We were invited by friends to their house for Easter. Not being one to show up empty handed I have decided to make two Easter recipes which I enjoyed eating growing up, one of which is my mother’s Paska bread recipe. While I did not pull off the fancy braiding, as my mother always did, I believe it turned out ok.
Here’s her recipe:
Paska Bread
2 yeast pkgs.
½ c water 105 degrees
¾ c milk
¼ c shortening
¾ c sugar
1 ½ tsp salt
5 – 6 c flour
3 eggs slightly beaten
Golden raisins.
Place yeast pkgs in a small bowl, add tbps of sugar and the warm water. I prefer to use the regular yeast as opposed to the rapid rise. The mixture will rise and become spongy. (Make sure that the milk is only warn, a mixture that is too hot will kill the yeast.) Warm milk and melt shortening, add eggs, yeast mixture, sugar, salt & flour. Mix, then knead the dough. The raisins may be added at this time. Raise 1 ½ hours, place in greased pan and let raise again. Bake in 350 degree oven until golden brown
I don’t care for raisins cooked into anything so I dropped them from the recipe. I always ate it with butter but according to the Wikipedia page linked above there are a few other spreads which can be put on top including “‘hrudka’, also called syrek, a bland sweet custard similar to cheese made from separated eggs and milk and beets mixed with horseradish (chren/hrin) and keilbasa (in Polish) or kovbasa (in Ukrainian),” or “a cheese spread made from cottage cheese and egg yolks is sometimes spread on the slices.”
Sounds interesting. Anyone out there eat paska bread at Easter? If so what do you put in it and on it? Do you have any other variations to the recipe? Even if you don’t eat paska what do you normally make for your Easter meal traditions?
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March 29th, 2010 at 10:45 am
Making Mom’s Paska Bread For Easter: http://tinyurl.com/ycmxzv7
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
March 29th, 2010 at 10:59 am
I didn’t grow up doing anything special for Easter. My in-laws have a big lunch together but paska bread has never been a part of it. Honestly, I have no idea what we eat each year. I just know that Easter means we have a 45-minute drive to make to have lunch with my in-laws. Beyond that, I have no idea.
March 29th, 2010 at 11:37 am
Well you did a fine job with the receipe I gave you. That receipe is probably just like so many other people’s but this is the one that your grandmother gave me and she probably got it from her mother. As I mentioned to you the “‘hrudka’ is not something that is spread on the bread. We refer to it as Easter Cheese usually eaten with a horseradish mixture as it is a bland dish. Remember we also have nut and poppy seed rolls, kielbasa, ham, dyed hard boiled eggs. Your grandmother on your father’s side would also have cole slaw and potato salad and what she called babk (a cake-like bread).
As a young child you enjoyed eating these traditional foods and looked forward to participating in the preparation of them especially the dying of the eggs. Nice to see that you are carrying on some of the traditions.
March 29th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
We don’t really have an Easter traditions, in fact, we rarely have plans on Easter. We don’t eat ham at our house, so Easter dinner will probably be PB&J’s for the hubs and something without PB for me.
I have never heard of Paska bread.
March 29th, 2010 at 2:41 pm
Bill, in case your mom’s post has you craving the kielbasa (or anyone else of eastern European descent for that matter that’s looking for good sausages) you can get a number of really great sausages at the European market next to the Minnesota Valley Humane Society on 13 in Burnsville.
Of course there are all kinds of other Russian markets around that stretch of Burnsville and Eagan, but for some unknown reason I’m more drawn to that one.
March 29th, 2010 at 3:58 pm
I noticed that there are several Russian places in that area (4 that I can think of off the top of my head.) And I think there is a church over on Diffley as well. Is there a large Russian/Easter European population in the south metro?
March 29th, 2010 at 4:45 pm
Sorry Bill, that was a bit off topic. Easter is normally either Brunch or Ham for us.
I did not realize that Easter was a big deal in our house until I went to Colorado skiing over easter break one year instead of showing up at home for Easter. I have a very close relationship with my mom, but you would have been able to get good odds that day on if she was going to speak to me ever again.
March 29th, 2010 at 10:03 pm
I LOVE both ham and brunch…..a lot. One thing I like to do is slice up a hunk of [Jenny-O simulated] ham and burn it into something that can really only be described as ham jerky. A crispy slice of that and 20 ounces of coffee gets me to lunch a lot of mornings.
For Easter my great aunts used to make these two desserts that we just call Ham and Rice Pie in lieu of their fancy Italian names. They are both made in a large cake pan and have a sweet flaky crust. Ham pie is a blend of some kind of goat cheese and eggs with chunks of ham. Rice pie is sweeter, something like a stiff rice pudding. My aunts are not baking anymore, but my mom does whatever she can from NY to get some to me whenever she makes either.
Bill I think Chef’s Spread or some kind of aerosol butter spray would be perfect on Paska Bread.
March 30th, 2010 at 10:00 am
Looking good!
I’m not much of a breadmaker or one that celebrates Easter but I enjoy a nice brunch and ham. I think my family gatherings always had Ambrosia salad (coconut, marshmallows, mandarin oranges, pineapple, etc.) and deviled eggs. Easter was never my favorite gathering, especially once they stopped hiding the damn eggs.
March 30th, 2010 at 10:49 am
MSPD wrote:
God, I hope that is just a coincidence.
March 30th, 2010 at 8:54 pm
I grew up in a community in Eastern PA with many Eastern European families (Polish,Slovak,Ukrainian,etc), and I only saw round loaves of bread for Paska. The bread also had a braid in a circle on the top, and then a colored cooked Easter egg was placed in the center of the braid as soon as the bread came out of the oven. I use a round spring-form pan to contain the dough in a round shape. And there are variations of the recipes. One we use has a white dough circling an inner dough made with cottage cheese and egg yolks. The white dough is rolled out to a rectangle; the cheese dough is then rolled into a log, placed on top of the white dough rectangle and then the white dough is wrapped around the cheese dough. That roll is then placed in a round angel food pan. Some reserved white dough is then braided and placed in a circle on top.
March 30th, 2010 at 8:58 pm
Don, interesting background thanks!
I don’t have a round pan for baking (I’m not usually into baking) so I had to improvise–thus the rectangular shape.
March 31st, 2010 at 3:52 pm
We have a braided egg bread every Friday night (if we can). Which, means we don’t have any Easter traditions, ohter than another day for a movie and Chinese food, just like Christmas.
March 31st, 2010 at 10:03 pm
We don’t have any food traditions for Easter. Growing up, we usually went somewhere for brunch, but we don’t do that anymore now. Typically we just do something in the afternoon, like going to the zoo or a museum.
April 4th, 2010 at 1:23 pm
[...] not doing brunch this year but we are enjoying time with friends and their family. I made my mother’s paska bread and also her “Easter Cheese” which I’ll write about tomorrow. Hopefully they [...]
April 4th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
We make Paska for Easter. We usually make the plain Paska with raisins in it, minus the nifty braiding, but we always make the cheese Paska. Instead of using cottage cheese like I’ve been seeing in other recipes we use Ricotta cheese mixed with eggs and then cinnamon sprinkled on top. This is my favorite the traditional plain Paska bread is kind of too dry for us we let my mother-in-law make that one. We love it and it’s a tradition I was happy to start once we got married.
April 23rd, 2011 at 9:19 am
I make Pascha for Easter every year..Variations in bread are grated orange rind or lemon zest with 4T of the juice. Instead of shortening, use butter or margarine(more richer taste). This year, cut down on the sugar to 1/4 cup. Will see how that tastes. This year I am trying the Hrudka, couldnt find the dry cottage cheese to flatten out with a little salt mixed in then brushed w egg..This too is placed in bag n flattened overnight. Most of my heritage is Ukranian. We bless Easter baskets filled with Pascha, colored eggs, horseradish, beet horseradish, S & P, kielbassi, bacon, butter, etc. We don’t eat this food until Easter Sunday. Some people eat it after it is blessed…HAPPY EASTER!!!!
April 23rd, 2011 at 3:09 pm
Currently making my annual six loaves of Pascha. . .my grandmother would come back and take her recipe away from me if I used anything but eggs, butter, flour, sugar, yeast and vanilla, but I like the lemon zest variation.
I’m actually doing the Easter basket myself this year, Smile, since this is the first year without my grandmother, and I feel it’s time for me to carry on the tradition for my Slovak half. While I can’t fathom making the hrudka, (I hate eggs), I’ve got everything else ready to go. My husband’s family is now addicted to it, and it comes to his family gatherings with alarming regularity. :)
And, if anyone is in need of a hrudka recipe, I have one I’d be happy to share. Now, off to more baking!
April 23rd, 2011 at 3:11 pm
I wrote about the hrudka we made in our family last year too: http://www.lazylightning.org/moms-easter-cheese-for-paska-bread