By Reina Hasting
Easter is celebrated in different ways around the world.
Making a kite to fly on Good Friday has become a Bermudian folk tradition over the years. Children in Sweden dress up as Easter witches, walk around their neighborhoods and trade their artwork for candy. In Mexico, folks break cascarones, brightly colored eggs filled with confetti, over people’s heads for good luck. In Poland, folks have an Easter Monday tradition called Smigus-Dyngus where they have water fights.
I also learned that in some parts of Alaska, such as in Southeast, residents make kulich during Easter.
Kulich is the Russian name for a sweet yeast-risen bread typically served at Easter. As with most recipes, it can vary from family to family. As with many traditions, the recipe shared below has a history.
It is an old Kodiak kulich recipe that is said to be passed down from Kaba Chichenoff, who was born in 1897. When she was 3 years old, her mother died and her father couldn’t take care of her because he was a sea otter hunter. She was raised in a Russian orphanage, which is where she was in 1912 as a little girl when the fallout of the Katmai eruption happened. You can read her story about her experience on the third page of the following handout at https://outreach.gi.alaska.edu/sites/default/files/lessons/5-8_18VolcanoJigsaw.pdf
Whatever your traditions are for Easter, I hope you thoroughly enjoy them! If you don’t a special holiday tradition, that is OK. Join in the fun of others or make up your own. We can each have our own traditions and start them whenever. These moments are great opportunities to include more positive experiences in our lives because they can help contribute to better health in the moment and in the long run for ourselves and our loved ones.
I hope you get a chance to try this kulich recipe, bit.ly/43h3Ycn. Plan to start early in the day to allow the dough to rise. Happy baking!
Ingredients
For the sponge
1 package yeast
2 cups warm milk
3-4 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
Cream:
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon lemon extract (optional)
Mix in:
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1 cup raisins
3-4 cups flour
Topping
Confectioners sugar
Dash of vanilla
Milk
Multi-colored polka dot sprinkles (optional)
Pans
Eight one-pound coffee cans or large soup/tomato cans are ideal to get the traditional shape, but bread pans will work too.
Directions
Step 1: Heat milk until warm to touch between 105-110 degrees. Dissolve yeast in warm milk then add flour and sugar and mix. Cover and set aside to rise for at least 1 hour.
Step 2: In another bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs, salt, nutmeg, vanilla and lemon extract.
Step 3: Place raised sponge in larger bowl and then add creamed ingredients. Mix well.
Step 4: Add raisins and almonds. Then add flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until dough is stiff enough to handle and it is not sticky.
Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes.
Put dough into a large greased bowl, top side down, then flip it over into same bowl, so it has a little grease on the top.
Cover with a light kitchen towel and let sit in a warm spot for about four hours, until double.
Step 5: Once your dough has doubled in size, punch down.
Grease cans or pans well with shortening or cooking spray.
Divide dough into eight pieces to fill 1/3 of your cans (or equal pieces to fit the cans you have, so that they fill 1/3 of container).
Shape the dough into a circle, tucking sides under until it’s a nice smooth ball. Press into cans to get rid of any air space.
Cover containers with a light kitchen towel and set aside in a warm spot until dough raises to the top of the containers (about four hours).
Step 6: Once dough has risen to the tops of at least half of your containers, it’s time to put them in the oven! Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes. Kulich is done when you can shake it out of the can, but it might take some effort depending on how well you greased your cans.
Cool out of cans for 15 minutes on a rack.
Step 7: While kulich is cooling, make the glaze. Start with 1/2 cup of confectioner sugar, add a dash of vanilla and then mix in milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, until it reaches desired taste and consistency. Icing should be thick.
While still warm, frost with confectioner glaze, and sprinkles if you’d like.
Enjoy!
Reina Hasting is a coordinator with Extension’s Family Nutrition Program, which is administered by the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. She can be contacted rhhasting@alaska.edu or 907-474-2437.
