Paska Bread

Of all the Paska recipies I have tried this one has turned out the best quality bread. The quanity made it a little difficult to work with my kitchenaid mixer, but that was minor compared to the quality. I would recommend this to anyone. Just make 2/3 of recipe to manage better.

This is the recipe that my Slovak Grandmother made every Easter. We used to make 4 types of breads, rolls, and desserts from the basic recipe. First we'd make standard bread using loaf pans. Then we'd make poppyseed and nut rolls by rolling the dough out into a square sheet of dough about 1/2" thick and covering it with canned poppyseed or nut fillings. We'd drizzle a little honey on top of the filling then roll it up starting at one edge and sealing it with a little bit of water when we came to the other edge. Finally we'd roll the dough out between our hands to make a "rope" about 3/4" in diameter. This would be cut into 3/4" pieces and then baked for 20 to 30 minutes until lightly browned to make Babalki(bobalky, bobalki, babalky). The Babalki would be served by coating them with a mixture of warmed honey and canned poppyseed filling just before serving as a dessert.

EXCELLENT FLAVOR. WILL ADD DRIED FRUIT NEXT TIME TO HALF OF IT. MADE THREE MASSIVE LOAVES. MOIST. WONDERFUL

This recipe is wonderful & true to its origin. It was just as I had remembered my Great Aunt making . Thank you for sharing such a treasure .

I read in one of the reviews not to use the mixer, so instead I divided the dough in half thinking that would solve the problem. It burned out the motor (425 watts) of my heavy duty kitchenaid. At a $175 repair bill this was the most expensive easter bread I have ever made! That said, it was tasty, but Don't Use a Mixer!

I followed "meisert's" advice and reduced the recipe by 2/3. I used less flour than called for, stopping at a soft dough, and putting the loaves in round pans (dutch oven, souffle dish)I would add more lemon zest. It's wonderful toasted with honey!

WOW!! Very good recipe! I'll use this frequently. I used 1/4 c. less sugar, 2 c. ff 1/2 & 1/2 and 1 c. ff milk, 3 cups WWW flour and butter instead of margarine. I upped the salt to 3/4 tsp because I used unsalted butter, no lemon zest and no egg wash, but I did rub with butter when it came out of the oven. This recipe made 1 large loaf of bread, 8 hot dog buns, 6 large burger buns and a 9 x 13 pan of cinnamon rolls. Its very tender, slightly sweet. Get out your BIG bowls, it's ALOT of dough. Handles nicely. Beautiful! Thanks for a great recipe.

This bread was very good. I am so pleased because my mother baked this bread she had passed away 48 years ago and I lost the recipe. I remember how good this was as a child thank you so much.

The Paska was good but not great. I am Ukrainian and Paska is a must for the Easter. So I tried this recipe and some other recipes. I think 12 cups of flour is way too much. SO my Paska came out little heavy, and not sweet enough. For the top we make a "frosting" from egg white and sugar.

Okay, so.....here's the thing. I made the bread dough according to the recipe, only cutting it in half. I actually used the dough for cinnamon swirl bread. I used my Kitchen Aid mixer for the prep, proofing the yeast with the sugar and warm milk/water in the mixer bowl for ten minutes. When the yeast "bloomed", I added the butter and salt and part of the flour, then the eggs, and the remainder of the flour. I only needed a little over six cups of flour all together. Once the bread dough formed into a ball, I kneaded it with my bread hook for about five minutes, adding just a little extra flour to keep the dough from sticking to the bottom. I did the first raise in a greased bowl on my warm oven for a couple hours, divided the massive dough ball, then rolled out both pieces into a long strip with my pin and spread melted butter and a cinnamon sugar mixture over the rolled out dough and rolled it up and sealed them to prevent the loaves from seperating. (Each portion I used only a couple tbsp. of melted butter and 1/4 c. granulated sugar mixed with cinnamon.) I greased my loaf pans with just a little butter and set the loaves in the pans to double again. 350* for a half hour, these loaves were cinnamon-swirl perfection. This was quite a large bread recipe, even cut in half. It really gave my 30+ year old Kitchen Aid mixer a time of it. But the outcome.....excellent. Bakery-quality bread!

I sliced this warm from the oven and served it in an Easter basket with a bowl of whipped honey butter. Nothing but crumbs were left! This morning I made french toast out of the second loaf witch was fabulous! And tomarrow I'm making egg casserole with the last loaf. I used my mixer up to 4c. of flour then measured out 6c. on my counter in a large open circle, put my dough in the center and gradually added flour until it was smooth. I ended up not using the last 1 1/2c. It came out wonderful!!

I have been making this Easter bread since the 1970's. It has become a tradition. Everyone asks for it before Easter and they love it. I have a heavy-duty Kitchen Aide mixer, but mix up half a recipe at a time and only "knead" it in the Kitchen Aide until the dough follows the bread blade around the bowl. I always finish by hand kneading method to prevent my mixer from overheating. This recipe always turns out great. It is fool proof if you follow the directions. Also, mixing up only half a recipe at a time makes the hand kneading easier.

This is very good Paska. It is not however, for someone who does not like getting their hands dirty. It is best made in a large crock, using a wooden spoon and hands for mixing. It makes a lot of dough but it handles well and the finished product is worth the time. This is the first year I have used a different recipe for my easter bread. I have used my polish grandmothers recipe for 40 years. This one is just as good and it makes more bread than hers does. I made it as written, just dropped the lemon zest because lemons were not something found in most polish households in 1914 when my she came here. Otherwise it is pretty much her recipe only on a grander scale. I made 3 medium size loaves of bread, a tray of rolls for dinner, and three pie plates of cinnamon rolls out of the dough. I have three married children all of whom stopped by this evening to gather their goodies!

I made this bread for a traditional Orthodox Easter basket. This recipe is wonderful! My pascha was beautiful, and VERY good! I followed the recipe exactly. For baking, though, I made two larger loaves (around 2 1/2 pounds each) instead of three loaves, and I reserved the remaining dough to make braiding around the edge of my bread as well as a braided cross in the middle. I will try to attach a picture. The directions do not say to put the bread loaves in pans, but I did use 9 inch round cake pans for mine. I will keep this recipe and continue to use it for my annual Pascha basket!

This is a great recipe- my daughter makes this every year for Christmas and Easter, by extended family's DEMAND, not request. Love you, Gwen!! This makes three very large loaves. Is especially attractive when the dough is braided, like challah. Try this just as written- it's YUMMY

I added a package of instant vanilla pudding and this makes the bread very moist. It made a huge difference. I then spread the bread with cream cheese icing. Makes excellent toast for breakfast if you don't ice the whole bread. I put icing on each slice rather than the whole bread.

I have another paska recipe that has more eggs and sugar so thought I'd try this one and it's good. I left off the egg and butter on top and I only used 12 cups flour total, not 4 plus 12 as the dough was a good consistency then but otherwise followed it exactly and it's a nice, slightly sweet bread. My other recipe is fluffier and sweeter but I will make this one again as it's healthier.

Half the recipe makes 2 large loaves!

This was very good bread, it makes a large batch and the dough is very easy to work with. If making in the KA, the batch could be halved and the KA could handle the dough size. Will make again and thanks for sharing

Thank you for this recipe! My Granny used to make it. She is 89 years old and does not cook anymore. I can't wait to surprise her with it!

Good recipe for and Easter bread. I added a box of golden raisins and everyone liked it. I found it a very easy bread to make. Ususally my breads come out a little too dry but this was moist and delicious.

Wonderful soft, fluffy, brioche-like bread. Here's what I did: I mixed up the sponge in the morning. I used instant yeast, which doesn't need proofing; I just mixed it in with the flour, and instead of warm water I used all milk (room temp). I covered the bowl with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge all day. Oh, I also cut the sugar to 2 Tbsp. Then, I pulled the sponge out of the fridge around dinnertime, along with the butter and eggs, and gave the sponge a stir (it was at the top of the bowl by then). When everything was room temp, I mixed the dough--using about 1 full teaspoon of lemon zest and 1 Tbsp Kosher salt. I let the dough rise, then divided it into three 2 lb. 5 oz loaves. I shaped the loaves into balls, set them in lightly greased panettone papers, covered them with greased plastic wrap, and put them in the refrigerator overnight. Perfect! The next morning, I pulled them out and brushed them with egg wash while the oven warmed up. I topped one loaf with sprinkles, one with pearl sugar, and left one plain. After baking, I made a confectioners' sugar glaze with lemon juice and a little milk and covered the plain loaf, then topped with sprinkles. I thought this bread was great; I probably didn't need to cut the sugar quite so much--maybe next time I'd use 2/3 or 3/4 cup total. This made amazing French toast a couple of days later!

This recipe was great. This was the first time I tried to make a paska bread since its so far to go to the bakery where we usually buy it now that we've moved. The recipe is time consuming, but most baking with yeast does take time. But its not hard and most of it is rising time. The directions were easy to follow and the results looked and tasted great! Thank you so much for posting!!!

My grandmother never wrote any of her recipes down and now she is no longer able to remember them. She has been the paska maker in our family for all of my life, but now it is my turn. I am so grateful for this recipe! My very first paska turned out beautifully! I followed the recipe exactly, except that I only added 8 additional cups of flour (as another reviewer also mentioned). Is it possible that recipe was supposed to include a total of 12 cups...instead of 16? Also, I used quick acting yeast because the regular yeast just did not cooperate for me. I used 3 CorningWare casserole dishes: 1 round 2.5 liter, 1 round 1.6 liter, and 1 oval 2.8 liter. In addition I was able to use the remaining dough to make a batch of cinnamon rolls! This will definitely be our new family paska recipe!

The bread looked beautiful, but just did not have any flavor, sorry.

Very good, although I'll probably only make this bread for Easter. A lotta work and a lotta bread! I'll cut the recipe next time, even though it made the right amount for our Easter dinner. It was just too much dough to handle at once.

Outstanding! Made this bread with organic soy milk but otherwise stuck to the recipe. Had to halve it, but still managed to get two delicious loaves. Perfect Easter bread! Takes me back to my Polish great-grandmother's bread and my Easter in Ukraine!

Wow! I halved the recipe (and omitted the zest because I didn't have it) and got two nice sized loaves which were absolutely DELICIOUS for Easter. Thank you for this wonderful recipe! I will be saving this recipe to use again.

This paska turned out wonderfully. a little less sweet than some paska i have had, but still very good.

I made this on Sunday for Easter and it came out wonderful and so Yummy !!

I used a scant tablespoon of sea salt & added 8 oz of softened cream cheese. Then I filled it with chocolate: 10 oz of mini semi-sweet chocolate chips, 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, 1/4 cup white sugar & 3 tablespoons butter. Stir together & sprinkle over dough that has been punched down & rolled into a rectangle. I rolled it up & let it rise in a tube pan. I baked it @ 350 degrees for 35 minutes. This was done with 1 of the 3 loaves & I froze the other two for now. Then when I want a fresh loaf I'll thaw out 1 dough ball let it come to room temperature & fill it with the chocolate.

This bread is fantastic! The only thing I changed was I halved the amount of lemon. Only because I am not a lemon freak. I absolutely love this bread! Oh my gosh gooooooooood!

I'll give it a try, but way too much flour, and it probs makes to much. MAKE THE RECIPE LOWER GUYS COME ON I DON'T REALLY WANT TO USE 12 CUPS OF FLOUR PLUS 5!!!!!!!!! REALLY!!!!!

I made this for Easter it made plenty I did cut the flour by 3 cups and I added 2 more cups of sugar it came out perfect and for the top I used 1 egg and 4tsp of sugar just for a sweeter taste I will definitely make it again Thank u ;)

Made two regular loaves of bread, cinnamon rolls and one HUGE loaf in a crock bowl. All are light and fluffy and very tasty. The bread loaves will make excellent sandwich bread - finally something the kids love even after it's no longer warm out of the oven! Good stuff!

I've used this recipe 2 Easters in a row, and it has always gotten raves. In fact, because I can make 3 decent-sized loaves from this recipe, my mother and my aunt now expect that I'll be making the Paska!

Excellent recipe, but I would cut it in 1/2.

This is a GREAT PASKA recipe!! Make sure to follow the recipe exactly. One other thing - make sure that the humidity in your kitchen is an even temperature, such as it is not really cold in the winter or super hot in the summer. This will have and effect on the outcome of this bread. if you make this around Easter time, you should be OK. This is a time consuming recipe but well worth the effrot!!

It was a hit with the entire family! Very light and moist. I will be making this again.

Excellent tasting but too heavy and dry.

Made this yesterday. I tried to use the wooden spoon the whole time. Extremely difficult to mix together. I didn't use all the flour and only one loaf I put in a bowl to bake. I think I would use bowls or something all the time. Putting it on baking sheets was too much dough spread all over the sheets. It was alot of work and it came out moist, but I feel it was missing something. I did add some golden raisins.

12 cups of flour total or for dough only? I added 8cups and stopped because the dough would not take more. I would add more sugar instead. The taste is like a bread, no flavor.It was good for pirojki with cabbage.

Flavor and texture was great. I added dried fruit & a bit of powdered sugar glaze on top to finish it off. Delicious!

I love this recipe! I make it every Easter. I use 12 cups total of flour, 4 for the sponge and 8 for the dough.

This is pretty close to what my Ukrainian grandmother made every Easter, except we bake it in coffee cans!

Excellent recipe. The dough was beautiful to work with and it made 4 huge loaves. The taste is exactly like my Slovak grandmother used to make. Thank you for sharing.

I had to cut the recipe in half. Nothing wrong there. However, the result was tasteless. Needless to say, I thought it was disappointing.