Ukrainian Easter Bread Recipe Video

PASKA BREAD

Steps:

• Stir sugar into warm water. Sprinkle yeast on top of sugar water, gently incorporate. Allow to sit for 10-15 minutes, until bubbly.
• In a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs, continue to cream until well incorporated and fluffy once more.
• Add juices, zest, and salt to the mixture, mix until combined. Add scalded milk, continue to mix until well incorporated and smooth. Add 4 cups of flour, combine well. Add yeast mixture, mix until well incorporated.
• If you have a dough hook attachment for your mixer, affix it now.
• Slowly add remaining flour until a good, coherent bread dough comes together. It should be only very slightly sticky to the touch - not super sticky, and not really DRY.
• Turn dough out onto a floured surface, and knead for a few minutes. Dough should be smooth, elastic, and no longer sticky when it's been kneaded enough.
• Put dough into a lightly greased bowl or pot, cover top with plastic wrap, and allow to rise in a warm area until doubled in size, about 1 1/2-2 hours. Once doubled, beat down the middle of the dough and allow to rise another hour.
• Reserve about 1/3 of the dough for decorations, and divide remaining dough out among the pans you'll be using (grease them first!). For reference, we used a 9″ round pyrex pot, a large loaf pan, and 3 mini loaf pans to bake ONE batch of this. It makes a *LOT* of bread... this is a good thing!
• For the main body of your breads, you'll want the dough to fill about 1/3 of each baking pan - they'll rise a LOT. Halfway full if you're adventurous, but don't say I didn't warn you. Cover pans and reserved 1/3 dough loosely with plastic wrap and allow to rise another 30 mins.
• Once your 30 minutes are up, use the reserved dough to make designs on the top of each loaf.Braids, twists, curls, crosses and rosettes are popular/traditional, but have fun with it. (Google can be a great source of design inspiration.) Toothpicks can be used to help secure designs in place until after baking. Cover loosely with plastic, allow to rise one last time, 30 minutes.
• While your dough is rising, whisk together the remaining egg yolks and water to create an egg wash. This glaze will give your finished Paska a shiny, dark brown finish. Beautiful!
• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Once final rise is finished, brush entire top of each loaf with egg wash. Bake loaves for 10 minutes. Without opening the oven door, lower the heat to 325°F and continue to bake for another 40 minutes.
• Cool Paska for 10-15 minutes (if you can handle the wait), then gently remove from pans and transfer to a wire rack or wooden cutting board to continue cooling.

EASTER BREAD, OR UKRAINIAN BABKA

Steps:

• Place the butter, milk and 3/4 cup of white sugar in a pot and bring it to a near boil, you want to slightly scald the milk. You can also heat it in the microwave as well to the point of scalded (near boil).
• Add in the cup of cold water and let the mixture cool.
• Take the 1/2 cup of warm water and 1 tsp of white sugar, mix in your yeast thoroughly and let it start bubbling away.
• Beat your egg yolks and turmeric (or saffron if you want traditional). The turmeric gives the bread it's lovely color. (You can also use 3 whole eggs instead of the 6 egg yolks but the yolks make a richer bread. So 3 eggs OR 6 yolks)
• Add the egg mixture to the warm milk mixture. You need to let the saffon dissolve in the warm mixture before you move on, if you use saffron!
• Then add the yeast mixture to the bowl.
• I used the mixer for this now because it is one heck of a job. Mix the salt into your flour then add in the first four cups of flour, then your raisins. Then slowly add another 4-5 cups until the dough is slightly sticky. The dough should stick to your hand very slightly, but be a nice elastic dough.
• My dough always climbs the hook eventually so I used the mixer to get it combined and kneaded as much as possible then removed it and kneaded it on the counter for a while.
• Once that's done it needs to rise. Put it into a bowl(s) in a nice warm place and cover it with a damp tea towel.
• Once it's doubled in size, it's time to punch it down and put it in the tins to rise again. You want to fill the tins only half way with punched down dough, this dough rises like you wouldn't believe!
• Grease the ever lovin' heck out of those coffee tins. (I use the medium size, the 13-16 oz coffee tins, NOT the large ones!) This would make a perfect 7 tins. You can also make it in a loaf pan.
• Time to let it rise again, Let the dough rise until it is almost at the top of the can. They will rise in the oven as well when they start baking, which is why you want them only to rise barely to the top of the tin.
• Remove all the oven racks except the bottom one. Kick the tires and light the fires to 325 degrees.
• Bake for 30-40 minutes on the very bottom rack, the tops get very golden brown but don't fear, the inner part has to cook and the tops get brown and stay brown.
• Once they are nearly done, brush with the beaten egg and cook until the bread is finished.
• The bread will sound hollow on top when tapped & be a lovely brown.
• Cool very slightly in the tins then remove to make sure the bread doesn't sweat and the bottoms don't get soggy.
• If they stick slightly in the tins, twist and shake gently at the same time, they will pop right out.
• If they stick in the loaf pans, run a knife along the edge to free the bread then remove safely.
• Cool on racks for a couple of hours ... if you can wait!

PASKA EASTER BREAD

Steps:

• In a large bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in 1 cup warm water. Let stand for 5 minutes. Add remaining water. Beat in the milk powder and 5 cups flour until smooth. Cover and let rise in a warm place until bubbly, about 20 minutes. Add eggs, butter, salt and remaining sugar; mix well. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 8-10 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour., Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; divide in half and set 1 portion aside. Divide remaining portion in half; press each portion into a well-greased 10-in. springform pan. Divide reserved dough into 6 balls. Shape each ball into a 30-in. rope; make 2 braids of 3 ropes each. Place a braid around the edge of each pan, forming a circle. Trim ends of braids, reserving dough scraps. Pinch ends of braids to seal. Shape scraps into 2 long thin ropes; form into rosettes or crosses. Place 1 decoration on the center of each loaf. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. , In a small bowl, beat egg and water; brush over dough. Bake at 350° for 50-60 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool.