Easter Cake / Паска з в’яленою журавлиною
Ingredients
Preparation Time: 2.5–3 hours
Serves: 4 people
Paska is an essential attribute of Easter celebrations. It is baked at home or purchased from stores, restaurants, or fairs. There are many recipes for baking paska, but the best is considered to be paska made from white wheat flour, light and fluffy, with the addition of raisins, nuts, spices, and candied fruits.
For Easter cake (dough):
1 kg sifted wheat flour
310g milk
6 eggs
300g butter
300g sugar
50g fresh yeast
1 tsp salt
150g raisins
75g hazelnuts
75g dried cranberries
1 tsp vanilla extract
Zest of 1 lemon
For the icing:
2 egg whites
300g powdered (icing) sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice
Method
Mash the yeast a little, add 1 tbsp of sugar and gradually pour in warm milk, stirring constantly.
Add 150 g of flour and knead the dough (the consistency of the dough is like pancakes). Cover the dough with a towel and put it in a warm place for 30 minutes until it has increased in volume by 2 times, and add salt.
Separate the yolks from the whites. Put the whites in the fridge, whisk the yolks with the rest of the sugar and vanilla, gently add to the dough and mix.
Add the remaining sugar to the dough and mix.
Add the lemon zestand the melted, but not hot, butter and mix well.
Add the roasted and finely chopped hazelnuts, then the beaten egg whites, the rest of the flour, raisins and cranberries.
Knead the dough and put it in a warm place to double in size 2 times. Knead it, put it into the tin and let it rise again, then brush it with egg yolk and bake it at 180-200°C for 30-50 minutes, depending on the size of the tin.
For the glaze, beat the egg white and icing sugar with the lemon juice for 3-5 minutes.
To make the raisins and cranberries better distributed in the dough, dry them and roll them in a rolling pin.
