Paska Easter Bread is a sweetened buttery bread filled with lots of rum soaked raisins and white chocolate. Traditionally it is eaten on Easter, but can be made any time.
Do this 1 hour or up to 1 week before:
Add 1 cup of dried fruits to a jar or a bowl, then cover with about 1 cup of water, orange juice, cognac, rum, or a combination of liquids to submerge them.
Cover and set aside for at least 1 hour or up to a week. Refrigerate if not using right away.
Drain and pat dry with paper towels to remove all moisture from the outside before using in the recipe. Set aside or refrigerate.
Prep: Grease a large bowl with oil or nonstick spray and set aside.
Measure and prep all of the ingredients. For best results, weigh the ingredients using a kitchen scale.
Ensure your yeast is fresh and active by mixing the yeast (2 1/4 tsp) with milk (35 mls) before starting this recipe or if you're using dry yeast instead of instant dried yeast.
Leave the mixture in a warm place undisturbed for about 15 minutes. If the yeast foams up and rises, it is active and ready to use. Otherwise, do not start until you get a fresh batch of yeast.
Skip this step if you've baked with your instant yeast recently and are sure of the yeast's freshness.
Combine:
To a bowl of a stand mixer or a bread maker add the ingredients in the following order: 4 eggs, 1/2 cups of sugar, 1 tsp of vanilla, 2 tbsp + 1 tsp of milk or water and 2 1/4 tsp of yeast (or the yeast mixture from the step above) and 2 1/2 cups flour.
Give a quick stir with a spoon until roughly combined.
Knead:
Mixer: Fit the mixer with a dough hook and knead on low speed until it barely comes together. Then, turn up the speed to medium-low speed (speed 3 on a KitchenAid stand mixer) and continue kneading until the dough is stretchy, stops sticking to the sides of the bowl, and balls around the hook, about 10 minutes.
If using all-purpose flour, the dough will take much longer to come together (about 20 minutes).
Bread maker instructions: Choose the 1 ½ hour dough cycle for a 2 lb white bread loaf.
DO NOT ADD ANY MORE FLOUR - it's OK if the dough is slack initially. As you continue kneading it will hold shape better, but still should not be firm. The texture of the dough should be very soft and stretchy, but it should not run through your fingers like batter. If it does, add 1-2 tablespoons of flour at a time until it gets to proper consistency.
Add butter and salt:
Add 12 tablespoons of cold cubed butter in two additions, and continue kneading until the butter is fully incorporated, about 5-10 minutes. See tips below for when to stop kneading.
Tip: You might have to break the dough into small chunks to make the incorporation with the butter easier.
If mixing in the bread maker: add the butter when the bread maker beeps about 20 minutes into the cycle, which indicates that any additions can be made (in our case we are adding butter).
Stop mixing when the dough passes the window pane test.
Windowpane test - Take a walnut-sized piece of dough, flatten it out, then slowly stretch until you can make a very thin and almost translucent window. If the dough tears instead of getting thin and transparent continue kneading until it gets to this stage. It might take more or less time depending on many factors. Go by the windowpane test and not the time.
Once the dough looks satiny, shiny, smooth and doesn't stick to the walls of the bowl it's done kneading.
Add 1 cup of rehydrated but well-drained and paper towel-dried fruits, 1 tbsp orange zest, and 3/4 cup white chocolate chips to the dough. Knead until fully incorporated. Do not aggressively mix, or the fruit color will bleed and color the dough.
Rise and chill: Transfer the dough to the greased bowl and allow it to rise at room temperature for 1 hour or until it is almost doubled in size.
Tip: To aid in proofing or rising of the dough preheat the oven to 250F for 2-3 minutes, then turn off the heat and place the bowl with the dough in the oven. Ensure that the oven is not hotter than 100F, or the extreme heat will kill the yeast and now allow the dough to rise.
Then cover and chill for at least 4 hours or up to 2 days. Only skip the refrigeration if you are really tight on time. The prolonged fermentation aids in the flavor and texture of the Easter bread.
Divide between the molds
If the dough is strong, it's easy to divide and shape it right now. If the dough is too soft to shape right now, refrigerate and then divide and shape for the molds.
Remove from the fridge and shape. Punch down the dough and shape it into a round ball by tucking edges of the dough all around under itself until the top looks nice and smooth.
Place inside the large 6 or 7-inch round and tall Panettone mold.
Or divide the dough between two 5-inch Panetone molds.
For mini Easter breads, divide the dough between the 3 lined with parchment paper (see pix) 32 oz cans with both ends removed.
Or divide between 9-12 small two inch round paper molds.
The dough should fill the molds about halfway.
Proof: Allow the dough to proof until it is doubled in size. To create a warm environment repeat the trick with preheating the oven to 250F for 2-3 minutes, then turn it off and place the molds with the dough in there. The oven shouldn't be hotter than 100F.
Once doulbed in size, lightly brush the tops with whisked yolk.
Place in a preheated to 350F oven and bake until the inside registers 190F degrees and the tops are golden in color. If the dough browns too fast, loosely tent the top with foil.
Bake time: times are approximate as each oven is different
For the 6-7 inch round molds - 55-65 minutes.
For 5 -nch molds - 40 minutes
For the 3.5-inch round molds - 35 minutes.
The 2-inch round molds will take about 20 minutes.
While the bread is baking, make the glaze (directions below) and cover it with plastic wrap to prevent a film from forming.
Remove the baked Easter Bread from the oven and allow it to cool completely. If you wish, you can skewer the bottom of the baked in a paper mold Easter bread with two 12-inch skewers, invert it upside down and allow it to cool.
Then, cover with glaze by spreading some of the powdered sugar glaze on top with a spoon or spatula, or dipping the smaller paska bread tops into the glaze. Sprinkle the sprinkles on top, if desired.
Combine 1.5 cups powdered sugar, 1 egg and 1 tsp of lemon juice in a mixer and whip until the mixture is thick, but still flows in slow, lava-like motion, about 5-7 min. You can take a spoonful and allow it to drizzle down the inside of the bowl, if it flows down slow, leaving a nice drizzle, you can stop whipping. If not, just continue whipping until it's proper consistency.
Here are the recommended fill weights for each size mold.
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