Christian Easter Bread
Description
To delight your family with a delicious and fluffy Easter bread, you'll need to stock up on time and patience. The dough rises several times, resulting in a light, airy, and very tasty paska. If desired, you can add apricots, candied fruits, poppy seeds, etc., along with the raisins. Serve warm or chilled. Perfect with tea.
Instructions
- 1
Step 1
Prepare the listed ingredients. Use fresh, full-fat milk. Fresh yeast can be replaced with dry yeast — 10 grams.
- 2
Step 2
Heat the milk to boiling, then cool it down to 30-35 degrees. This is very important, as yeast won't activate in hotter liquid! Pour the warm milk into a deep container. Crumble the fresh yeast into it or add dry yeast, then whisk everything with a whisk.
- 3
Step 3
Add half a cup of flour and 1 tablespoon of sugar, mix well, cover the container with a towel, and let the starter rise in a warm place for 30–40 minutes.
- 4
Step 4
If the yeast is active, after the specified time you will see the starter has increased several times in volume!
- 5
Step 5
In a deep bowl, beat the chicken yolks with the remaining sugar and melted butter. The main thing is that the butter should not be hot!
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Step 6
Place the sponge into a container and mix. Add the sifted wheat flour and raisins. You don't need to soak the dried fruits, but if you prefer to soak them, be sure to dry them thoroughly with paper towels before adding.
- 7
Step 7
Knead the dough thoroughly for 5–8 minutes. During kneading, the gluten in the flour will activate, making the dough elastic, soft, but not dense. Cover the bowl with a towel and let it rest for 1 hour at room temperature.
- 8
Step 8
After the specified time, the dough will have increased in size by at least two times.
- 9
Step 9
Spray the baking pans with vegetable oil. Use the same oil to grease your hands and knead the risen dough. Divide the dough into the pans, filling them to one-third of their volume. Cover with a towel again and let rise for 1 hour.
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Step 10
Then preheat the oven to 200 degrees and bake for about 30-35 minutes. During the last minutes of baking, brush the surface with milk or egg yolk to get a golden crust. Then remove the paska and let it cool for at least 1 hour.
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Step 11
Thoroughly mix the powdered sugar with lemon juice — this will be the glaze for the baked goods.
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Step 12
Glaze the Easter cakes and sprinkle with colorful beads, decorate with sugar paste figures.
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Step 13
Let the glaze dry and serve the colorful Easter cakes by cutting them into pieces!