According to the Greek tradition, we have vasilopita (Saint Basil’s pie) at midnight on New Year’s Eve and each family member is offered a slice. We also have slices for the “house”, Christ, “work”, etc (yes, it looks a bit weird 🤣 but you’ll understand if you read further).
In this delicious cake, we hide a coin when we prepare the dough and the person who finds it on New Year’s Eve is supposed to have a great year!
For companies or other formal celebrations, vasilopita can also be eaten during the whole month of January.
There are many ways to prepare it but almost none of them is vegan. In the last years, we’ve tried different recipes and the one that we absolutely love* comes from the Greek chef Akis Petretzikis. His recipe is normally for the vegan Easter tsourekia (traditional Easter brioche) but we also use it as vasilopita!
This vasilopita is delicious, fluffy, and light! You can decorate it with melted chocolate, icing sugar, crushed nuts, and everything else you’d love to add.
We usually bake it on December 30 or 31st. As we love it so much, we prepare another one or two during January!
Tell us your opinion if you prepare it!
Have an excellent New Year!
* We’ve slightly adapted the original recipe.
Vegan fluffy vasilopita (Greek New Year’s Day Cake)
Ingredients
For the sourdough
- 9 gr dry yeast
- 1 tsp granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp hard flour
- 140 gr lukewarm water not hot. Otherwise it will kill the yeast and the dough won’t rise
For the vasilopita
- 700 gr hard flour
- orange zest of 1 orange
- ¼ tsp mastiha or mastic
- ½ tsp mahlepi or mahleb
- ¼ tsp ground cardamom
- 200 gr granulated sugar
- 200 g orange juice
- 120 gr olive oil
For the decoration
- melted chocolate
- crushed nuts
Instructions
For the sourdough
- Put the yeast, the sugar, the flour, and the water in a bowl and mix.
- Allow 20-30 minutes for the yeast to be activated.
For the vasilopita
- If you have a mortar and pestle, add the mastiha, the mahlepi, the cardamom, 1 teaspoon of the sugar, and crush them until they become a powder. If not (like us), put them inside a folded paper towel, and crush them with a spoon (a more barbaric way, but it’s still doable!).
- Add the sourdough with the remaining flour, the orange zest, and the spices in a big bowl.
- Add the orange juice, the olive oil, and the sugar in another bowl, and mix with a spoon.
- Add the ingredients of the sourdough bowl (2) into the other bowl (3) and mix.
- Add the dough into a bowl with a bit of flour and cover it. Let it covered for about 1 hour until it doubles in volume.
- We prepare two vasilopita, so we split the dough into two pieces, and then, we give them the shape of round cakes. If you want to have only one, shape it into one round cake.
- Wrap the coin in parchment paper and insert it in the dough.
- Put parchment paper in a baking tray, cover with a towel, and let it rise for 20-30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven at 180°C (fan).
- Bake for about 35-40 minutes.
- Remove and decorate it with melted chocolate, crushed nuts, or anything else of your liking. Enjoy it!