Favorite Easter Paska

Traditionally, my Oma, Mother and Aunties would make Paska every year for Easter. I have continued making this Easter bread and experimented with many recipes to find my favorite. Most good recipes are large and yield a large number of loaves; this gives me the opportunity to share them with many friends who don’t bake with yeast. This recipe is not in my cookbook From Oma’s Kitchen.

4 Tbsp / 60 ml granular yeast

1 cup / 250 ml warm water

2 tsp / 10 ml sugar

15 eggs, at room temperature

4 cups / 1 L sugar

1 cup / 250 ml butter, melted

3 cups / 750 ml milk, warm (half - potato water if available)

Zest and juice from 1 orange and 1 lemon.

12 drops lemon oil (optional)

1 Tbsp / 15 ml salt

20 cups / 5 L all-purpose flour

Combine first three ingredients and set aside to soften. In a large bowl, beat eggs until light and fluffy, gradually add sugar. Add melted butter, warmed milk, citrus zest and juice, salt and lemon oil when available.

Place 5 cups / 1.250 L flour in a very large mixing bowl. Make a well in flour and pour egg mixture onto flour. Add yeast mixture and beat together with a wooden spoon. Add 5 cups / 1.250 ml flour three times to make soft dough. (total 20 cups / 5 L) Set aside to rest for 20- 30 minutes.

Knead dough to make it smooth. Place dough in a large bowl, cover and let rise to double in a warm place. Punch down and let rise again.

Shape into balls or place into Bundt pans; let rise to double and bake.

Bake @ 325F/ 160C for approximately 40 minutes. Allow to cool on cooling racks. Ice when still slightly warm.

Drizzle with soft icing made with icing sugar and orange juice and decorate with colored sprinkles. Enjoy! Loaves can be frozen with or without icing.

Makes 10 loaves.

Holiday Cookies

These cookies are a favorite with family and friends. Prepare them ahead of time, freeze them, and hope your children won’t find them before the holiday arrives. They also look festive for any occasion. This recipe is not in my cookbook, From Oma’s Kitchen.

2 cups / 500 ml butter, softened

½ cup / 125 ml cream cheese, softened

1 ½ cups / 375 ml sugar

1 tbsp / 15 ml vanilla

4 ½ cups / 1.125 ml all-purpose flour

1 tsp / 5 ml salt

Red jelly or jam.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and cream cheese until creamy, gradually add sugar. Beat in vanilla. Add flour, one cup at a time until thoroughly mixed. Mixture should cling together, knead and form into a ball. Divide into 4 pieces and roll out one at a time.

Flour surface for rolling dough, roll out to 1/8 inch and cut into designs with cookie cutters. Cut small hole or design into half the cookies. Place on parchment covered baking sheets.

Bake @ 350F / 180C for 10 to 12 minutes.

Sandwich cookies with jelly or jam.These cookies freeze well. Enjoy!

Delicate Pink Cupcakes

Delicate in pink, these cupcakes are a hit with children and teenagers, especially for birthday parties. I made them for my granddaughter, who was involved in a high school bake sale raising money for their grad celebrations. This recipe is not in the cookbook From Oma’s Kitchen.

1 cup / 250 ml butter, softened

1 ¼ cups / 310 ml sugar

4 drops pink food coloring

3 eggs, large

2 tsp / 10 ml vanilla

2 ½ cups / 625 ml all-purpose flour

1 ½ tsp / 7 ml baking powder

½ tsp / 2 ml baking soda

½ tsp / 2 ml salt

1 cup / 250 ml milk

Juice of ½ lemon.

Icing: ½ cup / 125 ml butter, softened

3 cups / 750 ml icing sugar

¼ cup / 60 ml coffee cream or milk

1 tsp / 5 ml vanilla

In the large bowl of the mixer, cream the butter, sugar and food coloring until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with milk, soured with the lemon juice. Beat well to mix. Fill paper lined muffin cups ¾ full.

Bake @ 350F / 180C for 20 to 22 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes; remove to wire racks and cool completely before icing.

Icing: Beat butter until smooth and creamy. Add icing sugar and enough cream or milk to make a smooth icing. Add vanilla and apply to cupcakes.

Enjoy! Makes 18 cupcakes.

Cream Cake

This cake is moist and tasty when iced with a butter icing, and also great for strawberry shortcake or trifle. (Recipe can be doubled.) I have added orange zest to the cake and orange juice to the icing to give a luscious citrus flavor. Lemon would also be a wonderful variation. This recipe is in the cookbook From Oma's Kitchen.

2 eggs

1 cup / 250 ml sugar

1 cup / 250 ml whipping cream

1½ cups / 375 ml all-purpose flour

3 tsp /15 ml baking powder

½ tsp / 2 ml salt

1 tsp / 5 ml vanilla

Beat eggs, sugar, and cream together until batter is smooth. Add vanilla. Sift dry ingredients together and add to first mixture. Pour into a 9 x 9" baking pan.Bake @ 350F / 180C for 40 - 50 minutes.

Variation:

Orange cake - add 1 Tbsp (15 ml) fresh orange rind to the cake batter. Then ice with icing made with icing sugar, cream or orange juice, plus 1 tsp (5 ml) fresh grated orange rind.

This recipe can be made into cupcakes. Adjust baking time to 20 minutes (less for smaller cupcake).

Lemon Loaf

Lemon is a refreshing aroma and taste of the season.

Finding a good recipe using lemon the flavor takes patience and means often making many samples. Sometimes the origin of a good recipe may be a decrepit piece of scrap paper, battered, splattered and stained. Or it could be found in a repertoire of Martha Stewart’s array of cookbooks and magazines. I stumbled upon this one in one of my many cookbooks.

This Lemon Loaf is a favorite of our family; the pungent aroma and taste of fresh lemons delight the palate.

Baking the batter in four small pans instead of two large ones allows us to enjoy fresh loaves from the freezer on an ongoing basis. These smaller loaves make an excellent hostess gift for those of us who don’t bake and they can be used as a sweet treat at teatime.

Although, I normally use only butter in most of my baking, I do look for ways to make desserts lighter. Yogurt mixed with vegetable oil makes a healthy moist product and you don’t even need an electric mixer to make this loaf. As they cool on the wire baking rack, glaze them with sweetened fresh lemon juice. After removing them from the pans, drizzle thin lemon icing over the loaves. This final touch makes them almost too good looking to cut into. This recipe is not in the cookbook - From Oma's Kitchen.

3 cups/ 750ml regular flour

4 tsp/ 20ml baking powder

1 tsp / 5ml salt

2 cups/ 500ml plain vanilla yogurt

2 cups/ 500ml sugar

6 large eggs

1 Tbsp/ 15ml grated lemon zest (~ 2 lemons)

1 tsp/ 5ml pure vanilla extract

1 cup/ 250ml vegetable oil

……

Glaze: 1/3 cup/ 75ml lemon juice, freshly squeezed

1/3 cup/ 75ml sugar

……

Thin Icing: 1 cup/ 250ml icing sugar

3 Tbsp/ 45ml lemon juice

Method: Preheat oven to 350F/ 180C.

Grease 4 small or 2 large loaf pans.

Into a medium sized bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. Into a large bowl, whisk together yogurt, sugar, eggs, lemon zest and vanilla. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ones. With a spatula, fold vegetable oil into the batter, making sure it is all incorporated. (Be patient, it will become smooth) Pour batter into prepared pans and bake 45-50 min. or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. For large loaves, increase baking time.

Glaze: Microwave sugar and lemon juice together until sugar is dissolved. When loaves come out of oven, pour glaze over them.

Let stand for 10-15 minutes, remove from pans.

Combine icing sugar and lemon juice, pour over warm loaves.

Enjoy!!! These loaves freeze well.

Paska Buns

Traditionally, Paska or Easter bread was baked in large coffee tins and odd shaped pans. Recently however, small and large loaf pans are being used to form these sweet and tasty loaves. I have opted to make this citrus, sweet dough into buns, which are conveniently served and can be easily distributed to family and friends. This recipe is not in the From Oma's Kitchen Cookbook.

3 Tbsp / 45 ml granular yeast

2 tsp / 10 ml sugar

1 cup / 250 ml potato water, warmed

1 ½ cups / 375 ml sugar

1 cup / 250 ml potato water

1 cup / 250 ml milk

¾ cup / 175 ml butter, melted

1 Tbsp / 15 ml salt

5 eggs, beaten

1 lemon, juice & zest

1 orange, juice & zest

9-10 cups/ 2.25-2.50 L all-purpose flour

Combine first three ingredients in a small bowl to rise. In a medium bowl, combine remaining ingredients including lemon and orange zest and juice. This mixture should be warm. Pour into a large bowl, add yeast and gradually beat in flour to make soft dough. Set aside to rest for 15 minutes; knead to make smooth dough. Cover with plastic and set in warm place to rise until double in bulk. Punch down and shape into buns. Place buns on parchment cover cookie sheets. Let rise until light.

Bake @ 350F / 180C for 20 minutes.

Ice with a runny icing and decorate with sprinkles. Makes about 60 buns.