as sunflower oil, and margarine in place of milk and butter. The dough may be seasoned with orange zest, vanilla, mahlep and slivered almonds. Sometimes tsoureki is used as a gift for special occasion, for instance, it can be given as an Easter gift from children to their godparents.

Christopsomo (Χριστόψωμο), which translates as "Christ's bread", is a traditional Greek holiday bread that is sometimes decorated with whole walnuts, sesame seeds and slivered almonds. Also called Christmas fruit bread, the tsoureki dough may include a combination of raisins, dried apricots, dried figs, orange zest, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, cardamom, Mastic (plant resin) and mahleb. (Some recipes suggest marinating the raisins and dried figs overnight in wines like retsina or mavrodaphne). Some of the dough is set aside for the loaf's cross shaped decoration. The bread may be glazed with a syrup made from honey, orange juice, and slivered almonds.