Paska Easter Bread Recipe – Kulich

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Paska Easter Bread Recipe – Kulich
Easter Bread recipe is just what you need this upcoming Easter. It is made of very flavorful, moist, buttery, lightly sweetened brioche, that’s studded with beautiful morsels of white chocolate and rum-soaked dried berries. You can eat it as is with coffee or tea for breakfast, or use it for the best tasting French toast.
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Ingredients
  • Easter Bread Ingredients
  • 4 large eggs (room temperature)
  • 35 ml water or milk 35 ml = 2 tbsp+1tsp
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • ½ cups granulated sugar
  • 2½ cups bread flour works best (but all-purpose flour will work too) (350 g = about 2½ scooped cups)
  • 2¼ tsp instant dry yeast 1 packet = 2¼ tsp (use Platinum Yeast for best results)
  • ¾ cup soft but cold temperature butter, cubed (3/4 cup = 12 tbsp)
  • 1 tsp kosher salt use ¾ tsp if using table salt
  • Add-ins for Easter Bread - Paska (start this 30 minutes, up to a week ahead of time)
  • 1 cup dried and rehydrated in hot water or alcohol fruits do this 30 minutes or several days ahead
  • ¾ cup white chocolate chips
  • 1 tbsp orange or lemon zest
  • Egg yolk glaze (whisk together)
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 2 tsp water
  • Powdered Sugar Glaze
  • 1.5 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 egg white (can be replaced with 1-2 tbsp milk)
  • 1 tsp lemon juice (can be replaced with milk or water, if you prefer no tang in the glaze)
  • Easter Bread Mold Choices (pick 1 of the choices below)
  • 1 Large Penetonne Mold - (7.3''x 4.25'')
  • 3 Medium - Small Panettone Mold (3.5"x2.5")
  • 12 Small Panettone Mold (2¾''x2'')
  • Sprinkle Choices (Choose One)
  • 1 tbsp sprinkles (most commonly used topping)
  • 2 tbsp White Chocolate Crispearls
  • Pink Pearl Dust (edible) (use this to coat the White Chocolate Crispearls in)
Instructions
  1. How to rehydrate the dried fruits:
  2. 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.
  3. Then, drain the dried fruits and pat with paper towels to remove all moisture from the outside. Set aside or refrigerate.
  4. How to make the dough for Paska
  5. Prep: Grease a large bowl with oil or nonstick spray, set aside.
  6. Measure and prep all of the ingredients. Weigh the ingredients for best results.
  7. 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.
  8. Combine:
  9. To a bowl of a stand mixer or a bread maker add the ingredients in the following order: 4 eggs, ½ cups of sugar, 1 tsp of vanilla, 2 tbsp + 1 tsp of milk or water, 2½ cups flour, 2¼ 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.
  10. Knead:
  11. Then knead on medium-low speed for about 20 minutes (on a KitchenAid stand mixer - speed 3).
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
  14. Brioche Dough Proper Gluten Development - Windowpane Test. The dough looks smooth and stretches into a thin film.
  15. Add butter and salt:
  16. 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.
  17. 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).
  18. Add add-ins (**read recipe notes)
  19. Add 1 cup of re-hydrated, but well-drained or paper towel dried fruits, 1 tbsp orange zest, and ¾ cup white chocolate chips into the dough. Knead until fully incorporated.
  20. 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.
  21. 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.
  22. 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.
  23. 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.
  24. Place inside the large 6 or 7-inch round and tall Panettone mold.
  25. Or divide the dough between two 5-inch Panetone molds.
  26. For mini Easter breads, divide the dough between the 3 lined with parchment paper (see pix) 32 oz cans with both ends removed.
  27. Or divide between 9-12 small two inch round paper molds.
  28. The dough should fill the molds about halfway.
  29. 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.
  30. Once doulbed in size, lightly brush the tops with whisked yolk.
  31. How to bake the Easter Bread
  32. 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.
  33. Bake time: times are approximate as each oven is different
  34. For the 6-7 inch round molds - 55-65 minutes.
  35. For 5 inch molds - 40 minutes
  36. For the 3.5-inch round molds - 35 minutes.
  37. The 2-inch round molds will take about 20 minutes.
  38. While the bread is baking, make the glaze (directions below) and cover it with plastic wrap to prevent a film from forming.
  39. 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.
  40. How to make the powdered sugar glaze for the Paska bread
  41. 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.

 

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