Kulich Easter Bread Paska Food

PASKA EASTER BREAD RECIPE (KULICH)

Steps:

• Pour enough rum or warm water over the dried fruits to keep them submerged and allow them to rehydrate for 1 hour, or up to 1 week in advance. Cover the bowl and refrigerate if doing this more than 1 hour in advance. Then, drain the dried fruits and pat with paper towels to remove all moisture from the outside. Set aside or refrigerate.
• Prep: Grease a large bowl with oil or nonstick spray, set aside.Measure and prep all of the ingredients. Weigh the ingredients for best results.Check/proof your yeast if you're unsure if the yeast is still active, or if you're using active dry yeast instead of instant dried yeast.
• Combine:To a bowl of a stand mixer or a bread maker add the ingredients in the following order: 4 eggs, 1/2 cups of sugar, 1 tsp of vanilla, 2 tbsp + 1 tsp of milk or water, 2 1/2 cups flour, 2 1/4 tsp of yeast and give a quick stir with a spoon until it's chunky. Then fit the mixer with a dough hook and knead on low speed until it barely comes together.
• Knead: Then knead on medium-low speed for about 20 minutes (on a KitchenAid stand mixer - speed 3). If using the bread machine it should be turned on to the 1.5 hour dough cycle for a 2 lb white bread loaf. The dough will be thick at this point, this is OK.Check for gluten development (windowpane test). To do this take a walnut-sized piece of dough, flatten it out, then slowly stretch it until you can make it very thin and almost translucent. If the dough tears instead of getting thin and transparent continue kneading until it gets to this stage. It might take more or less time depending on many factors. Go by the windowpane test and not the time.
• Add butter and salt: Next, add butter in halves, in small cubes and continue kneading until the butter is fully incorporated about 15-20 minutes. You might have to break the dough into small chunks to make the incorporation with the butter easier. DO NOT ADD ANY MORE FLOUR - it's ok if the dough is on the runny side. As continue kneading it will hold shape better, but still should not be firm.If mixing in the bread maker: add the butter when the bread maker beeps about 20 minutes into the cycle, which indicates that any additions can be made (in our case we are adding butter).
• Add 1 cup of re-hydrated, but well-drained or paper towel dried fruits, 1 tbsp orange zest, and 3/4 cup white chocolate chips into the dough. Knead until fully incorporated.
• Rise and chill: Transfer the dough to the greased bowl and allow the dough to rise at room temperature (see Note 3) for 1 hour or until the dough is almost doubled in size.Tip: To aid in proofing or rising of the dough preheat the oven to 250F for 2-3 minutes, then turn off the heat and place the bowl with the dough in the oven. Ensure that the oven is not hotter than 100F or the extreme heat will kill the yeast and now allow the dough to rise.Then cover and chill for at least 4 hours or up to 2 days. Only skip the refrigeration if you are really tight on time. The prolonged fermentation aids in flavor and texture of the Easter bread.
• Remove from the fridge and shape. Punch down the dough and shape it into a round ball by tucking edges of the dough all around under itself until the top looks nice and smooth. Place inside the large 6 or 7-inch round and tall Panettone mold. Or divide the dough between two 5-inch Panetone molds.For mini Easter breads, divide the dough between the 3 lined with parchment paper (see pix) 32 oz cans with both ends removed. Or divide between 9-12 small two inch round paper molds. The dough should fill the molds about halfway.
• Proof: Allow the dough to proof until it is doubled in size. To create a warm environment repeat the trick with preheating the oven to 250F for 2-3 minutes, then turn it off and place the molds with the dough in there. The oven shouldn't be hotter than 100F.Once doulbed in size, lightly brush the tops with whisked yolk.
• Place in a preheated to 350F oven and bake until the inside registers 190F degrees and the tops are golden in color. If the dough browns too fast, loosely tent the top with foil.Bake time: times are approximate as each oven is different For the 6-7 inch round molds - 55-65 minutes. For 5 inch molds - 40 minutesFor the 3.5-inch round molds - 35 minutes. The 2-inch round molds will take about 20 minutes. While the bread is baking, make the glaze (directions below) and cover it with plastic wrap to prevent a film from forming.
• Remove the baked Easter Bread from the oven and allow to cool completely. Then, cover with glaze by spreading some of the powdered sugar glaze on top with a spoon or spatula, or dipping the smaller paska bread tops into the glaze. Sprinkle the sprinkles on top, if desired.
• Combine 1.5 cups powdered sugar, 1 egg and 1 tsp of lemon juice in a mixer and whip until the mixture is thick, but still flows in slow, lava-like motion, about 5-7 min. You can take a spoonful and allow it to drizzle down the inside of the bowl, if it flows down slow, leaving a nice drizzle, you can stop whipping. If not, just continue whipping until it's proper consistency.

RUSSIAN EASTER BREAD (KULICH)

Steps:

• Make dough:
• Heat milk, sugar, butter, saffron, and salt in a 1-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until butter is melted and sugar is dissolved, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and cool to lukewarm.
• Meanwhile, stir together yeast, warm water, and pinch of sugar and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. (If mixture doesn't foam, discard and start over with new yeast.)
• Put flour in a large bowl and make a large well in center. Lightly beat 3 eggs and add to well along with milk and yeast mixtures. Carefully stir together with a wooden spoon, gradually incorporating flour, until a soft dough forms. Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and knead, dusting with just enough flour to keep dough from sticking, until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Put dough in a lightly oiled large bowl, turning to coat with oil, and let rise, covered with a clean kitchen towel, in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled in bulk, about 3 hours.
• Punch down dough and let rise again, covered with towel, until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
• Form loaves:
• Generously butter soufflé dishes. Punch down dough and divide in half. Loosely wrap 1 piece in plastic wrap and set aside. Cut away one third of remaining piece of dough and reserve, then roll remaining two thirds into a large ball and transfer to a soufflé dish.
• Roll reserved piece of dough into an 18-inch-long rope on work surface with palms of your hands. Cut rope into 3 equal pieces and lay pieces vertically side by side on work surface, about 1/4 inch apart. Gather 3 ends farthest from you and press them together, then braid strands, pressing together other ends to secure braid. Lay braid over top of dough in soufflé dish (trim braid if using coffee cans). Form another loaf with remaining dough in same manner.
• Cover loaves with clean kitchen towel and let rise in draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours (loaves will rise about 1 inch above rims of dishes).
• Bake loaves:
• Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F.
• Lightly beat remaining egg with a large pinch of salt, then brush egg over top of each loaf. Bake loaves until golden brown and bread sounds hollow when tapped on bottom, about 1 hour. Turn loaves out onto a rack, then turn right side up and cool completely.

PASKA EASTER BREAD RECIPE (KULICH)

Steps:

• In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the warm milk, 1 tbsp of yeast and 1 tbsp of sugar; allow mixture to sit for 15 minutes.
• Then add the yolks, sour cream, melted butter, 1 cup of sugar, oil, salt and vanilla sugar to the yeast mixture, whisking well to incorporate everything.
• Add 3 cups of flour to the yeast mixture and knead dough over low speed adding remaining flour until the dough has formed. Once dough has formed knead for 5 minutes over medium speed. (Dough will be slightly tacky yet indents can be easily made when poking.)
• Cover dough and allow to rise for 2-3 hours in a very warm place or until doubled in size. (Your dough shouldn't rise super fast so don't worry if it's taking very slow.
• Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and slightly pat into a rectangular shape. Sprinkle dough with raisins and lightly knead into a ball dusting a little more flour to form a smooth ball.
• Spray 10 (10 oz) disposable foam cups with cooking spray and lightly flour each cup. Place cups onto a large baking sheet and scoop out 1/2 a cup of dough. Shape dough into balls then place into each cup. (Cups should be half way full of dough and makes about 10 balls.)
• Cover cups with plastic wrap and allow dough to rise until doubled in size or until dough reaches almost the rim of the cup (2-3 hours.)
• When dough has doubled in size place in a preheated 350 degrees F oven and bake for 40-45 minutes or until nicely browned.
• Allow breads to cool in cups for 4 minutes then run a sharp knife around the sides. Tip over and lightly squeeze the bottom of the cup for the bread to pop out. Repeat until bread removes, do not pull bread out.
• Whisk together the glaze adding more water if needed. (A little goes a big way so please add the water and milk by tbsp until desired consistency.) Glaze warm breads and sprinkle with colored sugar.