Custard Easter cake

Custard Easter cake

One of my first culinary successes was Easter cake. And for good reason!

Praskovya Petrovna (my great-great-grandmother) lived in Kirovograd, and there is not far from the estate of Trotsky’s father, Bronstein. The estate was very rich and huge. Grandma Pasha was the Bronsteins' cook. But not an ordinary one, but a “snow-white cook”. She was paid all year for the fact that on holidays - Easter, Christmas or Trinity - or when guests arrived, she was called to the estate, and she prepared only a delicious, unique meal. Since that time, all the ladies in our family cook deliciously. Surely, this is somehow passed down through inheritance, especially since nothing else of value could be passed on. Grandmother spoke very well about Trotsky’s father, saying that he was a very generous and good person, no one could say anything disgusting about him. When she went home after the holidays, she was loaded with a whole cart of food. For Easter, she baked bucket Easter cakes in a Russian oven. She was considered the best in this business.

Her husband Alexey was a cabinetmaker: he made very precious and beautiful furniture for the entire town. For Easter, he knocked together a box, covered it with earth and sowed grass into it. By Easter the grass was rising: bright green, fresh. I think it was wheat. Then a large bucket cake was placed in the center of the box, which was covered with paints. It was indescribably wonderful!

One day on Easter, my grandmother got sick and sent her husband to bless Easter and Easter cakes for Matins. But he was not particularly religious and just went around the corner, sat and smoked, and when they started ringing after the service and people came back with blessed Easter cakes and Easter cakes, he brought everything home. 30 years passed, and my grandfather died during a famine. They had absolutely nothing to eat; even the parcels that daughter Matryona (my great-grandmother) sent from Moscow did not reach Ukraine. And dying, the grandfather admitted that he had not blessed the Easter cakes then. Grandmother was very worried, she believed that this is why he died - because he did not keep fasts, did not pray, did not believe, and, as it turns out, he injected himself. Praskovya herself was a deeply religious person. The local priest often came to visit her - he respected her very much. Great-great-grandmother died at the age of 113.

As I found out that Baba Pasha was such an expert in Easter dishes, I set out to find the recipe for the custard cake that she baked. Unfortunately, neither my mother nor my grandmother had anything like this, or preserved it. But I didn’t lose heart. I rummaged through a huge number of cookery books, and found a pre-revolutionary reprint with various recipes, but the one that Tom’s grandmother outlined was not found. Grandmother only said from memory that the recipe was very labor-intensive, custard-based and required a huge amount of yolks. In some places, deep down in my soul, I still did not give up hope that he existed.

And then, on the eve of Easter 1998, the husband was returning home by train and bought a newspaper from an old woman. It was there, in the section of old recipes, that I found what I found. When I started reading it, my heart immediately began to beat faster: “It’s him!”

Since then, we have been baking this Easter cake every Easter for almost 20 years.

This is a rather labor-intensive and expensive recipe, but after trying it at least once, you will no longer want to eat any other Easter cakes: the crumb comes out dark golden, fibrous (and not porous, like ordinary baked goods), and in terms of aroma it surpasses absolutely all Easter cakes, ever tried by me, because it contains cardamom and nutmeg.

1. Brew 200 g of flour with 2 glasses of bubbling milk, stirring rapidly with a wooden spoon until an elastic mass is obtained (mixture 1).
2. Dissolve yeast in 2 glasses of warm milk, mix with 200 g of flour, leave for 10 minutes. (mixture 2).
3. Combine consistencies 1 and 2, cover with a napkin and leave to rise in a warm space for 1 hour or more.

1. At this time, grind the yolks, sugar, and salt into a homogeneous mass, beat until white.
2. After an hour, add half of the filling to the dough, add 500 g of flour, knead and let rise for another hour.
3. Then pour out the remaining half, add 1 kg of flour and knead until it comes off your hands.
4. Pour warm liquid oil evenly into the finished dough, knead, add spices, cognac, let the dough rise.
5. After the secondary rise, settle the dough to its initial position, add 2/3 of the raisins and candied fruits, rolling them in flour earlier, and let the dough rise a third time.
6. Divide into Easter cakes (about 4 medium-sized ones), pour the dough into the molds up to half and let rise to 2/3 of the mold, coat the lid with yolk and bake for about 45 minutes. Before baking, you can stick a narrow splinter into the middle of the cake, then the dough will rise moderately and the lid will not “move off.”
7. The Easter cake is ready if the splinter removed to check is dry.

Traditionally, Easter cakes can also be baked for Anti-Easter

And here’s one more thing I’d like to say: according to tradition, Easter cakes can also be baked for Anti-Easter. Usually, those baked for the Resurrection are already finished.

When we lived in a village at a monastery, the nuns taught us to eat Easter cake with cottage cheese: Easter is spread on a slice of Easter cake, as usual on bread and butter. The result is a very harmonious taste. Below is an example of the most common Easter.

Easter raw royal

• 200 g butter
• 1 kg homemade cottage cheese
• half a liter of homemade sour cream
• zest of 1 lemon
• 500 g sweet powder
• 5 yolks
• vanillin

Grind the butter with little sugar (preferably with sweet powder) until white, adding the yolks one at a time, flavor with vanilla, add twice (don’t be lazy, this is important!) cottage cheese, sour cream and lemon zest, rubbed through a sieve. Mix thoroughly. Fill a bean bag lined with slightly moistened, clean gauze with the mass, cover with a saucer, load with a small pressure and put in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours (preferably 12) so that the mass hardens and takes shape. From time to time it is necessary to drain the whey from the plate on which your form is placed. It’s better not to throw away this whey - you can bake beautiful pancakes with it.

Yes, and if anyone is confused by the huge amount of protein that remains after making these dishes, then there is a recipe for meringues - protein cookies, very tasty and nutritious. Both children and adults eat this sweetness with pleasure after a long fast.

Easter custard cake

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• We will need:
• 360 ml milk (1.5 tbsp.)
• 5 eggs
• 230-250 g sugar (

1 tbsp.)

This is probably the most delicious cake that I ever baked (except for the ones that grandma baked, grandma’s are always tastier))! It is affectionate, soft, moderately sweet and does not go stale for a long time. Those with a sweet tooth can increase the amount of sugar. This amount of ingredients yielded 8 Easter cakes of various sizes.

How to cook Easter custard cake

Step-by-step recipe description

• Show as huge photos with description

1. Bring a glass of milk (250 ml) to a boil in a saucepan. Remove from heat, pour a full glass of flour into the hot milk and stir quickly (this can be done comfortably with a silicone spatula). Stir until the dough pulls away from the sides of the pan and becomes elastic.

2. In the remaining warm milk (

0.5 tbsp) dilute the yeast, add 100 g of sifted flour and leave to rise for 15-20 minutes.

3. Pour the yeast mixture into the choux pastry.

4. Stir. It is better to stir with a mixer with a dough attachment, because the choux pastry is very stiff. Cover with a towel or cling film and place in a warm space to rise for 1.5 hours.

5. Separate the yolks from the whites. Beat the yolks with sugar and salt until white.

6. Pour half of the yolk mixture into the risen choux pastry. Add one glass of sifted flour there, mix thoroughly and leave in a warm place to rise for 1 hour.

7. Soak the raisins in hot water for 15 minutes, then drain the water. Beat the egg whites until fluffy and melt the butter. Add beaten egg whites, remaining beaten yolks, raisins, vanilla sugar and melted butter to the risen dough. Stir and add approximately 3 cups (

500 g) sifted flour.
Don’t rush to add all the flour at once, the flour is different and you may need a little more or less. Unkneaded dough will be sticky.

8. The easiest way to knead the dough is with a mixer, hook attachment, or with your hands until the dough stops sticking to your hands. You need to knead with your hands for a long time, at least half an hour.

Custard Easter cake with yolks

I was intrigued by the choux method of making dough dough. Having searched the Internet for information, I found that, thanks to brewing, the starch in the flour is gelatinized and saccharified under the action of enzymes - in other words, the least amount of sugar is added to the choux pastry.

In addition, when brewing the dough, the baking properties of the flour improve, and the yield of the finished product increases slightly.

And the most important thing: the taste of the product improves: the baked goods acquire a special unique taste, have a dense, elastic thickness, while the crumb remains breathtakingly soft, silky, and has a fibrous structure.

The custard method is the most labor-intensive and requires more time for proofing, but it is the most delicious, and the cake does not go stale even longer.

This year I tried the custard method for the first time, I was very pleased with the inimitable taste and smell, so I’m happy to share the recipe. We will need:

Flour - 1 kg
Fresh compressed yeast - 50 g
Milk - 1.5 cups
Egg yolks - 10 pieces
Sugar 250 g Butter
- 200 g Raisins/candied
fruits - 100 g
Cognac - 25 g
Salt - a pinch
Vanilla (cardamom, citrus zest, etc.) P.)

Place the dough: mix 100 g of flour with 1 glass of milk (specifically, add milk evenly to the flour, and not vice versa - there will be fewer lumps), put the mixture on the stove and brew, stirring quickly with a wooden spoon until an elastic mass is obtained.

Dilute the yeast in 0.5 glass of warm milk and mix with 100 g of flour, leaving for 10 minutes. I added another pinch of sugar to the yeast.

Combine both mixtures, cover and place in a warm place for 1-2 hours until the dough rises. (With the custard method, lumps often form. This is considered normal. To get rid of them, you can rub the dough through a sieve or simply grind it with a spatula).

Grind the yolks, salt and sugar, and then beat until white.

Add half of the sugar-yolk mixture to the suitable yeast mixture, add 250 g of flour, knead well, let rise an hour before.

After an hour, add the second half of the sugar-yolk consistency to the dough, knead, evenly adding another 500 g of flour (maybe you will need less flour, because everyone has different properties of flour). Knead until the dough comes away from your hands.

Rub the melted butter evenly into the dough and knead well.
Add spices and cognac. Let the dough rise in a warm place.

Knead the dough, add steamed and dried raisins, rolled in flour. Give the test to come up.

Divide the dough into Easter cakes, form them into balls and transfer 1/3 of them into molds. Again let the dough come up in the forms.

Bake at 180 g until ready.
I got three small cakes and one medium one.

PS I added candied orange peels to the dough, the recipe is from here http://forum.say7.info/topic10654.html The candied fruits turn out incredibly fragrant, and baking with them accordingly.

And yet, I constantly add crushed cardamom kernels (2-3 buds) to Easter cakes. Indescribable spice! I don’t understand anything more fragrant than it. I use vanillin only for glaze.

Instead of cognac, I added saffron tincture (poured dry saffron with cognac and left for a number of days). Saffron slightly tints the dough yellowish.

I took a little liberties (due to lack of time) and reduced a couple of dough rises (I added the yolks and butter evenly in one go). But it’s better, of course, not to do it that way. What to create?

Culinary experts recommend letting the yolks sit before baking, even overnight (that is, in the dark) , then they will become yellower.

Kulich with choux pastry

Turkey with pumpkin in the oven

Pie for tea. Jellied lavash pie with cottage cheese

Cupcake “Zebra”

Potatoes with mushrooms in the oven. Potato Casserole / Gratin

Apple Pie with Sour Cream

• Easter

Delicious traditional custard cake according to grandma's recipe.
The Easter cake comes out tender, does not go stale for a long time and will be a striking decoration for the Easter table! Happy EASTER to you!

Ingredients

general information

Total production time

12 h

Active production time

4 h minutes

Complexity

Not easy

Number of servings

Step-by-step recipe with photos

Pour milk (250 ml) into a saucepan, stir and heat slightly (up to 35°C).
Pour 50 ml of warm milk into a separate bowl, add 1 tablespoon of sugar and stir.
Crumble the yeast into the milk, mix and leave in a warm place for 15-20 minutes. The yeast mixture should foam and rise like a cap.

Bring the remaining milk (200 ml) in the pan to a boil, quickly add the sifted flour (3 tablespoons), continuously stirring the dough with a wooden spoon, and brew the milk with flour.

Heat the cream (200 ml) in a saucepan and pour it into the brewed milk-flour mixture - stir the mixture until smooth.

Pour the yeast into the milk-cream-flour mixture that has cooled to body temperature and mix well.

Place the resulting dough in a warm space to rise.

Melt the butter and cool to body temperature.
Carefully separate the whites from the yolks.
Grind the yolks with sugar and vanilla sugar.
Beat the whites into a stiff foam so that they do not spill out when the bowl is tilted (beat the whites last, when you need to add them to the dough).

Add the yolks, mashed with sugar, into the risen dough, pour in the oil, add salt and mix the dough.

Add the beaten egg whites into the dough and mix gently from top to bottom.
Add sifted flour evenly to knead into a soft, elastic dough.

Advice. It is better not to add all the flour to the dough at one time. First, you need to add some flour to the dough, transfer it to the table, and knead, constantly dusting the table and the dough with a small amount of flour. In this way, the dough will be perfectly kneaded, will not absorb excess flour, and will not stick to your hands.

Grease the finished, well-kneaded dough with oil, place in a large bowl, cover with a towel or napkin and place in a warm space to rise.

Cut marmalade and marshmallows into cubes.
Wash dried apricots (if necessary, steam in boiling water for 10 minutes) and dry on a towel. Cut dried apricots into cubes or thin strips.

Advice. It is better to steam the dried apricots and cut them the day before - this will save your time.

Add dried apricots, marmalade, marshmallows into the risen dough and knead a little so that the ingredients added to the dough are moderately distributed.

Place the dough again in a warm space, covering it with a napkin.
Prepare the molds for baking Easter cakes: place an oiled circle of parchment paper on the bottom of the mold, grease the walls with vegetable oil and sprinkle with flour.

Advice. If you don’t have a special mold for Easter cakes, you can use tin cans of canned vegetables or fruits for baking (only cans covered with a protective snow-white film are not suitable - such cans are available from the Bonduelle office).
You can take jars of any size - the size of the jar will determine the size of the finished cake. Place an oiled circle of parchment paper on the bottom of the tin can, and grease the walls with vegetable oil and sprinkle with flour or breadcrumbs (if you are going to bake in tin cans, then you need to put an oiled circle of parchment paper on the bottom, and also line the walls of the jar with oiled parchment paper 5-10 cm above the edges of the jar and sprinkle with breadcrumbs - just try it on first so that the jars, along with the protruding paper, can be placed in the oven at a suitable level).

Place the risen dough into the prepared molds, occupying no more than 1/2-1/3 of the mold.

Let the dough rise again in the molds and brush the top of the cake with egg.
You can (but not necessarily) insert a long wooden stick into the middle of the cake - then the dough will rise, clinging to the stick, and the cake will be as even as possible.
Preheat the oven to 170-180°C in advance (the baking temperature is selected individually, depending on the characteristics of the oven).
Bake the cakes for 30-60 minutes (maybe longer).
Baking time depends on the temperature and size of the cakes. There is no need to open the oven for the first 15-20 minutes, otherwise the cakes may fall off.
Once the tops of the Easter cakes are perfectly browned (this will happen in 15-20 minutes), very carefully open the oven and cover the tops of the Easter cakes with circles of foil so that the foil completely covers the tops.
Carefully close the oven again and continue baking the cakes until done.
Readiness is checked with a wooden stick. If the stick comes out of the cake without traces of dough, it is ready.

Useful tips for baking Easter cakes.
To prevent the top of the cake from burning, after it has browned, you need to cover it with a circle of foil.
The readiness of the Easter cake is checked by inserting a narrow wooden stick into it: if the inserted stick is dry, then the Easter cake is ready, and if there is dough on it, the Easter cake is raw.
Carefully remove the finished cakes from the mold (be careful not to break them) and cool on a wire rack, covered with a clean cotton towel.
After cooling, the cakes can be coated with protein glaze.
Place the finished Easter cakes in a huge saucepan lined with a towel, cover with a lid and place in a warm space overnight (that is, in the dark) (for example, near a radiator) - the Easter cakes should ripen. Or wrap any cake in several layers of cling film and store it that way.

Happy Easter for you and bon appetit!

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