TanyaThe meaning of Easter is the same for all Christians around the world. This is the holiest holiday that celebrates Christ’s resurrection. It’s also a time when unusual traditions abound. In the US and some other countries, we have an Easter bunny who carries decorated eggs and candy in a basket. France has winged bells that fly to Rome to bring back sweets for lucky kids. Germany decorates trees with hanging eggs and sets a large bonfire.
In old Byzantine lands and Russia, most Christians celebrate the resurrection of Christ on a different day, a week after Passover (Pesach), keeping the holiday closer to its original chain of events described in the New Testament. The Eastern Orthodox Church also uses a different name for celebration, calling it Paskha, which sounds close to Pesach (Passover).
Those, who celebrate Paskha, traditionally decorate eggs, bake kulichi (paschal bread) and paskha (curd cheese with eggs, vanilla, raisins, and spices) during a Holy week preceding Easter and take them to church on Great Saturday to be blessed, after Paschal Vigil. These traditional foods are eaten the next day, which is known as Paschal Sunday.
Kulichi and paskha are so traditional in Russia that in the 18th century Prince Vyazemski ordered the Church of Blessed Trinity to be built in St. Petersburg, where the church was designed in the shape of a kulich and the bell tower – in the shape of a pyramidal paskha.
Kulichi were baked in my family by both of my grandmas and my Mom. They didn’t take them to church for many reasons. As a small child, I didn’t like eating certain foods, but I always liked sweet holiday bread. The smell of dough, vanilla and spices are the smells of my childhood. The anticipation of the Paschal Day was associated with the joy of eating sweet and delicious kulichi.
I noticed that some folks express fear when it comes to baking kulichi. That phobia seems to be rooted in the poor quality of yeast. Yes, activating yeast is the beginning of the process and basically predicts the quality of the final product. There are three types of yeast available – fresh compressed, active dry yeast and fast-rising dry yeast. The third type is the easiest to use for beginners.
Greasing and lining the forms is also very important. Get the right brush and parchment paper. The last thing you want is to have your bread stuck in the baking form.
Kulichi are baked in tall cylindrical cans and are decorated with white icing and fruit or candy. There are many recipes of kulichi, but they all are similar to Italian panettone or other yeast-based sweet bread.
My recipe evolved from my Mom’s, who baked dozens of kulichi, cylindrical in form but of different sizes, using juice cans that she had been collecting during the year. They looked very cute.
For the dough, which should be very rich, I need four packages of active yeast, two cups of granulated sugar, three cups of milk, three eggs, and three egg yolks, two sticks of melted butter, vanilla, a pinch of cardamon, a half teaspoon of salt, ten cups of flour (or even more), two cups of ground walnuts and two cups of steamed raisins.
First, I activate the yeast in a cup of warm milk, a tablespoon of sugar and a little bit of flour. Then I let it rise.
In the meantime, I whisk eggs with sugar, add milk, vanilla, cardamom, salt, and I continue whisking until it gets smooth and homogeneous. Then I add yeast, milk and flour mixture and continue to mix. I add the flour, ground walnuts, raisins and a tbsp of rum, and mix again until I get the homogeneous dough that I want.
In an hour or two, I check my dough to see that it doubled in size. I punch down the dough and turn it over onto a large floured wooden board.
Then I grease the cylindrical forms of different sizes and fill the forms with dough. The forms should be only half full with the dough because it will rise again.
I bake the kulichi at 375F.
I remember Rachmaninoff’s “All Night Vigil” was played on Great Saturday in my home when I was a child, and I still have that LP. This year Sergei Rachmaninoff turned 146 years old on April First. Once again, he is a welcome guest in my kitchen, my temple, with “Vsenoshnaya” (All Night Vigil), or “Vespers”.
P.S. All the food featured in this post has been prepared and photographed by Tatyana Ushakova.
P.P.S. Title picture – Paskhal Table (1915) by Stanislav Zhukovsky
