Paska is a Slovak bread that is traditionally eaten during Easter. It is often the centerpiece of the traditional Easter basket that is blessed on Easter Sunday. A traditional basket usually contains smoked meats, sausage, butter, hrudka (a sweet custard-like cheese), bread, salt, horseradish, and pysanky eggs. Since Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians fast during Lent, the food in the basket is not eaten until after Mass on Easter Sunday. Each food item in the basket symbolizes a religious theme. Paska represents Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life, and is considered to be the most important food in the basket to be blessed. Paska is typically baked into a round loaf and usually features a dough braid around the edge, along with a decorative cross or other religious symbols made from dough placed on top.
PASKA BREAD
Recipe courtesy of the Belensky Family.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup milk
- 5 tbsp butter
- ¼ cup sugar
- ½ tbsp salt
- 3 large eggs (at room temperature)
- 2 ¼ tsp. instant yeast
- 3 ⅓ cups bread flour
- ⅓ cup raisins
Instructions:
- Scald milk. Add butter, sugar, and salt. Let cool.
- Beat two eggs and add them to the liquid mixture when lukewarm.
- Scoop the yeast, bread flour, and raisins into a mixing bowl. Pour the liquids into the dry ingredients and mix them until the liquid is absorbed into the flour.
- Knead the dough on a floured surface into a ball until it no longer sticks to your fingers. Flour your hands as needed to help shape the dough.
- Place the kneaded dough into a greased bowl and cover.
- Let the dough double in size.
- Place the dough on a floured surface and gently press it to flatten into a circle.
- Fold the dough by thirds into a loaf shape and tuck in the ends.
- Place the dough into a greased 9” X 5” loaf pan, cover, and let rise until doubled.
- Brush a beaten egg over the bread.
- Place the loaf in a preheated oven at 350º F and bake for 45-50 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown.
- Remove the loaf from the pan and place it on a cooling rack.
Helpful Tips:
- Temperature. Yeast is very sensitive to temperature. Contact with scalding hot
liquids will kill the yeast. Conversely, a cold kitchen will slow the rise of the paska
dough. - Flour. A frequent mistake of novice bakers is to scoop flour like sugar, which
adds excessive flour to a recipe and results in very dense bread. Please fluff the
flour before scooping or sift the needed amount of flour. If bread flour is not
available, all-purpose flour can be substituted. - Using Active Dry Yeast. Although this recipe calls for using instant yeast, active
dry yeast (e.g., Red Star, Fleischmann’s), which is more commonly found in most
grocery stores, can be used. In contrast to instant yeast, active dry yeast must be
rehydrated. Use one 1/4oz. (7g) packet of active dry yeast and follow the
manufacturer’s directions for rehydrating. - Bread machines. If you have a bread machine with a dough setting, you can let it
do the hard work of kneading. Add the wet and dry ingredients in the order
suggested by the manufacturer, and then resume the recipe at the second kneading step in the recipe.
