Tag: easterbread

Easter Series: Easter Bunny Rolls

One of my earliest baking memories is from back when I was in preschool. My family lived in Germany and I seem to remember taking a baking class for kids and their moms. I’m pretty sure I spent a lot of that class nibbling on the dough and rolling it out like play dough. We had fun shaping the dough into different animals, and the memory of this class sparked this idea for these baby bunny Easter rolls.  

My kids love to bake with me. We laugh, learn and have fun together mixing dough and trying new recipes. This particular recipe is one of their favorites. They loved being able to use the scissors (supervise the little ones!) and to create really cute little animals out of the bread dough.

These would make the perfect Easter morning breakfast roll, or they would be perfect for an Easter brunch or at the dinner table. Whenever you choose to make them, I guarantee they are delicious and so much fun to make. We chose to make the traditional bunnies, but the kids were having so much fun with the scissors that we decided to add in some hedgehogs too. I think they turned out just as cute as the bunnies, if not cuter! So bring your creativity and see what you can come up with!

Yield: 12-16 rolls

Time: 20 minutes mix/knead, 2-3 hours rise, 20 minute bake

Ingredients:

  • ¾ cup buttermilk, warm
  • 6 Tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
  • 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon instant yeast
  • 1 ½ teaspoons salt
  • 3 ½- 4 ½ cups flour
  • Kitchen scissors
  • Raisins or currants for eyes

Instructions:

  1. Warm the buttermilk (it should feel like warm baby bath water–not too hot). Add the buttermilk and melted butter to a stand mixer. While the mixer is running, add in the eggs, sugar, instant yeast, salt and one cup of the flour.
  2. Add the rest of the flour a cup at a time until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. It should be very soft but not sticky. Knead for about 3-5 minutes. 
  3. Lightly oil a bowl and transfer the dough to the oiled bowl. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 2 hours.
  4. Place a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet. Once the dough has doubled in size, separate it into 12-16 pieces (depending on how big you want each roll to be). Roll each ball of dough into an oval shape and set on the baking sheet. Cover with a dish towel and let rise in a warm place again, about an hour.
  5. Before baking, take your scissors and cut ears into the front of the dough on the bunnies. If you want to make hedgehogs, cut with your scissors all over the top of the dough. Add raisins for the eyes.
  6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake about 20 minutes until rolls are golden on top but not overly brown. You may want to check on the rolls after about 10 minutes and cover them with tinfoil if the “ears” brown too quickly. 
  7. If any raisins fall off the bunnies, push them back into the warm roll. Let cool or eat warm!

Recipe Notes: You could also sub in your favorite bread roll recipe and try shaping the ears on them. The rolls in this recipe are truly scrumptious and worth the splurge on the buttermilk, in my opinion, though you could do this with any bread roll dough in a pinch.

Please share this recipe if you enjoyed it! Post a photo and tag me @amybakesbread so I can see your bake 🙂

Follow me on Instagram @amybakesbread or like Amy Bakes Bread on Facebook for more baking ideas.

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Easter Series: Paska Ukrainian Easter Bread

When I was researching recipes to make for Easter, I stumbled on this Ukrainian Easter bread. We have wonderful friends from Ukraine who we love like family, so I really wanted to try making an Easter bread from their home country. Paska is a delicious sweet bread eaten on Easter. Ukraine adheres to the Orthodox calendar, which celebrates Easter a week after we celebrate in the United States. Paska is often brought to the church in the morning to be blessed by the priest, along with other foods during the Easter church service.

It is an enriched dough which is typical of Easter breads, many of which are consumed after a period of Lent where sweets and decadent foods are fasted from for a time. This Paska is a brioche-like dough studded with dried fruit and a delicious lemon icing on top. They are baked in special paper molds, but if you don’t have that you can use a tin from canned food (green bean tin, tomato tin, etc…). Paska can also be made in a larger mold, though you would have to adjust the baking time. And speaking of time, this recipe does take a LONG time. That is part of the fun of it, though. It has three “rise” periods and it takes so long because of all of the heavy ingredients in the dough (eggs, butter, sour cream). Despite the amount of time for rising, this is a VERY easy dough to make because I never had to knead it. I think it would be a perfect baking project to make with kids for that reason.

If you want to teach your kids a little about Easter in Ukraine and Russia, here are a few books that go along very well with this yummy recipe. Check them out from your library, watch them being read on YouTube or purchase them on Amazon. You can’t go wrong with Easter books that teach about a new culture.

Rechenka’s Eggs, Patricia Polacco
The Magic Babushka, Phyllis Limbacher Tildes

Or a coloring book of Ukrainian Easter Eggs: Pysanky Coloring Book

Regardless of whether you read a book about Ukrainian Easter, this recipe is a fun one to make with kids. When I texted the photo of the finished Paska to my friend, she was delighted to say it looked similar to their Easter bread! I wish I could have shared one with her with a cup of the delicious orange infused tea she makes. Making this delicious Easter bread would have only been better if we could have shared it together. Hopefully soon!

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Yield: 12 mini paska

Time: 15 minute mix, 6 hours rise, 30 minute bake

Ingredients:

Dough

  • 1 cup warm whole milk
  • 3 eggs, lightly beaten
  • ½ Tablespoon instant yeast
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ¼ cup sour cream
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 4-5 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 cup currants, raisins or craisins
  • 12 mini panettone paper molds

Icing

  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
  • ½ Tablespoon cream

Instructions:

  1. Whisk together milk, eggs, yeast, sugar, melted butter (not hot!), salt, sour cream and vanilla. Add 2 cups of flour and whisk together. The batter will be thick but won’t form a dough yet. Cover the dough and let rise in a warm place for about 2 hours.
  2. Add 2-3 cups more of flour until the dough doesn’t stick to your hands. Stir in the currants, raisins or craisins (your choice). The dough will still feel a little sticky. This dough does not require kneading. Cover and let rise in a warm place about 2 more hours.
  3. Set up 12 panettone molds on a baking sheet. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and fill each mold. Try not to knead it or push it down too much. Let the dough rise another 2 hours until the molds are almost full.
  4. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees and bake for about 30 minutes until the top is golden brown. Allow to cool to room temperature and then remove the wrapper if desired.

To make the icing: whisk together 2 cups of powdered sugar, 1 Tablespoon lemon juice and ½ Tablespoon cream. Add a little more cream if it’s too thick, or a little more powdered sugar if it’s too runny. Pour glaze over each Paska and top with sprinkles before the glaze sets.

I hope you enjoy this recipe! I will be posting a new Easter recipe every week leading up to Easter. You can see last week’s recipe here.

Please share this recipe if you enjoyed it! Post a photo and tag me @amybakesbread so I can see your bake 🙂

Follow me on Instagram @amybakesbread or like Amy Bakes Bread on Facebook for more baking ideas.

Amy4 Comments

Easter Series: Mazanec Czech Easter Bread

Old Town Square with my siblings when we took an Easter trip back to Prague almost twenty years ago.

As a grade-school child I lived with my family in Prague, the capital city of the Czech Republic. We typically had drizzly, cold winters – and as spring approached, we all anticipated the blossoms, markets and traditions that springtime ushered in. In Prague, Easter is celebrated with beautiful Easter markets that dot the main squares. Booths are filled with hand painted eggs, little trinkets for sale, blacksmiths working over hot fires and sweet treats to eat. I loved smelling the hot food, listening to horse drawn carriages and maneuvering through the old cobblestone streets.

One of the more interesting items for sale at the markets are the Easter “pomlazka.” This is a traditional, handmade, Easter whip made out of twigs with colorful ribbons attached to the end. Tradition has it that women should be spanked on Easter Monday (the day after Easter Sunday) in order to keep their beauty, health and fertility for the next year. Women would give men Easter eggs in return. While I’m not particularly a fan of being whipped, especially by my little brother who quite enjoyed this tradition, I did enjoy the bright colors and learning about the Czech culture.


1. My brother outside a Czech Easter market
2. Decorating Easter eggs with our Czech Babicka
3. Czech “pomlazka” from a postcard.

Along with pomlazka and decorating traditional Easter eggs, many Czech families eat a sweet Easter bread called mazanec that you can buy at local stores or make at home yourself. Mazanec comes from the word “mazat” which means to anoint, and is often decorated with a cross in the middle made out of almonds. The tradition of mazanec dates back to the 15th century, when wealthier families would often bake a small loaf for each family member. A similar bread is also made at Christmas time, but it is braided as opposed to the circular loaf eaten at Easter.

Homemade mazanec displayed on traditional Czech blue onion porcelain

My take on mazanec varies a little from the traditional. Instead of soaking the raisins in rum, I left them plain and actually substituted currants, which are a little bit smaller than raisins, and which my family prefers to raisins. I also added some lemon zest for flavor which we all enjoyed. This would be a perfect recipe to make with your family for Easter time if you are looking for a slightly sweet but substantial bread. It would pair perfectly with some jam or butter. Vesele Velikonoce!

Yield: 1 loaf of bread

Time: 20 minutes preparation, 3-4 hours rising, 50 minutes baking

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup of milk
  • ¼ cup cream
  • 1 T instant yeast
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 3 T butter, melted
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 lemon, zested
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 3½-4 cups all purpose flour 
  • 1 cup raisins, currants, craisins or other dried fruit
  • 1 egg for egg wash (1 egg mixed with 1 tsp water)
  • Slivered almonds or other nuts for decoration

Directions

Traditionally a cross was made out of the nuts before baking. This is optional. You can also decorate with slivered almonds.
  1. Heat the milk and cream together in a small bowl until warm (not hot) to the touch. If you use the microwave for this step, mix it before testing the temperature as it can heat unevenly.
  2. Add the yeast, sugar, eggs, melted butter and vanilla extract together and stir to combine.
  3. In a mixer or other bowl, add the flour, salt, lemon zest and dried fruit. Slowly add in the liquid mixture and mix until a ball of dough begins to form. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes in a mixer, or about 10 minutes by hand. Add flour a little at a time until the dough clears the side of the bowl and isn’t overly sticky. However it should still be a little bit sticky. 
  4. Oil a bowl and put the kneaded dough in the bowl. Let the dough rise for about 2 hours until it has just about doubled in size (depending on the temperature of your kitchen this may take a little less or more time).
  5. Punch the dough down and knead it a few times. Shape it into a round loaf. Place the loaf on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Make an egg wash by whisking the egg and 1 tsp of water together in a small bowl. Lightly brush the egg wash over the top of the dough. Add slivered almonds (or any other nut you may like) in the shape of a cross, pressing lightly for the almonds to stick. Cover the dough with a kitchen towel and allow to rise for another hour until puffed up again.
  6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake for about 50 minutes. Around the 20 minute mark, check your mazanec. If the top is browning too much, cover it with a piece of aluminum foil to stop the browning. 
  7. Allow it to cool before slicing. Enjoy with a smidge of butter, a drizzle of honey or a dab of jam on top. Yum!

Notes: Rising time with enriched dough (dough with eggs, milk, butter) will take longer than a “lean” dough. The temperature of your kitchen will play a big factor in the rise time. Anything you can do to help warm up the dough (though not too much!) will help.

Happy early Easter! I hope you enjoy this Easter series on breads from different countries and are inspired to try one (or a few) to create a new Easter tradition for your family.

Please share this recipe if you enjoyed it! Post a photo and tag me @amybakesbread so I can see your bake 🙂

Follow me on Instagram @amybakesbread or like Amy Bakes Bread on Facebook for more baking ideas.

Amy8 Comments