Olga's Easter bread (Paska)

It's the most wonderful dough... of the year... (sing it with me...)

When my elderly Ukrainian neighbour, Olga, who has since moved to seniors' housing, typed up her Paska and Babka recipes for me after Easter some years ago, I didn't realize what a treasure she had shared. Since then I've been delighted with the Paska process and results. I've shared it before, but here's this year's efforts from yesterday to illustrate in case any of my readers would like to try to make their own beautiful Easter bread:

Olga's Paska 

2 c (500 mL) lukewarm water

2 tbsp (30 mL) sugar

3 tbsp (45 mL) active dry yeast

Mix them together and let stand about ten minutes. (I usually do this about halfway through making the "sponge" for the bread as it's a longer process than ten minutes).

2 c (500 mL) scalded milk (warmed to 180 degrees, then allowed to cool -- scalded milk helps the flour gluten's smoothness and gives any flavouring you might like to add extra oomph) 

6 whole eggs 

6 egg yolks (Easter macarons from the whites, anyone? I made a delicious omelette for supper)

1 c (250 mL) sugar -- or a bit less

1/2 c (125 mL) butter or margarine, melted

1/2 c (125 mL) vegetable oil

1 tbsp (15 mL) salt

1 tsp lemon flavouring (almond or vanilla are nice, too, and darn, I forgot to add any flavouring this year!)

12-13 c flour... more if the dough is too sticky.

Add the sugar, salt and melted butter to the scalded milk. Mix in oil and flavouring. Beat eggs until light and add them, along with 4 cups of flour. 

Add the yeast mixture and mix well to make the "sponge," then add it to the remaining 8-9 cups of flour, or more, depending on the stickiness of the dough (different flours have different moisture content). Knead it until smooth and satiny.

Put the dough into a large bowl, cover and let rise until doubled. Punch down and let rise again til doubled.

Divide the dough into as many loaves as you like. If you have round cake pans, they are ideal for nice rounded, flat bottomed loaves (filling about 1/3 of the pan's center). Use half (or less) of a loaf's dough for decorations -- braids, twists, ropes, rosettes, etc. I put my loaves on cookie sheets, and they expanded into each other so they're not quite as pretty as they could be where they baked together...

Flatten the bottom of the loaf and moisten where you want to set the decorations. Cover with a damp towel and let rise until double in size. (Don't let the tops of the loaves get too dry or they crack and spoil the decorative designs -- I'm speaking from experience, here.)

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, but keep an eye on them -- if they are getting too brown, cover them with moistened brown paper. Then turn the oven down to 300 degrees and bake another ten minutes while you mix up the glaze:

1 beaten egg

3 tbsp (45 mL) water

1 tsp (5 mL) sugar

Brush the bread with well-beaten glaze and bake for another 10 minutes at 300 degrees.

See the butterfly and snails on the bottom loaf? Roses elsewhere...

This year, I divided my dough into eight loaves, and Suzanna and I had fun decorating. We are quite delighted with the results, and we'll be sharing the loaves among family members for Easter. Unfortunately, my nephew is far from his parents and stuck in a covid hotel not far from here for this Easter -- so this morning, I dropped one off for him. The beauty of the recipe is that it makes plenty for sharing. Maybe next year I'll try the babka recipe instead...

Happy Easter baking!