In 1968, Theodora Contis left the Greek island of Chios to move to New Jersey, where her older sister had previously settled. Among the treasured possessions the then-21-year-old carried was a cookbook that still sits on a shelf in her Williston kitchen.
The book’s title translates to The New Cooking and Baking Book of the Greek Home, but Contis, 76, rarely refers to its pages. She long ago committed to memory the traditional recipes she makes for family, friends and semiannual bake sales at the Dormition of the Mother of God Greek Orthodox Church in Burlington.
On a recent morning, the retired physics teacher demonstrated one of those recipes as she made the Greek Easter bread called tsoureki. It’s on the menu for the Easter bake sale; preorders are under way for pickup on April 8.
The benefit events are organized by the congregation’s chapter of the Greek Ladies Philoptochos Society, which Contis joined when she and her husband moved to Vermont in 1977 for his job at what was then IBM.
Proceeds, which average $7,000 per sale, are donated to a carefully chosen list of charities, according to Contis, who serves as the organization’s treasurer and bake sale chair. They range from Burlington’s Committee on Temporary Shelter to World Central Kitchen, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that provides freshly cooked meals to those dealing with natural or man-made crises around the globe. “Our job is to help the poor and needy,” Contis explained.
About 10 bakers contribute a variety of specialties, such as syrup-soaked baklava, savory spanakopita, custardy phyllo-topped galaktoboureko, glossy loaves of tsoureki and kourambiethes butter cookies rolled in drifts of powdered sugar.
Like many culinary heirlooms, Contis’ bread recipe carries the unique flavor of her heritage. As she kneaded, braided, and brushed the loaves with egg wash sweetened with honey and a little orange blossom water, she explained that each Philoptochos member has her own approach. “Not one is the same as the other,” she said.
Enriched with eggs, butter and milk, the yeasted dough is often seasoned with mahleb, a bitter-edged floral spice ground from the seeds of a species of cherry. When Contis bakes tsoureki, she adds finely chopped candied orange peel, which she makes during annual trips to Greece.
She also uses a distinctive flavoring from her native Chios. The baker held up a bag of what appeared to be small, dusty white stones from a grade-schooler’s rock collection. They were nuggets of mastic, a piney, slightly bitter tree resin.
The tree grows best in the southern part of the island, Contis explained. Although her family lived in the north, “my grandmother had a few trees, enough for the family.”
Contis grinds mastic fresh for her bread, as she does the cherry seeds. “Sometimes people buy it pre-ground,” she observed, “but that’s not as good.”
A bite of the fresh bread was sweet and soft with a whisper of musky, floral woodsiness.
For her own Easter table, Contis will make a large round tsoureki with hard-cooked, naturally dyed red eggs nestled in the center. (Bake sale loaves do not include hard-cooked eggs.)
“It would not be Easter without Easter bread,” Contis declared.
The Greek Ladies Philoptochos Society of the Dormition of the Mother of God Greek Orthodox Church in Burlington will take bake sale orders through March 30, or as supplies last, for pickup on April 8. Proceeds benefit local, national and international charities. Learn more at greekphiloptochosvt.org.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Raising Dough | Greek Orthodox church congregants bake for charity”
This article appears in Mar 22-28, 2023.
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