In The Kitchen: Mom's Easter Bread

Originally posted on FineDiners.ca

Last year around this time my sister and I got together to do some Easter baking with the intention of writing up a post on our adventures for this site. As with many of my intentions for this site, this post kept slipping through the cracks and just didn’t end up getting written up in time for a proper Easter post, and now that it’s come back around again, I figure I ought to get something up.

Our family has Ukrainian heritage on our father’s side, and while we got to experience a lot of the wonderful Ukrainian Easter traditions through our Baba (grandmother) as we grew up, much of that has faded away as we’ve all grown into our own lives and adopted our own traditions. This delicious traditional Easter bread is a vestige of our heritage that has survived and been passed down. Our version turned out a touch lopsided, but it was yummy nonetheless!

Mom’s Easter Bread

¼ cup warm water
2 tsp dry yeast
½ cup sugar
1 tsp salt
4 cups flour
1 cup milk, room temperature
2 large eggs, well beaten
1/3 cup butter, melted
Glaze: 1 tbsp water
White from 1 large egg

Sprinkle the yeast on the ¼ cup warm water and leave for 3 minutes.
Add sugar, salt and 3 ½ cups flour.
Stir the yeast mixture; slowly pour into the bowl and stir in.

Add the 2 beaten eggs to the milk.
Slowly pour the milk, eggs and melted butter into the bowl.
Knead.
If the dough is very, very sticky, add the remaining ½ cup flour, a little at a time, until the dough is just a little sticky.

Place in bowl and brush all over with melted butter and cover with a damp tea towel.
Place bowl in oven with light on and let rise for 1 ½ hours.
Remove dough from oven and pound it on a floured board until it is flattened.

Divide the dough in half and roll each half into a rope about 28 inches long.
Twist the ropes loosely together, braid fashion.
Place the twisted dough on a greased cookie sheet and bring the ends together so they won’t separate during baking.
Return dough to oven with light on and leave for 40 minutes.

To Make the Glaze: Stir together the water and egg white.

Remove the dough wreath from the oven and brush it with the glaze. Heat oven to 325°F. Bake wreath on the middle rack for about 28 minutes.