EASTER. How to bake Easter cakes and Easter cakes correctly.
Easter cake recipes. Easter recipes. The most delicious Easter, or Nine secrets of Easter cookingHow to bake Easter cakes and Easter cakes correctly
Easter cake recipes
When baking Easter cakes, you need to remember the following:
The Easter cake dough should not be liquid (the cakes will spread and be flat) and should not be thick (the cakes will be too heavy and will quickly become stale).
The dough should be of such density that it could be cut with a knife without it sticking to the knife, and when dividing the Easter cakes there would be no need to add flour.
The cake dough is kneaded for as long as possible so that it completely comes off the hands or the table.
The dough should rise three times: the first time the dough rises, the second time when all the ingredients are added, the third time when the dough is placed in the molds.
Easter cake dough does not like drafts, but loves warmth, so Easter cakes should be placed in a warm place at a temperature of 30-45 degrees.
The pan for baking Easter cakes is filled only halfway with dough, allowed to rise to 3/4 of the height of the pan, and then placed in the oven.
The Easter cake, ready for baking, is brushed with an egg beaten with 1 tbsp. spoon of water and butter, sprinkle with nuts, coarse sugar and breadcrumbs.
To ensure that the cake rises evenly, a wooden stick is inserted into the center before baking. After a certain time, the stick is removed. If it is dry, the cake is ready.
Bake the cake in a humidified oven (to do this, place a container of water at the bottom) at a temperature of 200-220 degrees.
Easter cake weighing less than 1 kg is baked for 30 minutes, weighing 1 kg - 45 minutes, weighing 1.5 kg - 1 hour, weighing 2 kg - 1.5 hours.
If the cake starts to burn on top, cover it with dry paper.
The finished cake is removed from the oven, placed on its side and left in this position until the bottom has cooled.
Custard Kulich
For two Easter cakes: 12 cups flour, 1/2 cup melted butter, 2 eggs, 3/4 cup sugar, 1 cup milk, 50 g yeast, 2 cups liquid tea, 3/4 cup raisins, 2 teaspoons salt.
The night before at 8 pm, pour half a glass of lukewarm water over the yeast and let the yeast rise. Brew half a glass of flour with half a glass of boiling milk and stir well. If it is not brewed well, warm it up a little, stirring constantly. When the yeast is ready, mix it with the dough, add cooled boiled milk, salt, eggs (so that a little remains for coating). Add flour to make a thick dough, stir until smooth and leave in a warm place until the morning, covering it well. At six or seven o'clock in the morning, pour warmed, but not hot, dissolved butter into the dough and gradually pour in two glasses of weak warm tea mixed with sugar. Add almost all the remaining flour, stirring continuously. Place the dough on the table and beat it thoroughly until bubbles appear in it. After this, place the dough in a bowl that has been previously coated with oil on the inside, cover the dish with something warm and leave the dough to rise. After an hour, place the dough on the board, stir in the raisins, beat again, but carefully, and let rise in the same bowl for another half hour. Now you can put the dough into oiled pans, let the dough rise, brush the top of the cake with egg and put it in the oven.
Easter cake original recipe
The secret of this original recipe Easter cake using yogurt to prepare the dough.
Thanks to yogurt, the cake turns out unusually juicy and airy with a crispy and aromatic crust.
And citrus notes add original piquancy to the recipe.
Ingredients for the dough:
dry yeast 1 small pack;
warm water -180 ml;
sugar 100 g;
2 egg yolks;
yogurt without additives 120 ml;
butter 50 g;
flour 500 g;
lemon, lime or orange zest 1-1.5 teaspoons, for more piquancy, you can use a mixture of them;
vanillin 0.5 teaspoon;
raisins 100 g;
For the glaze: lemon juice - 1 tablespoon;
powdered sugar 4 tablespoons.
Almond Easter cake
1 kg flour, 500 g milk, 50 g yeast, 5 eggs, 200 g sugar, 300 g butter, 200 g peeled almonds, 1 lemon, 1 cup raisins, salt to taste.
Boil milk, cool it to the temperature of fresh milk. Dissolve yeast in a small part of milk, adding a tablespoon of sugar. Pour flour into the milk, add foamed yeast, mix thoroughly and, covering with a towel, place in a warm place for fermentation. When the dough has risen, add the egg yolks, beaten with the remaining sugar, melted butter, grated lemon zest, some chopped almonds, raisins and salt. To stir thoroughly. Beat the remaining egg whites into a thick foam and add to the dough, stirring gently (from top to bottom). Place the dough in a greased, floured pan, let rise, brush the surface of the cake with yolk, and sprinkle with the remaining almonds. Bake until done at 180 degrees.
The mold is filled halfway with dough, allowed to rise to 3/4 of the height of the mold, and then greased and baked.
Easter Kulich
Milk 3 cups, flour 12 cups, yeast 50 g, egg 7 pieces, granulated sugar 2 cups, salt 1 teaspoon, 1/2 cup melted butter; 1.5 cups raisins, fragrant seasonings: one vanilla stick, 10 cardamom nuts or 2 drops of rose oil.
Dilute the dough with three glasses of milk, six glasses of flour and yeast. Put it in a warm place. Grind five yolks with two glasses of sugar, one teaspoon of salt and aromatic seasonings. When the dough is ready, put the mashed yolks into it, beat in two more eggs, pour in slightly warmed melted butter, add six cups of flour, but make sure the dough is not too thick. Knead the dough thoroughly on the table, add one and a half cups of raisins into it and let the dough rise until the morning. In the morning, beat it again and let it sit. Then put half of the dough into the mold, let it rise to 3/4 of the height of the mold and put it in the oven. This amount of dough is enough for two Easter cakes.
It is believed that the Easter cake has risen when the surface is covered with continuous bubbles and “shudders” when touched.
Kulich in Polish
1.5 kg of flour, 1 glass of milk, 2 glasses of cream, 50 g of fresh yeast, 10 eggs, 800 g of sugar.
Mix a glass of hot milk, hot cream and flour thoroughly, let the mixture cool to the temperature of fresh milk. Add foamed yeast diluted in a small amount of milk and two eggs, mix and, covering the dough with a napkin, place in a warm place for fermentation. When the dough has risen, add the remaining yolks, mashed until white with one half of the sugar, and the whites, beaten with the other half of the sugar into a thick foam. Mix the mixture carefully (from top to bottom), adding the remaining flour and allowing the dough to rise a second time. Then carefully knock out the dough, place it in a greased and floured mold, filling it halfway. Let the dough rise again. Bake until done at 180 degrees.
The Easter cake dough should be kneaded very well. To do this, dump the dough onto a table or board and beat until bubbles appear on the surface. 
Easter cake with orange zest
750 g flour, 1 glass milk, 60 g yeast, 180 g sugar, 180 g butter, 5 yolks, 2 eggs, 1 tablespoon raisins, 1 tablespoon orange zest from jam
Stir the yeast with a small amount of warm milk, 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1 tablespoon of flour and set to ferment. Beat the eggs, yolks and sugar in a water bath until thickened, and then cool while whisking. Pour the warm mixture into the flour, add fermented yeast and warm milk.
Knead the dough thoroughly. It should lag behind your hands and the sides of the bowl. Gradually add melted butter, raisins and chopped orange zest.
Knead the dough thoroughly and leave to ferment. When the dough has doubled in volume, transfer it to greased and floured pans. When the dough rises one more time, the cake can be greased and baked. Bake Easter cakes at 180 degrees for 40 minutes. The finished cake is coated with glaze and sprinkled with small caramel balls.
Easter cake with raisins
Wheat flour 1 kg, yeast 50 g, granulated sugar 100 g, 3 eggs, butter 125 g, raisins 100 g, candied fruits 50 g, crushed cardamom, cinnamon, 3 tbsp. spoons of milk.
Knead a fairly stiff dough in the evening: flour, 1.5 cups warm water, yeast, 2 eggs, butter, granulated sugar, washed raisins, finely diced candied fruits, crushed cardamom, cinnamon. Knead everything thoroughly, cover with a towel and leave to rise until the morning. Then place the dough on the table, knead for a long time, then divide into two parts, place in low, greased pans, and let rise. When the cakes have risen sufficiently (the surface is covered with continuous bubbles, and the dough “shudders” when touched), grind one egg, mix with milk, grease the cakes, place in the oven and bake for about 40 minutes.
Easter cake with lemon zest
500 g flour, 150 g granulated sugar, 250 g cream or milk, 6 yolks, 40 g yeast, 100 g butter, vanilla sugar or vanillin, grated zest of one lemon, 50 g raisins, 50 g almonds, fat for greasing the mold , powdered sugar with vanilla, a pinch of salt. For the glaze: beat 2 egg whites with 200 grams of powdered sugar until a thick, airy mass is obtained and add lemon juice to taste.
Sift the flour through a sieve. Rinse raisins with warm water and dry. Scald the almonds, peel and chop. Prepare a dough from 100 grams of flour, cream and yeast, ground with half the sugar and leave it to ferment. Grind the yolks with the remaining sugar until fluffy, add the rest of the flour, dough, a pinch of salt, vanilla sugar or vanillin. Knead the dough until it comes away easily from your hands and the sides of the bowl. Gradually add melted butter, raisins, lemon zest and prepared almonds. Place the dough in a greased and floured mold (up to 1/3 of the volume) and leave in a warm place to ferment. When the dough has risen, the cake can be placed in a preheated oven and baked until done. Sprinkle the finished cake with powdered sugar and vanilla or pour over the glaze.
Kulich royal
Yeast 50 g, cream 3 cups, wheat flour 1200 g, butter 200 g, granulated sugar 200 g, 15 yolks, crushed cardamom (10 grains), 1 crushed nutmeg, chopped almonds (50 g), 100 g candied fruits, 100 g raisins, crushed crackers 1 tbsp. spoon.
Dissolve the yeast in a glass of cream and make a thick dough from it, adding half the wheat flour. When the dough rises, add egg yolks mashed with butter and granulated sugar, add the remaining flour, 2 cups of cream, crushed cardamom, crushed nutmeg, chopped almonds, finely chopped candied fruits and washed, dried raisins. Knock the dough well and leave to rise for one and a half to two hours. Then knead the dough again, put it in a tall form greased with oil and sprinkled with crushed breadcrumbs. Fill the mold halfway, let the dough rise again to 3/4 of the height of the mold and place in the oven over low heat.
Easter cakes made from this butter dough It is better to bake in small forms.
Saffron Easter cake
2 kg flour, 5 cups milk, 1/2 cup yeast, 15 eggs, 400 g margarine or butter, 700 g granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon cardamom or saffron, 10 drops lemon oil, 1 cup chopped almonds and 1 cup raisins.
The milk is heated to fresh temperature, yeast and flour are added and stirred thoroughly. When the dough has risen, add 10 yolks, 5 eggs, melted butter, sugar, salt, cardamom or saffron, lemon oil, raisins, almonds and allow to rise. The dough should be so thick that it does not stick to your hands. Then the dough is placed in molds, decorated with raisins and almonds, brushed with egg and milk and placed in a preheated oven. Bake until done.
Lemon oil can be replaced with vanilla drops or rose oil.
Chocolate Easter cake
400 grams of flour, 50 grams of fresh yeast, 1.5 cups of milk, 15 eggs, 500 grams of sugar, 100 grams of cocoa powder, 1-2 glasses of rum, 1/2 cup of red wine, 100 grams of rye crackers, 100 grams of candied orange peel, 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves, 1/4 teaspoon cardamom, salt to taste.
Dissolve the yeast in a small amount of milk, mix with flour and place in a warm place to ferment. Then add to the dough the yolks of eggs, ground with white sugar, cocoa, rum, red wine, ground, sifted rye crackers, finely chopped candied orange peel and all the spices.
Mix the mixture and place in a warm place for fermentation. When the dough rises, add the whites whipped into a thick foam and salt to taste. Then place the dough in a generously greased and floured pan. When the dough has risen, add the whipped whites and salt to taste. Place the dough in a generously greased, floured pan. When it rises in the pan, bake the cake at 180 degrees until done.
Spicy additives for Easter cake should be finely ground in a coffee grinder and sifted through a fine
strainer.
Easter Kulich
For 15 servings: 3 kg flour, 0.8 kg homemade butter, 1 kg of sugar, 20 yolks from homemade yellow eggs, 1.5 liters of milk, 120 g of yeast (wet), 200 g of raisins, optional vanillin, zest, 50 g cognac, 2 tbsp semolina. l.
Dissolve the yeast in 1 glass of warm water, add 1-2 tablespoons of flour, place in a warm place for 20 minutes. in a bowl. Sift the flour into a large bowl, beat the yolks with sugar, add 50 grams of cognac with vanilla, milk, and yeast. Pour the liquid phase into the flour and knead for 15 minutes. Gradually add melted butter, raisins (do not wash!!!), and zest. Knead for at least 40 minutes (readiness is determined as follows: if the dough “squeaks” and the raisins jump out of the dough, then it’s ready). Lately I've been kneading the dough with a mixer with dough attachments, it turns out faster. Cover everything with a towel, put it in a warm place and wait until it comes up. When the dough has risen, put it in a mold (no more than 23 molds), pre-greased sunflower oil and sprinkled with semolina. Bake (I determine the time by eye). Cool on the side. When everything is baked and cooled, you can prepare the glaze: beat 1 egg white with 1 cup of sugar, spread on the tops of the Easter cakes, sprinkle with colored nonsense. The glaze is just superb!
How to bake a Greek Easter cake
60 grams of yeast, 120 grams of milk, 100 grams of sugar, 1 kg of flour, a pinch of salt, grated orange zest, a glass of warm water, 200 grams of sesame seeds, 5 hard-boiled eggs painted bright red, egg white, vegetable oil and sesame seeds for a baking sheet.
Dissolve the yeast with milk and sugar and let rise for 10 minutes. Add 125 grams of flour, stir, put in a warm place and let rise until next day. Mix the dough with the remaining flour, add salt, zest, water and knead for half an hour. Form two-thirds of the dough into a long, smooth loaf five centimeters thick. Grease a baking sheet with oil and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Place the dough on a baking sheet. From the rest of the dough, roll into two thin rolls the same length as the loaf on the baking sheet. Roll the rolls in sesame seeds and place around the loaf, pressing to hold the dough together. Place the eggs at an angle into the dough, brush the loaf with egg yolk and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Let the cake rise for three hours in a warm place. Bake in the oven for about an hour at 200 degrees.
Easter Recipes
Note. All Easter eggs are prepared from cottage cheese, fresh and still wet. Drain the whey, weigh it, tie the curd in a napkin, place it on a clean board, which should lie on the table in a slightly inclined position. Then place another clean board on the curd, and on top of it a heavy press: either a stone or irons. Place a trough to drain the whey. After 10-12 hours, the cottage cheese will dry so much that it will be ready for use. Then it must be rubbed with a spoon through a fine sieve or fine sieve. Then put everything that needs to be in it and stir. Line the cleanly washed wooden and tin beaker with an old, but solid napkin. Lay it in even folds, fill it with the prepared cottage cheese, cover it with the same napkin, stretching it, put a board on top, put a stone or an iron on top, put it in a cold place so that the whey flows out, but not onto the ice, and then, unscrewing the napkin from above, tip it over the bean bag onto a plate, remove the wooden pins from the side, remove the bean box, and then carefully remove the napkin.
The most delicious Easter, or Nine secrets of cooking Easter
1. Products
Cottage cheese - 1.5 kg
Granulated sugar - 500 g
Eggs - 5 pieces
Unsalted butter - 500 g
Sour cream - 200 g
Vanillin - 1 sachet
Light raisins - 200 g
Almonds or walnuts - 100 g (optional)
Zest of 1 lemon
2. Preparation
The first secret. You only need cottage cheese that is very fresh, homemade and well pressed. You can make cottage cheese yourself. To do this, take milk and kefir in equal parts, bring the milk to a boil and pour the kefir into the boiling milk. Let cool, transfer to gauze bags (double layer of gauze), hang over the sink for at least a day.
The second secret. Easter needs to be done in advance. Namely, on Maundy Thursday, after the service of Reading the Twelve Gospels. To be on time, you need to prepare all the components in advance.
Wash and dry the raisins well. Pour boiling water over almonds (you can use lightly fried ones), remove the skin, and chop finely. Walnuts Peel thoroughly and also finely chop, but do not pass through a meat grinder. It is fundamentally!
Melt the butter, drain the whey.
Eggs should be in the refrigerator.
Wash the forms. For the specified amount of products you will need three standard bean boxes.
Prepare gauze for each mold. Place a double layer of gauze into the molds, and leave enough gauze to cover the top of the curd. It is better to cut the gauze into rectangles for each plane of the form, so as not to collect too many folds in the corners of the form, which will be imprinted later on Easter. But be careful: there should be enough gauze so that it does not spread to the sides when you pour curd mass in the form. Prepare wooden blocks exactly along the bottom of the bean box and weights.
3. Preparing Easter
The third secret. Pass well-pressed cottage cheese through a meat grinder along with raisins. This is one of the features of our Easter. The raisins will provide flavor, but will not be fully felt. You can use dark raisins, but then the Easter will be dark.
Straining cottage cheese and raisins through a fine colander or sieve, as advised in other recipes, is, I think, not an easy task, and it will take much more time.
Now break the eggs, separate the yolks from the whites.
The fourth secret. Separately, beat the whites with 200 g of sugar until well foamed, add sugar gradually, 1 spoon per 4-5 whisks. Beat only by hand, thoroughly, but not until thick. 5-10 minutes. Wipe the yolks white with 300 g of sugar and vanilla.
Secret five. Mix everything gradually: pureed cottage cheese with raisins, butter, then yolks, sour cream, whites, then nuts and zest. Mix everything by hand with a wooden spoon, preferably in a glass or porcelain bowl.
To be honest, I always made at least a double batch of Easter, and therefore mixed everything in a small enamel basin, which I used exclusively for cooking.
Secret six. We boil Easter. You can find in books a recommendation to cook Easter in a water bath, but I didn’t have enough time for this, so I did it as follows. I prepared two deep, clean frying pans (since tefal appeared, it thinks for us, and before ordinary iron frying pans successfully coped with the task), added the prepared paskha and cooked over low heat, stirring constantly. As soon as large bubbles appear, you need to stir more intensely. To do this, you need to remove one frying pan from the stove and pay full attention to the remaining one. If you miss the moment, the cottage cheese will begin to “snort” and splashes will fly throughout the kitchen. So, stirring Easter very intensively (old recipes advise stirring clockwise), you notice that it has boiled. Then you can remove the pan from the heat and move on to the next one.
The seventh secret. As soon as the curd mass has cooled and become lukewarm, transfer it to the mold. To prevent Easter from “bottom falling out,” you need to add curd mass to the mold as the liquid comes out. For these purposes, set aside not a large number of masses. Now cover the top of the Easter with gauze and leave it alone until the morning.
Don't forget to put the Easter pan in a saucer. In the first minutes, the liquid will flow out of the mold very intensively, do not forget to drain it from the saucer.
Secret eight. On Friday morning, you need to empty all the saucers again, put clean wooden blocks on the top of the mold (on gauze), and a weight on them. You can use dumbbell mugs and well-washed stones as weights. At worst, cans of water. Place all “structures” in the cold (possibly on the balcony; in our latitudes it is rarely hot at Easter). Drain the liquid from the saucers regularly.
Easter must be ready by Saturday evening, or, in extreme cases, by Resurrection morning.
Carefully disassemble all the weights, unfold the gauze on top, place the pasochka like a pyramid on a dish, carefully disassemble the mold and remove all the gauze, but so as not to break the paskha. You can decorate the cross, the letters XB and the top of the Easter with colored powder.
Easter will be very hard, stand on the table like a pyramid, it can be cut with a knife and stored for a long time (if it comes to that). One day I hid a small Easter egg to take to friends in another city. Friends tried it on the tenth day after the holiday. She was amazing.
The ninth secret, or just advice. Your Easter will be very popular. Everyone who tries it once will remind you that next year also expects your Easter gift from you as an Easter gift. Therefore, it is better to prepare small forms, but let there be more of them. What did I do? She took plastic cups and poked holes all over the cup, especially carefully at the bottom. I pierced it with scissors so that the holes looked like in a colander. The finished Easter can be easily removed from the cup using the gauze.
Boiled Easter
Stir everything listed below, place in a saucepan (preferably with a thick bottom), put on the stove, bring to a hot state, stirring continuously. After removing the pan from the heat, continue stirring the Easter until it cools, and then put it in a wooden form, put pressure on top and leave for a day in a cool place.
1.2 kg of cottage cheese, three glasses of cream, 100 g of butter, four to five raw eggs, 100 g of raisins and sugar to taste.
Easter with chocolate
Grate the chocolate or scrape it with a knife, mix with powdered sugar and set aside. Then take the cottage cheese, rub through a sieve, mix with butter and sour cream, stir well, pour a glass of chopped candied fruits, chocolate and powdered sugar into the cottage cheese, mix it all so that the mass has a uniform color. Place everything in a mold covered with a thin cloth (muslin, gauze), take it out into the cold and put it under pressure. After a day and a half, remove Easter from the mold and serve.
Two kilograms of fresh cottage cheese, 200 g of chocolate, 200 g of powdered sugar, 200 g of butter, two glasses of sour cream, one glass of candied fruits.
Easter chocolate
500 g cottage cheese, 1 tbsp. sugar, 150 g butter, 3 tbsp sour cream, 2 tbsp. spoons of cocoa powder, a piece of chocolate, vanillin, 1/4 tsp. salt.
Grind the softened butter with a wooden spoon until sour cream thickens. Add sugar, salt, vanillin and cocoa. Grind everything thoroughly. Rub the cottage cheese through a colander, add sour cream, mix and gradually add in small portions to the previously prepared mixture of butter, sugar and cocoa. Mix well. When Easter acquires a uniform chocolate color, transfer it to a napkin and press mold for several hours. Keep in a cool place. Remove the finished Easter from the mold and napkin, place on a plate and sprinkle grated chocolate on top.
Vanilla Easter
Well-pressed cottage cheese is rubbed through a sieve, cream is gradually poured into it, mixed, wrapped in a napkin for 12 hours, the napkin is tied in knots and hung to allow the whey formed as a result of fermentation to drain. Then pour a glass of sugar and vanilla (crushed) into the cottage cheese and mix everything thoroughly. After this, the cottage cheese is placed in a pan lined with a thin cloth, covered with a board and placed under pressure for half an hour. After half an hour, the Easter is carefully removed from the bean bag, freed from the fabric, placed on a plate and decorated with an artificial flower on top. This Easter should be enough for six to eight people.
600 g of cottage cheese, three glasses of cream, one glass of sugar and half a stick of vanilla.
Easter ordinary
Rub 2 kg of fresh, well-pressed cottage cheese with a spoon through a fine sieve or fine sieve. In a separate pan, put 300 g of fresh butter, 400 g of fresh sour cream, 3 eggs and, stirring continuously, bring to a boil. Then thoroughly grind all this with cottage cheese, add 1 raw egg, 1 1/3 teaspoons of salt and grind again until smooth. Take a clean napkin made of soft, thin fabric, moisten it with water and lay it in even folds in the mold, fill it with the prepared mass. Cover the top first with the edges of a napkin, then with a lid, apply pressure and place in a cold place (but not on ice) for half a day or even a day so that the whey flows out. Then remove the pressure, remove the lid, unscrew the edges of the napkin, tip the mold onto a plate or dish, carefully remove the mold and napkin, and serve. If desired, you can surround the Easter with painted eggs.
Ordinary Easter (second option)
2.5 kg. cottage cheese, 1 glass of sour cream, 200 gr. butter, 2 tsp. salt, 1/2 tbsp. granulated sugar.
Rub fresh, well-squeezed cottage cheese through a sieve with a spoon. add 1 tbsp. fresh sour cream, 200 gr. butter, salt, sugar, mix everything until smooth. Take a clean napkin from a thin soft fabric After moistening it with water, place it in even folds in the mold and fill it with the prepared mass. Cover the top first with the edges of a napkin, then with a lid, apply pressure and place in a cool place (wait until the whey drains out). Place on a plate and cover with colored eggs.
Ordinary Easter (third option)
1 kg flour, 50 g yeast, 1-1.5 cups milk, 10 yolks, 3 whites, 250 g sugar, 200 g butter, 100 g raisins, 25 g cognac, 25 g candied fruits, 3 teaspoons lemon zest or 1 a teaspoon of cardamom (ground), and 0.5 teaspoon of grated nutmeg, 3-4 tablespoons of vanilla sugar and only one gram of salt.
Place the dough: 0.5 cups of boiling milk, brew 100 g of flour, stirring quickly with a wooden spoon until an elastic mass is obtained. Dissolve the yeast in 0.5 cups of warm milk and mix with 100 g of flour, leave for 10 minutes. Combine both mixtures, cover and leave for 1-2 hours until the dough rises. Let's get down to filling. Grind the yolks, salt and sugar into a homogeneous mass and beat until white. Now pour half of the mixture into the suitable yeast mixture, add 250 g of flour, knead well and let rise for an hour. An hour passed and the dough was ready. Pour in the second half of the filling, add 500 g of flour and knead until the dough comes away from your hands. The dough is ready. Gradually pour melted butter into it, knead thoroughly again. Add spices and cognac. Let the dough rise again. And after the dough has risen a second time, flatten it, add 2/3 of all the raisins and candied fruits after rolling them in flour and let the dough rise a third time. Now let’s divide the dough and put it into pre-prepared forms (don’t forget that only half of the form), pour the remaining raisins and candied fruits on top and again let the dough rise to 2/3 of the form. Coat it with egg yolk and place in the oven over low heat. Just remember that the oven must be well heated. In 45 minutes I can guarantee you will take out the oven with gorgeous and fragrant cakes.
Plain Easter with cream
Rub 2 kg of fresh cottage cheese through a sieve, place in a saucepan, add 4 eggs, 0.6 liters of cream, 300 g of butter, sugar and salt - to taste. Stir thoroughly and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, place on ice and stir until cool. Then put it in the prepared form, put it under pressure in a cool place for a day.
Easter is creamy.
Mix 5 cups of cream, 5 cups of fresh sour cream, 2 cups of milk. Place in a moderately heated oven for several hours to curdle, or cook in a water bath. Then pour into a napkin and let the serum drain. Salt the cottage cheese prepared in this way to taste, add 1 raw egg, granulated sugar - also to taste, grind until smooth, put in the prepared form and - under pressure for several hours, in a cool place.
Royal Easter
Mix 2 kg of fresh cottage cheese, mashed through a sieve, with 10 raw eggs, 400 g of unsalted butter, 800 g of fresh sour cream. Place in a saucepan and, stirring continuously to prevent burning, bring to a boil, but do not boil. Immediately remove from heat, place on ice (or in a bowl with cold water) and stir with a wooden spatula until the mixture has cooled completely. Add 2-4 cups of granulated sugar (to taste), a little vanilla, a little less than 1/2 cup of chopped almonds and the same amount of raisins, stir thoroughly, put in the prepared form and place in a cold place, under pressure, for half a day or more.
Easter with pistachios
Grind 1.2 kg of dry cottage cheese, pureed through a sieve, with 1 cup of granulated sugar, add a little vanillin, 4 raw eggs, 200 g of butter, 200 g of crushed (no larger than fine grains) pistachios and grind thoroughly again. Then pour in 0.8 liters of cream, stir, put in the prepared form and put in the cold under pressure so that all the whey drips off.
Easter with condensed milk
1.25 kg of cottage cheese, 300 g of butter, 250 g of sour cream, 400 g of condensed milk or cream, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 cup of raisins, a pinch of vanillin.
Rub the cottage cheese through a sieve, add butter and granulated sugar (preferably fine). Grind cottage cheese, butter, granulated sugar and vanillin thoroughly, add sour cream, condensed milk or cream, washed dried raisins. Mix the mixture thoroughly, put it in a bowl lined with gauze, apply pressure on top and put it in the refrigerator.
Easter Podolsk
Mix 2 cups cream and 1 cup. hot butter with 4 cups of flour, pour in 1 egg and 1 cup. yeast. Knead the dough and place in a warm place for 1-2 hours until the dough rises. Add 8 mashed yolks, 2 lbs. (800 g) sugar, 5 lbs. (2 kg) flour. Knead again, keep warm for 2 hours, beat with your hands and place in a baking dish sprinkled with breadcrumbs and carefully place in the oven.
Cossack Easter
Steam 3 cups of flour with 2 cups of cream (sour cream), stir well. Beat 50 yolks until white in a saucepan (place the saucepan in warm water). Take 1/4 lb. (100 g) of yeast, dissolve in 3/4 cup. milk and pour into the yolks. Stir it all and pour into the dough. Let the dough rise. Add 1 teaspoon of salt, 3 cups. flour and knead the dough for 30 minutes, then pour in 1 cup. warm butter, 1 cup. sugar, 2-3 grains of crushed cardamom, 2-3 pcs. cloves, a pinch of cinnamon (cinnamon) and knead again. Let it rise a second time. Put a little less than half into the mold, when it rises, spread with egg, put in the oven for 1 hour. Then let it cool a little, brush with colored glaze, sprinkle with multi-colored powder (such as sago, boiled millet, sugar balls).
Red Easter (old recipe)
3 bottles of baked milk or fermented baked milk, 3 bottles of yogurt or kefir, 3 cups of sour cream, 1 yolk, vanillin, sugar.
Pour yogurt or kefir into the prepared baked milk or fermented baked milk, add sour cream and yolk. Mix all this and leave on low heat. Stir until the whey separates. Remove from heat, let stand for a while and strain through cheesecloth. When the whey has drained, wipe the mixture through a colander and add vanillin or sugar. Place in a mold under pressure and place in a cool place.
The most favorable currency exchange rates.
How to profitably exchange currency, at what rate, how to find out at which exchanger what is the reserve of the currency you need...
Why are Easter cakes baked for Easter? Many people, raised in the traditions of Christianity from childhood, do not even think about where this custom came from, because Easter cake has always been the main decoration of the Easter table, along with Easter cottage cheese and colored eggs.
However, if we turn to history, it turns out that the custom of baking Easter cakes originally appeared not in Christian, but in pagan tradition- long before the advent of the Christian cult, and they were baked not once, but three times a year, in honor of the onset of holidays that were significant for the ancient Slavs. When did the merger of paganism and Christianity take place? This article is devoted to finding an answer to this question.
Understanding the concepts
With the adoption of Christianity and the beginning of religious rites in the image and likeness of the sacraments performed by the Greek Church, a huge number of words borrowed from Greek language. The word “Kulich” is also of Greek origin, meaning “round bread”.
What events are associated with this attribute of the bright holiday?
With the advent of Christian traditions in Rus', traditional Slavic ritual bread began to be called Easter cake and was an obligatory attribute of the Easter meal. It is baked from yeast dough with the addition of candied fruits and raisins and has the shape of a tall cylinder, decorated with sugar icing. To make it more decorative, the Old Slavonic Easter cakes were sprinkled with dyed millet. Nowadays, decorative sprinkles are used for this purpose.
Passionate (Great) Saturday preceding Easter is the time for the consecration of Easter cakes, Easter cakes and painted eggs (the question: “Why do they paint eggs for Easter?” again refers us to the need to turn to historical reference books).
In each Russian region, different forms were used for baking. For the most part, the Easter cake resembled tall church bread - artos, although Vologda peasants baked it in the form of an open berry pie.
Whatever Easter pies are: large or small, narrow or wide, they always have a round shape. This is due to the memory that Christ was dressed in a round shroud.
The fact that Easter bread is baked from very sweet and rich dough indicates the festivity of this dish, dedicated to a bright event in the history of all mankind. Before the great sacrifice, Jesus and his apostles knew only the taste of bread baked from unleavened dough. After the miraculous resurrection, bread made from unusually tasty, leavened dough appeared on their table.
Easter cakes were modest: the dough from which they were baked contained a huge amount of butter and eggs. There are known recipes according to which a hundred eggs were added to two kilograms of wheat flour.
After the seven weeks of Lent, a small piece of pie was the best food, capable of both creating a feeling of a joyful holiday and preparing the body of a fasting parishioner for a rich festive feast.
They broke their fast (that is, for the first time after fasting they ate light food) with the iconic bread only after the Easter church service.
The meaning of Easter cake in the Old Slavonic tradition
Ritual bread, baked from sour dough, was initially sacrificed to mother earth, ancestors, or natural elements. The purpose of such a sacrifice was the desire to receive their support, thereby ensuring a rich harvest and soil fertility. Ritual loaves were baked on the eve of sowing.
The prototypes of future Easter cakes were initially baked twice a year: at the beginning of spring (marking the beginning of field work) and at the end of autumn (to mark the harvest). In Peter’s times, they began to be baked in winter, in connection with the onset of the new calendar year.
Such frugality was explained by the rather high cost of the resulting product, since their production requires a large number of valuable and expensive products. In addition, baking technology is characterized by great complexity and duration of the process itself, which makes them exclusively an attribute of a solemn and significant feast.
For some time, holiday bread was used in pagan cult rites along with the practice of Christian customs, as a result of which there was an imperceptible interpenetration of the two cultural traditions. Over time, the pagan meaning of the ritual was forgotten, giving way to the Christian meaning associated with the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Why do baked goods appear specifically on the Resurrection of Christ?
The Christian meaning of the tradition of baking Easter cakes for the holiday is associated with the ancient legend according to which the resurrected Jesus Christ visited the apostles eating. From then on, they always left a place for Jesus in the center of the table, where freshly baked bread was always waiting for him.
Over time, Easter appeared church tradition bake special bread - artos (which is a whole prosphora) and leave it on a special table, in imitation of the actions of Christ's disciples.
On all days of Easter week, artos is an indispensable attribute religious processions performed around the temple. On Saturday of Holy Week (after reading the prayer for the fragmentation of the artos), the clergy divide it into parts and distribute it to the parishioners after the end of the church service as a shrine. The distribution of artos is accompanied by kissing the cross.
One of the postulates of Christian teaching is the idea that each family is a small church, which on the bright holiday of Easter should have its own artos. The role of such an artos was played by the Easter cake.
Thus, the presence of Easter bread on the table became a symbol of the invisible presence of the Lord in every home. On everyone's table Orthodox Christian On this day there must be Easter cake and Easter. The Church assists believers in every possible way, taking part in their sanctification.
Kulichik symbolically means the bread broken by the risen Jesus during the meal of the apostles.
Holiday bread is distinctive feature between the Passover of Jews and Christians. During the Jewish Passover, only unleavened bread is present on the tables of believers. The leavened bread at this moment is under the strictest prohibition. Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter by feasting on delicious butter pies.
The sacrament of preparation
When placing the dough and kneading the dough, it is necessary to maintain purity of thoughts and a high spiritual attitude, so the housewife at this moment should read a prayer and turn to the Lord with a request to help her prepare a successful Easter cake.
It has long been believed that the type of Easter cake determines the well-being of the entire family for the whole year. The even and smooth surface of the finished Easter cake means that family affairs will turn out well. If the cake did not rise well or cracks appeared on its surface, this foreshadows many upcoming disappointments and losses.
Easter cakes are baked in Maundy Thursday, in an atmosphere of comfort, cleanliness and order. A housewife who baked in the old days was sure to wear a clean shirt.
When baking Easter cakes in the house, it was forbidden not only to knock, but also to raise your voice, or to open doors and windows.
In order to prevent the freshly baked pie from settling, it was placed on a down pillow until it cooled completely. During this time, all household members were removed from the kitchen to prevent the occurrence of drafts and extraneous air flows accompanying any movement.
How to cut Easter bread correctly?
The cake is cut not lengthwise, but crosswise, into rings. If necessary (if the Easter cake is large in diameter), these rings can be cut radially.
The top part of the Easter cake is saved until the last moment (until the last piece of pulp is eaten), using it as a lid that protects the tender pulp of the Easter cake from drying out.
Easter cakes are baked taking into account the number of members in the family. Kulich must be distributed throughout the entire Easter week: each family member should receive one piece daily.
What is unique about Russian Easter cake?
Unlike European varieties of Easter bread (for example, English muffin or Austrian Reindling), the Russian version of Easter bread is much lighter both in structure and in the degree of absorption by the human body.
The unique combination of richness and lightness of Easter cake makes it an indispensable product that promotes a gradual and safe transition from observing strict fasting to eating light food.
The leaven for Russian Easter cake is made a week before Easter, and the dough is traditionally made on Maundy Thursday.
Flour intended for Easter cake is sifted at least twice: this helps saturate it with oxygen.
The tub with the created dough is lined with pillows to prevent it from sagging, and during its proofing, loud conversations and walking around the room in heavy shoes are unacceptable.
In the room where Easter cakes are prepared, there must be a constant air temperature, excluding even the slightest temperature changes.
A festive Orthodox Easter cake is unthinkable without prayers read over it.
Believers prepare Easter cakes and begin painting Easter eggs.
Easter cake is a church ritual food. Where does Easter cake come from and why are Easter cakes baked and blessed at Easter?
Christians should especially receive communion on Easter Day. But since many Orthodox Christians have the custom of receiving the Holy Mysteries during Lent, and on the Bright Day of the Resurrection of Christ only a few receive communion, then, after the Liturgy is celebrated, on this day special offerings of believers, usually called Easter and Easter cakes, are blessed and consecrated in the church, which reminds of the communion of the true Easter of Christ and unites all believers.
The consumption of blessed Easter cakes and Easter cakes on Holy Week among Orthodox Christians can be likened to the eating of the Old Testament Passover, which on the first day of Easter week God's chosen people ate as a family (Ex. 12:3-4). Also, after the blessing and consecration of Christian Easter cakes and Easter cakes, believers on the first day of the holiday, having come home from churches and having completed the feat of fasting, as a sign of joyful unity, the whole family begins bodily reinforcement - stopping fasting, everyone eats the blessed Easter cakes and Easter, consuming them throughout Bright Week.
Tips for making Easter cake
The success of the cake largely depends on the ability to bake it. You can make a wonderful dough, but spoil the cake when baking - underbaking it, burning it, shaking it so that the middle falls through. Here are a few basic rules that must be followed when making Easter cakes.
1. The yeast should be fresh, light-colored with a pleasant yeasty smell.
2. The oven should be well heated.
3. Flour should be of the best varieties, dry, sifted.
4. The oil must be fresh and of the highest grade. Before adding it to the dough, you need to melt it, let it sit, then pour the warm mixture into the dough.
5. The yolks must be carefully separated from the whites, broken carefully, strained through a sieve and only then thoroughly beaten until white.
6. Almost all Easter cakes should rise three times as follows:
take yeast, flour (part) and milk, knead the dough. beat with a whisk for half an hour, cover and place in a warm place so that the yeast is barely touched, without allowing it to acidify;
then beat again with a spatula or wooden spoon, add everything else, stirring thoroughly all the time, kneading for a total of 45 minutes or even 1 hour, cover and put in a warm place until the dough doubles in size or more;
After this, knead the dough again with your hands or a spatula for about 10 minutes, cut it into rolls, cakes or put it in a mold, let it rise again and, with extreme caution so as not to shake it, put it in the oven to bake.
7. If the dough is baked in a mold, then fill 1/4 or 1/3 of the mold with it, and put it in the oven when 3/4 of the mold is filled.
8. Large Easter cakes and babas are baked at moderate heat for almost an hour or even an hour and a half (if very high). In order not to remove the raw product from the oven, you need to stick one or two splinters or straws into it (before baking). After an hour or a little more, remove the splinter; if it is completely dry and the dough does not stick to it, then the product is ready. Otherwise, it must be left in the oven for some more time. You must also close the oven doors carefully, avoiding slamming or shaking, otherwise the dough will fall off. You must remove the finished product with the same caution, place it on a sieve (so that the bottom does not sweat) or a special board, cover with a clean towel or napkin until it cools.
9. It is better to bake Easter cakes and babas in sliding pans, greased with oil and sprinkled with breadcrumbs; the bottom can be covered with a circle of parchment paper soaked in oil. Such forms are made of copper or tin, round in shape, sometimes octagonal or hexagonal, which is extremely beautiful. In this case, the edges of the Easter cake or baba can be decorated with stripes of multi-colored glaze. Molds for Easter cakes and babas can also be glued from thick paper, but this is for small ones (height and diameter). This form should also be greased with butter and sprinkled with breadcrumbs; when baking, place it on a flat baking sheet. You can also bake in saucepans, the bottom and walls of which are lined with oiled paper and sprinkled with breadcrumbs.
10. It is necessary to remove the product from the mold after baking, allowing the product to cool slightly, since it is easier to remove the paper while the Easter cake or baba is warm. To prevent a tall Easter cake or baba from falling off, they must be placed on a towel placed on a large, tight pillow or, better yet, on a mattress. They are rolled over with the same towel for some time so that the product becomes slightly stronger as it cools. Then only place it on the plate with great care (you can put a napkin on it).
11. You can put lemon zest, bitter almonds, cinnamon, cardamom, saffron, nutmeg, lemon or rose oil in Easter cakes, babas and buns for taste and smell.
12. These items can be glazed with any glaze or fondant you like.
13. When Easter cakes, buns or babas are already cut, when they are in a warm place or already in the oven, you should not allow a draft to reach them; it is best not to let anyone into the kitchen at this time.
14. To bake Easter cakes and babas, you need to have great dexterity and skill; they often fail even for those who bake them skillfully and often; it is not even possible to clearly name the reason for the failure. But since they are tasty and go very well with tea and coffee, you still need to make them. Moreover, on the Easter table, along with colored eggs, Easter cake is the main and indispensable accessory.
15. If Easter cakes or babas have become stale, they can be refreshed, cut off the top layer, moistened with a small amount of syrup (a glass of strong wine, a glass of water, a full tablespoon of sugar, mixed and heated), put in a hot oven (oven) for 15-20 minutes . In this case, you can wrap the product with parchment paper. Kulich or baba will become tastier than fresh ones, as they will be soaked in syrup.
Kulich royal
6 cups flour, 50g. yeast, 15 yolks, 200g. butter, 200g. sugar, 3 cups cream, 10 cardamom grains, 1 nutmeg, 100g. candied fruits, 50g. almonds, 100g. raisins
Dissolve the yeast in a glass of cream and knead into a stiff dough from half the flour. When the dough rises, add the egg yolks mashed with butter and sugar, add the remaining flour, cream, crushed cardamom, chopped almonds, nutmeg, candied fruits and raisins. Beat the dough well and leave to rise. When the dough has risen, knead again, place in a greased form, the form should be half filled. Let the dough rise 3/4 of the way up and then bake.
Easter cake
500g. flour, 30g. yeast, 120g. sugar, 1 glass of milk, 380g. butter, 5.5 teaspoons of salt, lemon zest from 0.5 orange and lemon, 5 eggs, 150g. raisins, 1 table. spoon of lemon juice, 250g. powdered sugar, 4 tbsp. spoons hot water, butter and flour for the mold, 6 pieces of multi-colored marmalade for decoration.
Dissolve yeast in milk with a little sugar and flour. Knead and let stand for 20 minutes. To the risen dough, add melted butter, sugar, eggs, salt, grated lemon and orange zest, raisins and knead the dough. Place the dough in a greased and floured pan and let rise for 30 minutes. Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes at 200 degrees. Cool the finished cake in the pan and put it out. Make fudge from lemon juice, powdered sugar, water, spread the cake and decorate with slices (can be cut into small cubes) of multi-colored marmalade.
Custard Easter cake
12 cups flour, 4 eggs, 125g. butter, 0.75 cups sugar, 1 cup milk, 70g. yeast, 2 cups of brewed tea, 0.75 cups of raisins, 2 teaspoons of salt.
The night before at 8 pm, pour 0.5 cups of warm water into the yeast and let it rise. Brew 0.5 cups of flour with boiling milk, 0.5 cups and stir well. If the flour does not brew well, warm it up a little while stirring. Mix the risen yeast with the brewed flour, add the remaining milk, eggs, salt, flour, knead into a thick dough, knead well and leave to rise in a warm place until the morning.
At 6-7 o'clock in the morning, pour warm, but not hot, butter and warm tea with sugar into the dough. Add aromatic seasonings to the dough to your taste and add the remaining flour, mix. Place on the table and beat until bubbles appear. Transfer the dough into a bowl and let it rise. After an hour, add raisins to the dough, knead well, and let rise for another half hour. Place the dough into greased pans and let rise. Brush the top of the cake with egg and bake in the oven at 180 degrees.
Novgorod Easter cake
2kg. wheat flour, 3.5 cups, warm milk, 80-100g. yeast, 20 yolks, 1 cup sugar, 2 cups melted butter, salt.
Dissolve the yeast in warm milk and knead the dough from half the flour. When the dough rises, add the yolks, mashed until white with sugar, melted butter, a little salt, and the remaining flour. The dough is kneaded until it comes off your hands. The dough should be a little thicker than for pancakes. Let it rise again. Beat the dough and place in greased and floured pans. When the cakes have risen, bake in a moderately hot oven for 1 hour.
Saffron Easter cake
For the dough: 2.5 cups flour, 50g. yeast, 300 ml. cream.
For the dough: 4 cups flour, 5 egg whites, 15 yolks, 400g. butter, 1 cup sugar, 10 cardamom grains, 1/3 cup raisins, 0.5 teaspoon saffron tincture, 1 nutmeg, 100g. chopped candied fruits, 1/3 cup almonds.
Prepare a thick dough from flour, yeast and heated cream. When the dough rises, add flour, yolks, ground with butter and sugar, crushed cardamom grains, nutmeg, raisins, saffron tincture, candied fruits. Knead the dough well and place in a warm place for 1.5-2 hours. Then add the beaten egg whites, knead, transfer to a tall form greased and sprinkled with breadcrumbs, and let the dough rise. Bake in a moderately heated oven until done. The recipe is designed for baking two Easter cakes; it is recommended to make small Easter cakes from the dough prepared in this way.
Kulich transparent
Flour - 2.5 cups, egg (yolks) - 8 pcs., fresh yeast - 50g, milk - 1 cup, sugar - 1/2 cup, butter - 100g.
Grind the yolks until white, pour in warm milk with yeast previously diluted in it, add flour, sugar, stir well and let rise. Then pour in the melted (not hot!) butter, knead the dough and fill the mold 1/3 full. When the dough has risen in the pan, put it in the oven. Bake in the oven (not higher than 150 degrees Celsius) for 1.5 hours. If the top of the cake burns, then put damp paper on it.
Siberian Kulich
Flour - 1 kg, milk - 1.5 cups, egg - 6 pcs., butter - 300g, sugar - 2 cups, yeast - 50g,
raisins - 150g, salt and vanilla sugar - to taste.
Dissolve the yeast in 0.5 cups of warm milk, add 4 cups of flour and knead the dough. Then add salt, egg yolks mashed until white with sugar, melted butter and egg whites beaten into foam. Knead the dough thoroughly and sprinkle flour on top. Cover the bowl with the dough with a towel and leave overnight in a warm place. The dish should be high enough so that the dough does not “go away”. In the morning, add the remaining flour and vanilla sugar to the dough and knead the dough so that it is not very thick, but pulls away from the walls of the dish. Place the bowl with the dough for fermentation until it approximately doubles in volume. Then add the prepared raisins, mix the dough again and pour it into the prepared forms.
To get a loose cake, fill the mold to 1/3 of the height, and to get a denser one, fill it to half the height. Place the molds in a warm place and cover with a towel. When the dough has risen 3/4 of the way up, brush the top of the cake with sweet water or beaten egg and place the pans with the dough in the oven. Cover the finished cake with glaze and decorate.
Creamy Easter cake
Flour - 3.5 cups, butter - 200g, sugar - 1 cup, milk - 1/2 cup, yeast - 12-16g, egg - 3 pcs.,
raisins (seedless) - 2 cups.
Knead the dough from flour, butter, sugar and hot milk, knead well. Then pour another 1/2 cup of milk with the yeast dissolved in it into the dough, cover with a towel and leave in a warm place so that the dough rises. As soon as the dough increases in volume, beat the yolks and whites into the dough, add raisins.
Place the finished dough into molds and place in the oven.
Ancient Easter cake "Princely"
Sugar - 400g, raisins - 200g, egg (yolk) - 50 pcs., saffron tincture - 1 glass, rum - 2 glasses, milk - 1 cup, butter - 3 cups, salt - to taste, flour - how much dough will take.
Beat the yolks with warm milk. Add yeast dissolved in a small amount of warm milk and flour. Knead the batter and let it ferment. Then add sugar, melted (not hot) butter, saffron tincture, rum and mix everything. Knead the dough to the desired thickness, adding freshly sifted flour little by little, let it rise again and place in the prepared pans. The dough in the mold should rise just as well. Bake the cakes in a medium-heated oven until done.
