Paska Time
Both my mom and Tuffy's mom made a version of traditional Easter Bread - Tuffy's mom was Ukrainian; my mom was Polish. Both our moms long ago abandoned the cross-based ornamentations that you often see. Here is how we go about making Paska:
1 tsp sugar
1 cup lukewarm water
2 tsp yeast
3 cups scalded milk, lukewarm
5 cups flour
9 or 10 more cups flour
6 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
1 tbsp salt
grated rind of one lemon
Dissolve the sugar in the water and add the yeast. If the water is too hot, you'll kill the yeast. If the water is too cold, you'll kill the yeast. It should be on the border between warm and hot. Let it sit for a few minutes to proof the yeast. It should start to get foamy. Add it, along with the milk to a mixing bowl, and combine in 5 cups of flour. Beat until smooth, then let it sit in a warm environment for about 20 minutes. Add in the beaten eggs, sugar, melted butter, lemon rind and salt and mix thoroughly. Add flour until you get a soft dough. Knead it until it stops sticking to your hands...you can add a little flour along the way if you need to. Knead until the dough is smooth and has body (hard to explain unless you've made bread...it has to push back some). Let the dough rise, covered, in a warm environment until it doubles in size. Then punch it down, knead it for maybe 20 seconds, and let it rise again.
Section your dough into three or four parts, depending on what you bake it in. We use coffee cans, big ones and small ones. Grease your cans, and plop a chunk of dough into each, such that it is a little less than half full. Let the loaves double in size again in the tins. Brush the tops with beaten egg diluted with an equal part water. Bake for 15 minutes at 400, then lower the temperature to 350 and continue baking for 40 minutes. If the top starts to brown too much (it should come out a deep honey), cover the top gently with aluminum foil for the last 10 or 15 minutes.
Make many loaves and give them to your friends.....never keep it all for yourself. That's the rule. Feel the love.
4 comments:
Great recipe, though I'd have to cut it down because I don't know enough people here to give that much away to!
The yeast won't die if the water's too cold; it just won't activate or "wake up" out of its dormant state. Considering the amount of flour in this recipe, it seems like such a little amount of yeast. I use 2tsp of yeast in recipes that call for half the amount of flour this one dies. Obviously, this is a tried and tested recipe, though, so don't think I'm doubting it!
2 teaspoons of yeast? Doesn't sound like much to me either but I'm going to make this one day soon :-) I make my own Callah (egg bread) and it's something close to this. I use a full tablespoon of yeast to 7 cups of flour but each recipe differs. I'll definitely try this one :-) Maybe it's time to put another recipe on my blog.
Shame on me, I misspelled "Challah". If you want the recipe Mr. Anchovy check out my blog. Btw, thanks for the link back to me.
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