Russian Easter Bread

Ingredients For Easter Bread

• 6 cups of flour
• 3 tablespoons of vanilla sugar
• 5 yolks
• 1 egg
• 1 cup sour cream
• 8 tablespoons of salted butter
• 1 cup of water
• 1/2 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon yeast
• 1 1/4 cups raisins
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 tablespoon of orange zest

Ingredients For Frosting

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 4 egg whites
• To bake Russian Easter Bread, you will need three aluminum baking pans 5″ by 4″ inches in diameter.

Directions For Bread

1Pour boiling water over your raisins and set them aside. In the medium bowl, melt butter, add warm milk, sour cream, egg, yolks, sugar, and vanilla sugar. Mix it till it becomes one.

2CIn the large bowl, combine 4 cups of flour, salt, and yeast. Mix well and add egg and butter mixture. Combine all the ingredients. The dough will be very sticky. Cover it with the kitchen towel or a lid and put your dough in the sunnies spot in your kitchen. Let it rise for one hour. Add one cup of water and orange zest mix till the water and orange zest becomes one with the drought, add 1 1/4 cup of flour, mix well. Cover it, and again place it in the sunniest spot in your kitchen. Because of all the sugar and butter, yeast will need time to work the dough. Let it rise for 1 hour and 30 minutes. The dough will be sticky, wet your hands, and fold your dough a few times. Cover it and let it rise one more time for one hour. While our dough is rising, drain water from raisins, dump them on the paper towel, pat them dry. Put them on the fresh paper towel and let them be for now.

3Flour your work surface, be generous. Using your dough cutter ( if you don’t have one, use your hand), Scrape your dough onto the flour. Slowly start working in raisins and the rest of the flour. Divide your dough into three equal balls. Line your greased baking pans with parchment paper. Put your dough in the pans and let it rice all the way to the top. Preheat oven to 350; bake your bread for 35 minutes, cover it with aluminum foil, and bake it for 20 minutes more. When done, get the bread out of the pan and let them cool on the cooling rack. When the bread is thoroughly cooled, frost the tops and put sprinkles. Enjoy. If you don’t like this type of frosting, you can frost your bread with the frosting you like or not at all. Just egg wash your easter bread 10 minutes before the bread is done, and you won’t have to frost it at all.

Directions For Frosting

1In a saucepan, stir together the sugar, vanilla sugar, water, and cream of tartar. Cook over medium-high heat until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is bubbly.

2In a medium mixing bowl, whip the egg whites and vanilla to soft peaks. Gradually add hot sugar mixture while whipping constantly until stiff peaks form, about 7 to 10 minutes.