I know you might be wondering why i’m making a Easter bread more than a month after Easter. Well that’s because on the Russian calendar, Easter is today! Not complaining though, being part Russian means that every year i get to celebrate Easter twice.
This year, my dad has been probing me to make one of his childhood favourites - Kulich. A sweet, domed shape yeast bread topped with icing, sprinkles and filled with some dried fruits (raisins & sultanas). He said that when he was younger, his grandmother used to make it for him all the time and always wanted to taste it again. Sadly, after moving to Singapore, no Russian grocery shop could sell it the same way he remembered it, straight out of his Grandmothers kitchen in Russia. Even when he tried to make it at home by himself, he always ended up with super dense, flat breads, nothing like what it was meant to be either.
Finally, ever since I’ve gotten into the baking biz, my Dad started seeing this as a opportunity for him to relieve his sweet childhood memories, and has been nudging me to recreate his favourite treats once again. Thankfully, when I made this, he said it tasted pretty similar to the ones his grandmother used to make!
If you wanna get a taste of this delicious Russian bread but don’t have the time to take the 18 hour plane flight, 1 day 1 night train followed by a long 1 hour drive into my grandparents house back in Shihani, Russia, then you need to try out this recipe by yourself!
Name : Kulich (Russian Easter bread)
Description: Sweet, domed shape yeast bread filled with juicy raisins and topped with a generous coating of icing with rainbow sprinkles.
Flavour Rating: 7/10 (to truly depends on what oyu are looking for, i mean it tastes authentic but I wouldn’t choose it as my personal favourite dessert when given other options like red velvet cake or chocolate chip cookies. I’m pretty sure my dad has a very different opinion though! )
Difficulty rating: 5/10 (its honestly not hard to make, hardest part comes from the, wait for it….6 hour resting time… yeah might wanna start making this in the morning)
Occasion: Russian easter (Paska)
For this blog I will be covering mainly 3 things, the difference between Kulich and Panettone, some tips on how to deal with the rising time of this bread and lastly how i took pictures of this treat!
Difference between Kulich and Panettone
While these two breads do look pretty similar to each other, trust me (and my father) these are quite different in taste and texture!
Texture :
Kulich is typically denser than panettone, weighing considerably more. On the other hand, panettone has a lighter, airier texture due to its long fermentation process.
Sweetness :
Kulich is often flavoured with vanilla with a slight hint of sweetness from the actual bread base, packing most of the delicious sugary delight in the icing and sprinkles slathered on the top. In contrast, Panettone is less sweet, with the main source of sweetness coming from the natural sugars in the candied fruits and zest.
Occasions :
Kulich, as i have mentioned quite a few times above, is eaten during Orthodox Easter in Russia. It is also a common gift exchanged between friends and family. Panettone is originated from Italy and is usually eaten and also given as gifts during Christmas celebrations, thats why you might often see stacks of panettone in the grocery shop as December rolls around.
Eaten with… :
Kulich is usually eaten with pashka (a sweet cheese spread) while Panettone is eaten with a glass of Spumante or wine (can be substituted with Ribena for my other underaged friends HAHA)
To fully celebrate this holiday as its meant to, i decided to also share some of this goodness with my mom’s childhood friend (or as i call her, Auntie Elaine), because recipes for these large domed breads often make enoguh for your entire family plus a couple others as well. Yes Russians take these traditions of gift giving this sweet bread so seriously that any recipe you find online will never make enough only for one. Tips and tricks on rising of the bread
Now i know i know, rising of bread sounds like such a weird confusing thing. In no other baked good do you have a practically growing and alive batter that needs time to like hibernate or sleep in a warm environment so that it can double in size and grow fluffier. This can seem pretty daunting to many (aka me about a year ago) but i actually realised its not that complicated, you just need to learn some tips.
Yeast:
The special ingredient here that helps the bread dough rise so much and double in size is the yeast! Yeast is practically a single-celled living organism that transforms sugar and starch into carbon dioxide, causing bread to rise. It also has a special yeasty taste which is practically like the taste of a good plain bread. So if you like bread, it means you like the taste of yeast LOL.
Now it might be useful for you to know some facts about yeast before using it because its practically one of the most basic, important ingredients, if you can’t get it right then you can’t make bread! (Cough cough, dad you should probably be reading this so that you can make taller and less dense Kulich by yourself)
Storage of yeast - it should be stored in a airtight container in a fridge. Any exposure to air and moisture will shorten the lifespan of the yeast and cause it to spoil, so keeping it outside in your room temperature kitchen is not a option (especially in Singapore please)
Two types of yeast - Active dry yeast and Rapid rise yeast. There are differnet types for different purposes and you need to make sure you are buying and using the right type correctly. If not, yet again your bread dough will stay sad and small )):
Active dry yeast needs to be dissolved and bloomed in warm water right before using
Instant yeast can be mixed direclty into the dry ingredients
I personally typically use instant yeast because its just easier that way! You can chose whichever type you want though, just make sure that you know the difference and work with the one you are most familiar with
Storage bowl for dough during the rise:
Be prepared for your dough to really double in size.
During this process, the dough needed to rise in 3 separate periods, for 2 hour intervals each. At the start the dough was pretty small, so when i put it into my bowl it looked like there was enough space. But as you imagine, if the dough increases by double the size each time, by the end of three rises, the dough is a whole lot bigger than the first time and your bowl, which definetly will not increase in size along with your dough, will still have to be big enough to hold that tripled size of dough.
I had to learn that the hard way because during my second proofing time, i went out for lunch happily leaving my dough at home to rise by itself. When i came home two hours later, i saw a scene that didn't look very pleasant.
Yeah, it looked like there was a mini bread explosion in my kitchen. Pro was that i knew my yeast was working well and my bread was gonna be fluffy. Con was that I now had 30 minutes of cleaning and scrubbing up to do.
Finding the right amount of time for proofing dough:
The rising time for bread dough is usually just a rough approximation. The best gauge you can get on when your bread dough is done rising is through looking at its size. As long as its doubled in size, it’s done!
If you solely rely on the timing that is given on a recipe, you could face the risk of
Under proofing your dough - it will be quite tight and gummy since it wasn’t given enough time to develop and trap CO2 gasses, crumb structure will be dense and there will be uneven air bubbles (some small and some very big). When baking, the loaf will continue to rise once the crust has begun to form, this also causes there to be ripping and bursting on the sides and the overall shape will be uneven.
Over proofing your dough - it will be very flat and have practically no structural integrity, being unable to hold their shape when baked in the oven since there was a development of excess CO2 during the proofing stage.
If you did the steps right and ended up with a properly proofed dough on the other hand, then your bread should be much more consistent in structure, with a soft fluffy interior, evenly dispersed air bubbles in the crumb and expand evenly in both length and width.
Proofing the bread dough at the right temperature:
Bread dough needs a warm environment of about 22-25° for it to properly rise. This is because they produce gas faster when they are in a warm environment, but develop flavour in a cool environment. Basically you need a mid grown, not too hot, not to cold.
In other countries, where weather is more irregular and there are 4 seasons, some of which are super hot and some of which are freezing cold, the best way to make sure you have this perfect bread rising temperature is through putting the dough in the highest rack of a oven and putting a pot of steaming water below. Close the oven and do not turn it on! Not even at the lowest temperature. The temperature will be at the perfect level for the ultimate rise in your bread. However, in Singapore i usually find the temperature in my house to be the perfect rising temperature, since its just a bit lower than Singapore’s normal 30°.
I rarely make bread, so when i made this Kulich, i read on the recipe that i was supposed to leave the bread in the oven at 100F. Sadly, i realised that i actually have something called selective reading, because i read 100F as 100°….
So i turned my oven to 100°, thinking that my bread dough was rising perfectly fine. In fact i even saw it visually rising in the oven super quickly. Sadly what i didn’t know is that there is something wrong if your bread dough rises too fast. Like I mentioned above under the section about proofing your bread for the right amount of time, if you under proof your bread, hwen you start to bake it, the crust starts baking while the dough is still rising super quickly. AKA exactly what was happening here since I practically started baking my bread before it was even done rising.
Taking pictures of this treat!
I am always trying to improve my picture taking skills and getting more natural light into my pictures.
I first started out by making sure that i always took my pictures in the morning when the light was the most natural but not directly blazing. Then i got props, like backdrops and bases that looked clean and nice for picture taking. I even looked online for some inspiration (some accounts which i really liked the look of were accounts like Broma Bakery, teakandthyme, nana’s pastries).
When i watched a video from Broma Bakery’s account on how she setup her backdrops when taking pictures for Instagram and her blog. I learnt that she actually used props that were similar to what she was making. For example, for chocolate chip cookies, she had a small bowl of chocolate chips and a tall glass of cold milk in the backdrop. For fruity lemony cakes, she has cut up lemons and fruits that she used along with a teapot. Basically the key was to make it look like a scene right out of a gathering that you would be serving this desert at, with all the elements and drinks that you would probably be having it with or components that were used in the dessert.
So following that I decided to add my props (which in this case was lemon glaze and rainbow sprinkles) into the backdrop of my pictures as well. Lastly, i wanted to give a try taking pictures with a more professional camera, since I knew my dad had one lying around in the house that he use to use. Vera (my sister and co business partner) then made a desicion that she was a better photo taker than me, saying and i quote “lets play to each others strengths Kay?”…
So I guess now Vera is the photo taker. Not complaining though, having a extra hand means that I can help to make adjustments to the setup (like lifting up the spoon to show the dripping glaze, pretending to top the bread with sprinkles, cutting the bread, shifting the angles), while my sister took all of the shots.
Recipe
Brown butter smores cookies
prep time : 40 minutes
cook time : 30 minutes
rest time : 6 hrs
servings : 12
Ingredients
For the Topping:
2 cups + 2 Tbsp warm milk (not too hot)
6 eggs, room temp
1 Tbsp yeast
400 g white sugar
226g melted unsalted butter (warm, not too hot) (if using salted then omit the salt)
1/2 tsp salt
115 g sour cream (or Greek yogurt)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1125 g bread flour (divided)
217g raisins
For the Topping:
240 g powdered sugar
3 Tbsp lemon juice
Extra stuff:
3 Large Panettone Paper Molds
Steps
Combine the warm milk, eggs, yeast, white sugar, melted butter, salt, sour cream and vanilla extract in a bowl until combined. Add in 512g of bread flour and keep on whisking together until the batter resembles a wet sour cream texture.
Leave it to rise in warm environment (read above in the blog for more details) for 2 hours
Add in the rest of the flour (613g) slowly, whisking with a kneading attactment on a machine until the dough starts to come off the sides of the bowl.
Add in the raisins and mix it evenly throughout the dough.
Let it rise for another 2 hours in a warm environment.
Divide it evenly into 3 panettone paper molds (can buy on amazon or redman) and let it rise yet again for the last 2 hours in a warm environment.
Let it bake for 180° for 30-35 minutes or until it looks golden brown.
Maket
Let it cool on a cooling rack and top with the icing glaze!
xoxo
nadzcrumbz
вкусный!!!!!!!