Recipe: Make Your Easter Special by Trying My Grandmother's Easter Bread Recipe

You need plenty of eggs to bake my grandmother's paska for Easter.

Easter is the time my family always had a special sweet bread to serve with dinner.  My grandmother's recipe for this Easter Paska produces a wonderful raised sweet dough that turns out several delicious loaves of this traditional, egg-rich bread topped with a shiny egg-milk wash glaze. 

When you are making this dough, don't try to add all the flour at once.  Instead, you want to gradually add it because you might need more or less to get this soft, pliable dough.  Rushing the process can leave you with hard dough.

To activate the yeast, you need warm (not hot) water.  The easiest way to tell the right temperature is by testing some of that water on the back of your wrist like you would do for a baby formula. 

My grandmother liked to make round loaves.  Usually, she baked these Easter breads in round casserole dishes and the 3-quart and the smaller round metal mixing bowls.   

I do hope you give this recipe a chance because we always thought it was special.  


Grandmother's Easter Paska

2 cups of warm water  (about 110-degrees)
4-1/2 teaspoons of dry yeast or (2 packages)
3/4 cup of melted shortening or oil
2 teaspoons of salt
1 cup of sugar + 1 teaspoon
6 eggs yolks
1 cup of milk
10-11 cups of sifted flour

Egg Wash Before Baking:

2 egg whites
1 tablespoon of milk

To Prepare the Dough:

Start by dissolving the yeast in 1/2 cup of that warm water along with the one teaspoon of sugar in your measuring cup.  (The sugar will help activate the yeast to bubble up more quickly.)

Add 1-1/2 cups of the warm water, milk, melted shortening or oil, salt, and sugar to your mixing bowl next.

Once the yeast bubbles up after a few minutes, you will also add it to the mixing bowl of ingredients.

Beat the six eggs thoroughly.  Next, add those eggs to the mixing bowl as well.

Add two cups of the flour to your mixing bowl.  Using a long wooden spoon to mix the flour through is easy at this stage.  Gradually, start adding more flour, stirring as you go.  After a few more cups, you will need to use your hands to mix this dough because the spoon will become too difficult to use for continuing to mix it.  Keep adding only enough flour until it is pliable and no longer sticky.

Separate the dough and place in two large, well greased mixing bowls.  Be sure to cover them.

Let the dough rise in a warm spot for about two hours.  Later, punch the dough down.  Now allow the dough to grow another hour.

Shape into several loaves to fit whatever well-greased pans you want to use from bread pans to round casserole dishes to metal mixing bowls.  Cover with a towel.  Let these breads rise for about 1-1/2 to 2 hours.

Brush your loaves with the egg-milk mixture.

Bake in a 350-degree oven for about 45 minutes, depending on how your oven is regulated.

ENJOY!

Let Me Tempt You With My Anise Fluff Cookies!

As promised, I told you yesterday that I would be sharing of few of my favorite recipes for Christmas cookies.  Here is another recipe that I adore when you're craving licorice.  My Anise Fluffs is not an overly sweet cookie either and are as light as the name implies. 

One bite and I bet it will put a big smile on your smile!

My Anise Fluffs

4 cups of flour
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of margarine
3 eggs
5 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
3/4 teaspoon of anise-flavored extract

Cream margarine and sugar together until well mixed.  Then add your dry ingredients (that has been sifted together) with your eggs and flavoring.  Beat with your electric mixer at low speed until well blended.

Shape one heaping teaspoon of dough into an oval about a 1-1/2 inch size.  Repeat until you get about five dozen. 

Be sure to place cookies one inch apart from each other on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes or until lightly brown.

Let Me Share Some of My Favorite Christmas Cookie Recipes With YOU!

A bit of the season's holiday magic suddenly seems to appear once batches of Christmas cookies come out of the oven.  This year I will be sharing a few of my treasured favorites from time to time with you before you start your holiday baking. 

Today, I hope you will try my Luscious Lemon Bars.  This cookie has a pastry-like bottom with a second layer of baked in lemon cream and is topped off with a mere dusting of confectioners' sugar.  This recipe is so incredibly delicious that I only make it for the holidays since they are impossible to resist.

One thing I want to mention is the importance of an accurate measure of your baking powder.  Always measure out your baking powder or soda with a measuring spoon and keep it level. 

Also, did you know that Rumford Baking Powder is one of the only baking powders without aluminum?  You may want to check your brand of baking powder first before that holiday baking. Otherwise, you may be eating extra aluminum.

Tomorrow, I will give you a yummy recipe for those that love the flavor of licorice!


My Luscious Lemon Bars

1 cup of margarine
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon of confectioners' sugar
2 and 1/3 cups of unsifted flour
4 eggs
1 and 3/4 cups of sugar
1/3 cup of lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

Cream margarine with the one-half cup of confectioners' sugar.  Add two cups of flour and stir with a wooden spoon until well mixed.  Pat and press evenly into a lightly greased 13 x 9-inch baking pan.  Bake at 350-degrees for about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine the eggs, sugar, remaining, one-third cup of flour, lemon juice and baking powder in a blender.  Blend a few seconds until well-mixed.

Pour the blended mixture over the crust that has baked for 20 minutes.  Then return to the oven and bake 25 minutes longer or until it appears golden brown.

Cool completely and then dust with the remaining confectioners' sugar.