Easter buns “Larks. Easter baking - Easter cakes and buns Bake Easter buns

The Easter table in Russia is traditionally rich, and the main place on it is rightfully occupied by elegant Easter cakes and other pastries - fragrant, beautiful, truly festive. You can, of course, go to the store and buy a ready-made Easter cake, but it has a truly sacred meaning only when it is baked with your own hands.

In the old days, making Easter cakes was a real sacred act. This is still relevant in our time. For example, while cooking you should not swear, sing or laugh loudly, otherwise the dough will not rise. Read about other secrets of delicious Easter baking and how you can prepare it in modern kitchens on Passion.ru.

Easter cake in the oven


The secret to making this cake is the double addition of yeast. In addition, when starting to do the test, get rid of a bad mood and drafts - both of them negatively affect the result.

Ingredients (for 2 large or 8 small Easter cakes):

For the test:
Premium flour – 1 kg + 1-2 tbsp. spoons for dripping raisins,
Live yeast (fresh) – 45 g (or 15 g dry),
Eggs (large) – 5 pcs. + 1 yolk for greasing Easter cakes,
Sugar – 350 g,
Milk – 380 ml,
Butter (melted, warm) – 300 g,
Salt – 3-4 g,
Raisins (seedless) – 200 g,
Candied fruits – 50-60 g,
Vanillin - to taste
Vegetable oil – 1-2 teaspoons.

For the glaze:

Powdered sugar – 50 g,
Egg – 1 pc. (protein only)
Lemon juice – 1 teaspoon.

For decoration:

Confectionery topping - to taste.

Preparation:

It is best to make the dough in the evening so that you can start preparing the cakes in the morning. So, dissolve 30 g of live (or 10 g of dry) yeast and 1 teaspoon of sugar in 250 ml of warm milk, let stand for 15 minutes. During this time, separate the whites from the yolks. Grind the yolks with the remaining sugar, and beat the whites into a thick, dense foam. Melt the butter over low heat and cool slightly.

Pour milk with yeast into a large bowl (or enamel pan), add salt, yolks with sugar, whites and butter, add 400 g of sifted flour and stir everything gently but thoroughly. Cover the container, wrap it in a terry towel or down scarf and place it next to the battery.

In the morning (or after 7-8 hours), slightly heat 130 ml of milk, dissolve the remaining yeast in it (15 g of live or 5 g of dry), pour into the dough, add 600 g of flour (also sifted) and vanillin. Knead the dough directly in the bowl for 20 minutes with hands greased with vegetable oil. By the way, hand kneading also contains the secret of a good classic Easter cake - you should not use technical devices to prepare it.


Cover the dough with a towel and leave in a warm place to rise until it has doubled in size (this will take 2-3 hours). During this time, prepare the raisins - sort them, remove the stems, wash, dry and roll in flour. Finely chop the candied fruits. Place oiled paper on the bottom of the baking dish and grease the sides with vegetable oil.

When the dough rises, add raisins and candied fruits. Knead everything together again. The dough should turn out soft and at the same time easily separate from your hands and from the walls of the bowl (pan), if this does not happen, then add another 100-150 g of flour to it.

Let the dough rest again. This time - about 15 minutes. After this, grease your hands again with vegetable oil and spread the dough into the molds. Fill them no more than a third of the volume, as the cakes rise very well and can simply “run away”. And again send the dough to proof.

After it has doubled in size once again, brush the top of the cakes with yolk and place the molds on a tray (or on a baking sheet) in an oven preheated to 180 degrees. Bake for 45-60 minutes (depending on size).


25 minutes after the start of the baking process, take out the cakes, turn them on the other side and cover them on top with either paper soaked in water or foil - this is necessary so that the tops are uniform and do not burn. The cakes are ready when the splinter used to check the degree of baking remains completely dry.

Let the cakes cool slightly under a towel and carefully remove them from the molds. Prepare the glaze: thoroughly grind the powdered sugar with the chilled egg white and lemon juice. Apply it to the Easter cakes and decorate them with confectionery sprinkles on top.

Advice from Passion.ru: along with raisins and candied fruits, you can add the zest of one lemon to the dough, as well as chopped nuts or pieces of chocolate (30-50 g of each).

Easter cake in a bread machine

If you don’t like fiddling with dough, and if you have such a wonderful thing at home as a bread machine, then you can simplify the preparation of Easter cake by entrusting it to this useful device. We are giving you an approximate recipe, since the process may differ in some nuances in different models of bread machines.

Ingredients:

Premium flour – 450 g,
Yeast (dry) – 2.5 teaspoons,
Butter – 100 g,
Eggs – 4 pcs.,
Sugar – 4 tbsp. spoons,
Vanillin – 1 teaspoon,
Lemon juice – 50 ml,
Salt – 0.5 teaspoons,
Candied fruits, nuts, seedless raisins - a full dispenser.

Preparation:

Lightly beat the eggs, mix with lemon juice and melted (slightly warm) butter, pour into the bread maker bowl. Pour sugar there, add salt and vanillin, then add sifted flour. Place finely chopped candied fruits and nuts in the additive dispenser; raisins (if small) do not need to be chopped. Pour the yeast into the yeast dispenser. Set the bread maker to the “Diet with raisins” (or “Bread with additives”) mode. A sound signal will notify you that the cake is ready.

Decorate the finished cake at your discretion - with glaze or egg whites whipped with sugar, as well as candied fruits and (or) confectionery topping.

Advice from Passion.ru: some models do not have a dispenser for additional additives; in this case, simply place nuts, candied fruits and raisins in the bowl along with the rest of the ingredients. If your bread machine does not have a yeast dispenser, then add it along with the other ingredients after adding the flour.

Easter pies


As a rule, you have to devote a lot of time to any Easter baking. We offer you a recipe for quick fried pies, which are prepared from a minimum set of ingredients.

The main secret of these products is the unity of the whole family. It’s so nice to make these pies “with the whole world”; in addition, each member of the household feels involved in the Easter tradition.

Ingredients for the dough (for approximately 45-50 pies):

Flour – 2 cups (faceted),
Eggs (medium) – 2 pcs.,
Sugar – 4 tbsp. spoons,
Vegetable oil – 2 tbsp. spoons into dough + for frying,
Sour cream – 4 tbsp. spoons (if thick) or 5-6 tbsp. spoons (if liquid),
Soda – 0.5 teaspoon,
Salt – 0.5 teaspoon.

Preparation:


Grind the eggs with sugar, add vegetable oil, salt, sour cream and soda. Stir well. Sift the flour into a bowl with the already mixed ingredients and knead a light dough.

Prepare 3-4 large plates, dust each with flour. Grease your hands with vegetable oil, divide the dough into 45-50 lumps the size of large cherries, roll each one between your palms and place the dough on one of the plates.

Then roll out the dough balls one by one with a rolling pin into circles with a diameter of 12-15 cm and stuff them. Place the formed pies on plates with flour and let stand for 5 minutes.

Heat a small amount of vegetable oil in a frying pan and immediately reduce the heat to medium. Fry the pies until golden brown (1-2 minutes on each side), adding a little oil as needed.

Filling options:


Traditional cottage cheese

Mix 2 packs of cottage cheese with 1 egg, 4 tablespoons of flour and a handful of seedless raisins. If desired, add 2-3 tbsp. spoons of sugar, vanillin, cinnamon or lemon zest.

Traditional rice

From half a glass of dry rice, cook steep porridge in milk, 5 minutes before readiness, add seedless raisins, a little sugar and a piece of butter. Cool to room temperature.

Traditional cabbage

Cut white cabbage (400 g) into thin strips and simmer in a mixture of milk and water. Drain the broth and squeeze the cabbage with a spoon, add 3 finely chopped eggs and 30 g of butter to the filling, add salt to taste. Add dill or green onions if desired. Let cool to room temperature.

Fish

Boil 300 g of salmon fillet in a small amount of water with the addition of salt and bay leaf, mash the fish with a fork and mix with 200 g of cold boiled rice. Add dill, salt and pepper. If desired, you can add finely chopped onions.

Easter buns


These Easter buns are not exactly a Russian dish, they are very popular in Catholic countries, but this is not a reason to refuse them, especially since they turn out delicious and, so to speak, thematic. The secret of their taste and aroma lies in the combination of dried fruits and spices.

Ingredients:

For the test:
Premium flour – 500 g + 2 tbsp. heaped spoons for dripping dried fruits,
Yeast (dry) – 15 g,
Milk (warm) – 200 ml,
Butter (melted) – 50 g,
Eggs (large) – 2 pcs. (yolks only)
Sugar – 100 g,
Salt – 0.5 teaspoons,
Cinnamon (ground) – 0.5 teaspoons,
Nutmeg (ground) - on the tip of a knife,
Raisins (seedless) – 100 g,
Dried apricots – 5-6 pcs.,
Prunes – 5-6 pcs.

For decoration:
Flour – 3 tbsp. spoons,
Milk – 3 tbsp. spoons,
Vegetable oil – 1 teaspoon.

For the glaze:
Powdered sugar – 4 tbsp. spoons,
Milk – 4 tbsp. spoons.

Preparation:


Wash and dry the dried fruits, cut the dried apricots and prunes into small pieces and roll in flour along with the raisins. Dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon of sugar in 200 ml of warm milk, leave until stable foam appears (for 15-20 minutes). Then pour the dough into a large bowl, add melted butter, lightly beaten yolks with sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.

Sift the flour in parts directly into the bowl, stirring the dough constantly. After this, knead it first separately for 10 minutes, then together with dried fruits. Leave to stand in an oven preheated to 50 degrees and turned off for 1.5-2 hours.

Divide the risen dough into equal balls, place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment (baking paper) and make cross-shaped cuts on them. Cover with a towel and let rise again (15-20 minutes).

During this time, 3 tbsp. Mix spoons of flour with the same amount of warm milk and 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil. Place the resulting mass in a bag, cut off a corner and apply this dough in the form of crosses to the cuts on the buns. You can use a pastry bag.

Place the baking sheet with the buns in an oven preheated to 180 degrees and bake for 25-30 minutes. After they are cooked, brush them with glaze: 4 tbsp. Mix spoons of hot milk with 4 tbsp. Using spoons of powdered sugar and a brush, apply the mixture to the baked goods.

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Easter baking is a great occasion to demonstrate your culinary skills to your family and friends and pamper them with delicious and beautiful dishes. And don’t forget that on Easter it is customary to treat not only friends and relatives, but also neighbors, so prepare as many Easter cakes, pies and buns so that there is enough for everyone.

Happy Easter to you!

Nadezhda POPOVA