Easter’s Breads
The symbolism of the Easter egg is obvious: rebirth, new life. But grains, being seeds, can have the same symbolism, and this may be why there are so many traditional Easter breads. Of course, pastries are a natural way of celebrating any holiday, but it is remarkable how many sweet Easter breads and cakes there are. Come to think of it, a lot of them contain eggs too.
In Western Europe--England, France, Scandinavia and the German-speaking countries--Christmas and the Tuesday before Lent (better known as Mardi Gras or Fasching ) are usually more prominent holidays than Easter, and the repertoire of Easter breads is relatively small. In Germany and Scandinavia, the breads tend to be like coffee cakes, often flavored with anise or raisins. In some places--such as Finland (where the classic Easter dish is a pudding of rye and molasses boiled together)--there are cakes with a sweetened cheese topping, an idea that also pops up in other Baltic countries and in Italy.
In Mediterranean countries and Eastern Europe, Easter is often the principal holiday of the religious year. Russia is famous for the splendor of its Easter celebrations, and the most famous Russian baked good has to be kulich , a surprisingly tall cylindrical cake often filled with nuts, raisins and candied fruits. It’s traditionally served with pashka , a sweetened mixture of cream, cottage cheese and eggs molded in the shape of a sort of flat-topped pyramid. Kulich is such an appealing cake that many nationalities neighboring Russia also make it (often, confusingly, calling it pashka or paska instead of kulich ).
In Poland, little rich cakes ( babki ) and cookies ( mazurki ) are traditional. In Transylvania, there’s an Easter bread that contains mashed potatoes as well as the usual flour, yeast, eggs and butter. The Szeklers, a Hungarian group living in Transylvania, celebrate with a nut-and-poppy-seed loaf.
The Czechs are particularly famous for beranek , a sweet, egg-enriched bread baked in a lamb-shaped mold. To complete the appearance of a lamb, the frosting is furrowed with a knife to imitate fleece, a whole peppercorn is placed in each eye and a ribbon put around the neck.
Arab Christians make maamoul , a sort of rich shortbread filled with nuts and shaped in carved wooden molds that put a geometric pattern on the surface. The Greeks and Armenians make a rich braided egg bread, often flavored with ground cherry stones ( mahleb ) and usually topped with nuts--sometimes with Easter eggs peeking out of the dough. Why the name of this bread-- tsoureki in Greek and choereg in Armenian--should come from Turkish is kind of a mystery, but the Greeks do also call it lambropsomo , which simply means Easter bread.
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All across northern Spain, from the province of Leon, which borders on Portugal, to the Mediterranean coast at Tarragona, people bake rich ring-shaped rolls called roscas or rosquillas , usually flavored with lemon or anise. In northeastern Spain, the tradition is rich cookies topped with meringue.
Italy may have the most Easter breads of all. In the area of Venice, they’re cookies ( fugassa ) for dipping in coffee or milk. In Emiglia-Romagna, bakers in the city of Ferrara make a sugared ring of puff pastry called brazedela. Cheesecakes are common, such as the honey-sweetened pizza pasqualina of Lazio (a cousin of it made in Naples includes wheat berries in the ricotta filling). The Sicilian Easter wreath may include hard-boiled eggs, like the Greek tsoureki .
Then there are the focaccia of Castelnuovo, a rich cornmeal bun with pine nuts, and the Ligurian torta pasqualina , a puff pastry tart filled with leeks, eggs and cheese. In southern Italy, a pizza topped with cheese and sausages is often made for Easter--much like a regular pizza except that it uses a sweet pastry instead of regular pizza dough.
Here is a little selection of Easter breads and cakes.
EASTER BISCUITS
In England, a biscuit is often what we’d call a cookie. These particular biscuits are light and actually a little like American biscuits, but full of raisin flavor. They’re a traditional treat for children on Easter Sunday. The recipe is from “Traditional British Cooking,” Audrey Ellis, 1986.
1 1/4 cups flour 1/3 cup rice flour 1 teaspoon mixed ground spices such as cinnamon, clove, ginger, allspice 1/2 cup butter 1/2 cup sugar 2 egg yolks 2/3 cup currants 1 to 2 tablespoons brandy or milk *
* Sift flour and rice flour into bowl with mixed spices.
* Cream butter and sugar together in separate bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks 1 by 1, then add currants. Work in flour mixture with enough brandy to make stiff paste.
* Turn dough out on floured surface and knead until smooth. Roll out 1/2-inch thick and cut into 3-inch rounds with fluted biscuit cutter.
* Place biscuits on buttered baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees until pale golden, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove, let stand on trays 5 minutes. Then cool on wire rack.
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Makes 1 dozen biscuits.
Each biscuit contains about:
176 calories; 80 mg sodium; 66 mg cholesterol; 9 grams fat; 22 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams protein; 0.25 gram fiber.
MINT-CHEESE TART
Flao de Pascuas is a specialty of the Spanish island of Ibiza (where the spoken language is Catalan; a Castilian would call this a flan). This recipe is adapted from Jackie Passmore’s “The Complete Spanish Cookbook.”
PASTRY 1 cup flour 1 tablespoon sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup butter 1 egg yolk 1 teaspoon lemon juice FILLING 1/4 pound firm cheese such as Swiss, Jarlsberg, Pecorino, grated 3 tablespoons sugar 5 eggs 1 tablespoon mint PASTRY
* Sift flour, sugar and salt together in bowl. Cut in butter until dough has texture of peas. Then mix in egg yolk and lemon juice. Knead to smooth texture.
* Line tart pan with dough and pierce all over. Bake at 425 degrees 8 minutes. Cool.
FILLING
* Cover dough with grated cheese and sprinkle with sugar. Break 3 eggs over cheese. Beat remaining 2 eggs with mint and pour over. Bake at 350 degrees until filling is firm and dry to touch and edges of pastry are golden, about 30 minutes.
Makes 8 servings.
Each serving contains about:
337 calories; 401 mg sodium; 226 mg cholesterol; 25 grams fat; 18 grams carbohydrates; 10 grams protein; 0.04 gram fiber.
EASTER DOVE
With its raisin and candied fruit flavoring, this is basically the usual Easter bread, but shaped roughly like a dove; hence its Italian name, colomba pasquale. You can also bake the same dough as a round bread. The recipe is from “Great Italian Desserts” by Nick Malgieri.
3/4 cup milk 1 package dry yeast 3 3/4 cups flour 3 large eggs 1 large egg yolk 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1/2 cup unsalted butter 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 teaspoon grated orange zest 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest 1/2 cup raisins 1/2 cup mixed candied fruit Powdered sugar *
Heat milk in saucepan to lukewarm. Remove from heat and whisk in yeast. Stir in 1 cup flour to make sponge and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until sponge doubles, 30 minutes.
Whisk eggs and yolk together in bowl. Whisk in sugar. Melt butter in saucepan, let cool, then whisk into eggs. Stir in salt, vanilla, orange zest, lemon zest, doubled sponge and remaining 2 3/4 cups flour. Beat by hand, or with paddle of mixer on lowest speed, until smooth, no more than 2 to 3 minutes. Beat in raisins and candied fruit.
Place dough in buttered bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled, 1 hour. Remove, deflate by folding dough over on itself several times on lightly floured surface.
Divide dough into 4 pieces and shape each piece into fat crescent. Place 1 crescent on top of another to make dove shape (lower crescent is wings). Repeat with remaining 2 pieces. Cover. Let rise until doubled, 1 hour.
Bake at 375 degrees until golden and firm, about 20 minutes. Cool on wire rack. Keep tightly wrapped in plastic wrap at room temperature, or freeze for later use. Dust with powdered sugar to taste before serving.
Makes 8 to 10 servings.
Each serving contains about:
447 calories; 190 mg sodium; 146 mg cholesterol; 15 grams fat; 69 grams carbohydrates; 10 grams protein; 0.69 gram fiber.
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Food styling by Donna Deane and Mayi Brady