Pascha, Again (the bread, not the holy day)

My first attempts at breadmaking back in 1982 after my first son was born were pitiful indeed. I always maintained that if I had kept all those bricks (for I would only use one hundred percent whole wheat flour, not the best way to learn breadmaking), I could have constructed a small house.

The recipe below restored my confidence and set me on my way to baking acceptable bread for my family. (In my pre "working" days, the only bread in my household was homemade bread). To the scorn of my husband, I decided to create all of the items for the traditional Eastern Orthodox Easter basket, even though I married into the faith and had never seen--much less eaten--any of the creations I was attempting.

The advantage of not knowing how to cook, for I did not when I got married, is that all recipes, even the easy ones, are hard. Therefore, I tried them all, from packagaed macaroni and cheeese to homemade pierogies and poticas. No elation compares to finally seeing--after many months of failure--your first dough rise up, up, up, and over the bread bowl.

The recipe below is the family recipe from my very good friend Walter Bernadyn (deceased). After I'd given a loaf to my great-grandmother-in-law Eva Horkey (also deceased), to my great delight, she telephoned raving about the bread. No one, she declared, had ever made bread that good since her mother had baked it.

Oh, yeah, I was in!

PASCHA (Easter Bread)

 

Makes 4 round loaves

3 cups scalded, or enough scalded milk added to whey from hrutka to make 3 cups
 ½ tsp salt
6 beaten eggs
½ cup lukewarm water
½ cup sugar
1 cup melted butter
½ large cake of yeast, or 2 packages of dry yeast
 12 to 14 cups flour

 

 In a large bowl, combine milk, sugar, salt, butter and cool until lukewarm. Save 2 tablespoons of the eggs and add the rest to the milk mixture. In a separate bowl, crumble yeast in water and let stand for 10 minutes. Combine the two mixtures. Add flour, 2 cups at a time, until the dough can be handled.

 Knead on a floured board for 15 minutes. Place dough in a greased bowl, grease the top, rise in a warm place for 1 ½ hours. Punch down; rise a second time for 45 minutes.

 Reserve some of the dough and then shape the rest into 4 balls and place into greased casserole pans. Use leftover dough to encircle the bread with braids and to top the bread with triple bar crosses and the letters IC XC NI KA (Jesus Christ conquerors). Let rise. Add a little milk to the 2 tablespoons of eggs and brush the tops of the balls. Bake at 325 degrees for one hour. Brush with melted butter.