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Paska (Easter Bread)
Date added: March 17, 2008
This recipe is high in iron, protein and omega 3; and it's so delicious that we don't talk about the calories count or the cholesterol.
Paska is traditionally baked in round, instead of rectangular, loaf pans. When we were children, Mom decorated the top of the loaves with white butter icing and made an 'Easter nest' with shredded coconut, filled with jelly-bean eggs. If you are planning to serve this to adults, try glazing the top of the bread with a glaze made of icing sugar and butter or lemon juice. You'll never eat commercially made Easter bread again.
- Servings: 34 change
- Calories per serving: 294
- Prep time: 30
- Cook time: 60
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup water lukewarm
- 4 cup sugar
- 2 bakers yeast
- 1 pound unsalted butter room temperature
- 25 eggs room temperature (not joking! twenty-five, preferably free-range yellow-yolked, eggs)
- 1 tsp salt
- 4 cup milk
- 20 cup all purpose flour enough to make a soft dough
Recipe Method
1. Scald the milk and allow to cool, almost to room temperature.
2. Prepare the yeast in a small bowl: dissolve 1 teaspoon sugar in 3/4 cup lukewarm water; sprinkle the yeast on top. This mixture will become foamy and ready to add to the bread mixture in about 10-15 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, separate the yolks from the whites of the eggs. Add sugar to the yolks and beat until fluffy. Beat the whites in a separate bowl.
4. In a very large kettle or pan, mix butter, salt and 3-4 cups of flour into the milk. The milk should still be warm, but be sure it's cooled enough so that the butter does not melt. Beat to form a smooth batter.
5. Add the yeast mixture to the flour mixture and beat vigorously for 3 minutes or until the mixture is very smooth and shiny.
6. Blend in the egg yolk mixture; then blend in the egg whites.
7. Beat in flour, one or two cups at a time, until your mixer begins to complain. Continue adding flour, mixing by hand until you've made a nice springy dough that is just barely stiff enough to form bread loaves. It will be very sticky.
8. Knead the dough for 10 minutes. Let it rise in a warm place for 1 hour.
9. At this point, I usually cut the dough in half.
-- Make buns with the first half and set them in a warm place to rise until double in size.
-- Punch down the second half and set in a warm place to rise again before forming into loaves. Allow the loaves to rise until double in size.
10. To bake, set the oven temperature to 400F and reduce temperature to 325F-350F as soon as the bread/buns go into the oven, because they burn easily. Bake buns approximately 15 to 25 minutes, and bread 50 to 60 minutes.
11. This bread freezes very well. If left unfrozen, it will not keep it's fresh-baked fluffy lightness as long as ordinary bread does.
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Nutritional Facts
| Per serving | % Daily Value* |
| Calories 294 | 15% |
| Fat 15g | 23% |
| Cholesterol 207mg | 69% |
| Sodium 134mg | 6% |
| Carbohydrates 35g | 15% |
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