Easter buns

Easter buns in the shape of nests will perfectly and originally decorate your festive table. They are very convenient to use when setting the table for serving Easter eggs. And, naturally, the buns turn out to be very tasty, soft and fragrant.

Ingredients

Manufacturing stages

Dissolve 2 tablespoons of sugar and yeast in half a glass of warm milk, add 2 tablespoons of flour, mix thoroughly and place the dough in a warm space to rise.

After 20 minutes, the dough will double in size and bubbles will appear on the surface. This means that the dough is ready.

Grind the melted but not hot butter with the egg, remaining sugar, vanilla sugar and salt. Pour in the second half glass of milk and stir.

Combine the dough with a butter-milk consistency, stir until smooth and begin adding flour evenly.

Add flour in small portions, immediately mixing it into the dough. You may need more or less flour, depending on its properties.

The dough must be thoroughly kneaded. It should turn out soft, elastic, not sticky. Roll the dough into a ball, place in a bowl, cover with a clean towel and place in a warm space for 1-1.5 hours.

During this period of time, the dough should rise perfectly and significantly increase in volume, at least 2 times.

Let's start making buns. To do this, divide the dough into small pieces and roll into flagella.

Connect two flagella and twist them into a spiral. Connect the ends of the spiral to form a ring. Place the buns on a baking tray lined with baking paper and greased with butter. Place boiled eggs in the middle. Because this was the first time I baked such buns with boiled eggs, I decided to play it safe and, in addition to the boiled eggs, I used ordinary glass shot glasses, wrapping them in foil and greasing them with butter. It must be said that the 2nd option turned out to be the most successful.

Brush the top of the buns with egg and sprinkle with brown (or regular) sugar. Leave for another 20 minutes for the buns to rise. During this period of time, preheat the oven to 220 degrees.

Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake the buns for 20-25 minutes. The Easter buns should have a nice golden color.

Transfer the buns from the baking sheet to a wire rack, cool, and remove the stacks. The eggs can be thrown in for decoration, but after baking they become inedible.

English cross buns for Easter

Dear friends, I’m in a hurry to blog with a brand new recipe that amazed us all and which we even showed at a master class in Moscow! Easter cross buns come from the UK, where they are classic and simply brilliant! They are soft, tender, rich, sweet, dressed up like Easter cakes, but they actually contain half as much baking! Imagine, less sugar, less butter and eggs, but you can’t even tell)) And to make these buns even more exciting, we replaced some of the white flour with whole grain flour. If you wish, you can increase the content of zz, focusing on your own taste and the individuality of whole grain flour: the dough with it ferments faster, relaxes faster and can float, especially with weak molding.

We filmed this recipe not at home, but while visiting Oleg and Olga Shelekhov in their dacha-homey wood-fired bakery in a cheerful company of baker friends. It was a very friendly, joyful and cool shoot, we will be happy to repeat it))

If you remember, the blog already has a recipe filmed at the Shelekhov bakery - sourdough honey scones . Take a look, if you haven’t seen it, very tasty scones and a wonderful video))

For sourdough

150 gr. premium wheat flour;

15 gr. mature sourdough starter or Sekowa starter .

Stir the sourdough in water, add flour, stir until thoroughly moistened, cover with film or cover with a lid, ripening time 12-14 hours at 22-23° for ordinary sourdough and at 27-30° for Sekowa .

Dough:

Whole starter (300 gr.)

150 gr. whole grain wheat;

100-125 gr. milk (if the dough is very tight, add more!);

75 gr. butter;

50 gr. yolk (from 2-3 eggs);

3-5 gr. ground cardamom or a mixture of spices for gingerbread and adits, or completely without spices;

Zest of 1 medium lemon;

50 gr. candied orange peel;

150 gr. raisins (or just 200 grams of raisins).

Dough yield: 1185 gr., cutting into 75-80 gr.

For crosses:

Mix and pour into a pastry bag with a small hole or a strong bag.

For the syrup:

Mix and cook until sugar dissolves.

Process:

Raisins for 5 minutes. pour boiling water, drain, cool, add finely chopped candied fruits (if using), zest and spices, stir.

Make fresh flour if you have a mill. Oleg and Olya have a Hawos Billy200 with a power of 600 W. Arthur and I have much smaller mills - Hawos Queen1 and Hawos Oktini , the power of our mills is only 360 W, but for household needs it is more than enough

Autolysis. Mix the starter, yolks, milk and flour until smooth, leave for 30 minutes for autolysis so that the coarse particles of whole grain flour and wheat protein swell.

Traditional Easter bun and PP Easter cake. Tips and secrets of a pastry chef

Easter is that time when even skeptics encourage religious traditions and are not averse to biting off a piece of fragrant Easter cake. On the eve of the big holidays, Minskhlebprom shared with us the secrets of making traditional Easter bread and tips on how to bake a low-calorie Easter cake without harming your figure.

“Yeast bun is very capricious”

Any day now, a truly busy time will begin at Minsk Bakery No. 3: the production of Easter cakes will begin. The plant bakes up to 9,000 buns in eight hours. Process engineer Natalia Velentsevich emphasizes: in order for the cakes to come out, the baking area must be prepared in advance.

— Yeast buns are very capricious. She doesn't like dryness, doesn't like cold. Therefore, it is necessary to warm up the room in advance, increase the humidity, and morale the workers. After all, the main ingredients are a bright soul and a good mood,” Natalia smiles.

Natalia Velentsevich, process engineer at Minsk Bakery No. 3, multiple winner of the Minsk Master confectionery competition, winner of the gold medal at the 2018 Global Culinary Cup in Luxembourg.

“First, for the Easter cake, mix the dry ingredients: flour, dry yeast, dry milk, salt, sugar, vanillin,” says Natalia. — An important detail: all ingredients must be approximately the same temperature. It is not allowed to combine cool sugar with warm flour, because the future cake will not like it.

After the dry ingredients are mixed, softened butter and eggs are added, or, as confectioners call it, melange. Temperature is also important here: the watery components of the dough should be warm, but not hot.

The dough is mixed for approximately 20 minutes: during this period of time, the ingredients are moderately distributed among themselves. The technologist is nearby and controls the entire process.

After this, the dough is thoroughly kneaded and raisins are added. It is steamed in warm water in advance so that it is “filled” and sweet in the buns. At this step, they also monitor the temperature: cool raisins should not be added.

When the dough is kneaded, it is sent for fermentation: it will rise for approximately 40-50 minutes, surrounded by warm air and high humidity. Then it is painstakingly kneaded, cut and formed into “koloboks”. According to Natalia, almost everything here depends on who exactly is handling the test.

- Even at home, one housewife can simply manage with yeast breads, while another one just doesn’t succeed. This is the mysticism of the hands that is difficult to explain. That’s why we only have a few dough mixers at our factory, but these are the people who really “feel” the material.

The “Koloboks” are sent to the mold, and the mold is sent to a warm room so that the Easter cakes have a little rest and come up. After that they are put in the oven for 30-40 minutes.

The Easter cakes are ready, all that remains is decoration: the top is covered with sweet fondant and decorated. Here the master’s imagination can be unlimited: flowers made of mastic, sweet beads, large figures. Also now Minsk Bakery No. 3 makes a lot of Easter buns with 3D printing: such Easter cakes are popular due to their ease of carrying, because the decorations will not get wrinkled in the bag.

How to create low-calorie Easter cake?

The two main “sources” of calories in Easter cake are wheat flour and sugar. Therefore, for those who are saving their figure, Natalia allows them to replace regular flour with whole grain flour, and sugar with honey and dried fruits.

From such a bun you should not expect the same fluffiness as from a traditional Easter cake: due to the cottage cheese, the dough will turn out “languid” and wet, but not the least tasty.

Low-calorie Easter cake recipe

Ingredients:

warm water - 40 ml;
whole grain flour - 1 tbsp. l.;
skimmed milk powder - 3-4 tbsp. l.;
honey - 1 tsp;
live yeast - 20 g;

whole grain flour - 2 cups;
soft low-fat cottage cheese - 150 g;
honey - 3 tbsp. l.;
salt - 1/4 tsp;
yolk - 2 pcs.;
protein - 1 pc.;
zest of half an orange;
dried fruits - 0.5 cups;
vanillin;

protein - 1 pc.;
honey - 2 tsp;
lemon juice - a few drops.

Manufacturing:

1. First, prepare the dough. To do this, mix all the ingredients and grind thoroughly. Lumps may form from powdered milk, but you don’t have to pay attention to this.

2. Wrap the dough and send it to a warm space for 15 minutes. The mass should foam and thicken.

3. Beat the yolk, white and honey in a blender until snow-white.

4. Add cottage cheese, zest, vanillin, dough and mix for another 3-4 minutes in a blender. After changing the knife to the dough attachment, add whole grain flour and leave to mix for 10 minutes. Add flour evenly to monitor the viscosity of the dough: it does not have to be very stiff.

5. Add dried fruits. In our case, it's dried cranberries.

6. Transfer the mixture into the mold, filling it no more than halfway.

7. We send the future Easter cake to a warm space for one hour. An oven preheated to 40 degrees is suitable. When the bun has grown, put it in the oven, preheated to 170-180 degrees for 40-50 minutes.

8. For the glaze, beat the egg whites with honey and lemon juice. Coat the top of the cake with the prepared mixture and sprinkle with dried fruits.

We invite those who do not have time to make Easter products to purchase Minskhlebprom products in company stores and shops in your town.

Easter cakes: a selection of recipes

Kulich "Traditional"

Ingredients:

Milk – 500 ml.,
Flour – 1 kg.,
Butter – 200 g.,
Sugar – 300 g.,
Raisins – 250 g.,
Vanilla sugar – 1 tsp,
Egg - 6 pcs., Dry yeast - 12 g (if regular - 50 g),
Salt – 1 pinch.

Manufacturing:

If the yeast is dry, then mix it with 500 g of flour and add to warm milk, kneading the dough. If the yeast is ordinary, then first dissolve it in warm milk, then add 500 g of flour, also kneading the dough. Cover the container with a towel and place in a warm place for 30 minutes until the dough has doubled in size.
During this period of time, we separate the whites from the yolks. The yolks must be ground until white with the indicated amount of sugar. Beat the whites into a stiff foam.
To the suitable dough you need to add the yolks with sugar, salt, mix well, add softened (not melted) butter, knead. Gently fold in the egg whites in portions, thoroughly kneading the dough.
Add the remaining sifted flour in portions, completely knead the dough, cover it again with a towel and put it in a warm space for 1 hour. The dough should rise approximately 2 times. During this period of time, prepare the raisins: sort, rinse, and pour boiling water for 10-15 minutes. Then we wash it again and dry it with a towel or napkin. Sprinkle raisins with flour and stir.
Add raisins to the risen dough, mix everything well again and set aside for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the molds: grease them with olive or butter, lightly sprinkle with flour or semolina.
Pour the dough into the molds: they should be 1/3 full. Leave the dough in the molds for another 10 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 100°C. Lightly grease the dough in the molds with yolk (leave the whites for glaze) and place in the oven. Keep at this temperature for no more than 10 minutes, then increase the temperature to 180°C and bake the cakes until ready (45–50 minutes). Do not open the oven door during baking. We check readiness with a match or a wooden stick; the dough should not stick to it.
Making the glaze. Beat the whites into a stiff foam, add sweet powder, beat again. Cover the finished hot cakes with the finished glaze using a pastry brush or knife, sparingly greasing the top. Sprinkle confectionery sprinkles onto the fresh glaze.

Cottage cheese cake without yeast

Ingredients (for 2 molds):

2 testicles.,
A pinch of salt.,
Sugar – 200 g.,
A pinch of vanilla.,
Cottage cheese – 180 gr.,
1 teaspoon baking powder.,
Flour – 150 g.
Raisins or other dried fruits - to taste.

Manufacturing

Using a mixer, beat the eggs with salt. Continuing to knead, add sugar in portions. The result should be a snow-white creamy mass. Add vanilla, cottage cheese and beat again.
Combine baking powder with flour and gradually add the mixture into the curd mass. Beat the dough with a blender, add dried fruits and mix. Distribute the dough into the molds and place it in an oven preheated to 180°C for 45–50 minutes.

Kulich "Creamy"

Ingredients (for 12 servings, you can make half as much):

Drink – 1 l.,
Sugar – 5 glasses,
Flour – 2 kg.,
Testicles – 8 pcs.,
Butter – 400 g.,
Vegetable oil – 2 tbsp. spoons,
Dry yeast – 3 tbsp. spoons,
Sour cream – 200 g.,
Vanillin – 0.33 teaspoons.
For icing for 1 cake:
Tangerines – 3 pcs.,
Sugar – 200 ml.,
Vanilla sugar – 10 g.

Manufacturing:

Add sugar to a warm drink, then add yeast.
Sift 2 cups of flour into it and mix well. Place the dough in a warm space.
Separate the whites from the yolks and beat them until foamy.
Grind the yolks with the remaining sugar.
By this time the cap should rise on the dough. Add sour cream to it.
Add oil, mix.
Add the yolks with sugar and mix.
Add the whipped whites and mix.
Add sifted flour in parts. Grease your hands with vegetable oil and knead the dough.
Add raisins (they need to be soaked in boiling water in advance, dried and rolled in flour). Cover with a towel and place in a warm space.
When the dough has risen, knead it and add vanillin.
Place 1/3 full in greased pans.
When the dough has risen approximately 3/4 of the way, you can bake for 30 0 minutes at 180 degrees.
We make the glaze when the cakes are ready, because... she quickly freezes. Squeeze the juice from the tangerine, add sweet sand and vanilla sugar. Beat the juice with sugar and put on fire. Cook, stirring constantly, until slightly reduced. Drizzle glaze over the cake.

Chocolate cake in a slow cooker

Ingredients:

Chicken eggs – 2 pcs.,
Sugar – 1 glass,
Butter – 130 g.,
Drink – 1 glass,
Baking soda – 0.5 tsp,
Wheat flour - 2 cups,
Raisins – 7 tbsp. spoons,
Cocoa powder – 2.5 tbsp. spoons,
Vanilla sugar - to taste

Manufacturing:

Sift the flour so that the cake comes out fluffy.
Melt the butter.
Grind sugar with eggs.
Add flour, cocoa, raisins, soda, drink, butter and knead the dough. You can use a blender.
Pour the purchased dough into the multicooker bowl, greased in advance with oil. Set the “Baking” mode for 50-60 minutes.

Easter cake with nuts

Ingredients:

Wheat flour – 500 g.,
Fresh yeast – 30 g.,
Milk – 180 g.,
Butter – 100 g.,
Yolks – 5 pcs.,
Raisins 70 g.,
Walnuts – 70 g.,
Lemon zest – 1/2 tsp,
Nutmeg – 1/4 tsp,
Cardamom – 1/4 tsp,
Sugar – 100 g.
Cognac – 2 tbsp. l.,
Salt – 1/4 tsp,
Vanillin - on the tip of a knife.

Manufacturing:

Let's prepare the dough. To do this, heat the milk so that it is warm. Crumble the yeast into it, add 1 tbsp. l. sugar and a third of the flour, stir until smooth and place in a warm space for 20 minutes.
Beat the yolks until white with sugar. Add vanillin, cognac and melted butter to them, stir until smooth.
Add the resulting mass to the dough. Stir, add zest, spices and remaining flour, mix well.
Let the dough rise in a warm space for about an hour, the size should increase by 2-2.5 times. Punch down the risen dough and mix in raisins and 3/4 chopped walnuts.
Place in the molds, filling them to a maximum of halfway. Leave for 30 minutes. Brush with egg and sprinkle with remaining nuts.
Bake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for 35 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 160 degrees and bake for another 25 minutes.
Remove the cake from the mold, sprinkle the top with sweet powder and place on a wire rack to cool.

Easter cake, serving option. Photo used as illustration