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Perhaps an old recipe for traditional belts was handed down to you from your grandmother, or perhaps you want to diversify the festive table with something new. In this case, we have selected several holiday baking recipes from European countries. After all, they, like us, have traditional Easter pastries that you can be proud of.
1. Italy: Easter cake in the shape of a dove
Italy is famous all over the world not only for its wines or pizza. Everything related to the dough is perfect! Easter baking is no exception. Italians have several famous Easter dishes, but we chose one of the most popular - a cake in the shape of a dove. It can be baked in any other way, but for Italians this particular bird is a symbol of the spring festival. It also has a common name - Colombo.
The recipe for such a cake and this selection takes the first place in terms of complexity and time consumption - because you need to prepare the dough. Next, we selected several simpler options. But if you still want to try this perfect Italian pastry, let's get started!
Let's break down the steps of making a cupcake:
First, we prepare the steam. In a deep bowl, mix 125 ml of milk and 125 g of wheat flour, as well as a portion of wet yeast. Cover with a cloth and put in the turned off oven for 8 hours. During this time, the dough should triple in size.
We take the foam, add to it 100 ml of water at room temperature, 70 g of sugar and 2 egg yolks and beat it all thoroughly with a mixer. Add 250g (glass) of flour and knead the dough. You need to knead it for a long time, a total of 30 minutes. At the 20th minute, beat 1 more yolk and add 70g of butter, also at room temperature. At the end of the kneading, the dough should be elastic and smooth.
Choose a deep and spacious vessel, wiped dry, and put the dough in it. Cover it with a towel and leave it in the turned off oven for another 12 hours.
Here it is worth noting that in order to make it more convenient for you to cook. The steam should be put in the morning so that you can knead the dough already in the evening, leave it to infuse overnight and continue cooking the next morning.
So, after 12 hours, we return to our dough: add 80 g of sugar, 2 tbsp of orange syrup (easy to cook yourself), 25 ml of milk and 2 more egg yolks. Knead and add 125g of flour. And the last batch: add 1 more yolk, a couple of grams of salt, a packet of vanilla sugar, 70g of butter at room temperature and 130g of candied fruit. Mix it all well and our baked dough is ready!
Divide it into several parts and form into balls. Cover with a towel and let stand for 1 hour. The long-awaited time has come to put it in baking molds. Do it in such a way that the dough occupies half of the entire container. Cover it and leave it for another 2 hours.
In the meantime, prepare the glaze: beat 100g of hazelnuts, 50g of almonds, 25g of starch and 150g of sugar into a powder in a food processor at maximum speed. Beat the whites of 4 eggs into a thick foam and combine these components with a spatula with light movements.
Such a glaze can be spread on raw dough, it will take a long time to bake. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and put the cupcakes in it. When the water rises almost to the top of the mold, decorate the top with candied fruits, nuts and put it to bake further. Total baking takes about an hour.
The one who does such long and painstaking work will fully appreciate his own work after tasting the finished pastry.
2. European Easter cookies in the shape of eggs or rabbits
Traditional Easter cookies are baked in many European countries. It has the same shape as an egg or an Easter bunny. So you will need a special form for their preparation. Or you can make a stencil out of cardboard and cut out the cookies yourself. Such goodies can be a great Easter gift for friends and guests.
Ingredients for cookies: 2 yolks, 1 egg white, 200g of wheat flour, 125g of powdered sugar, 50g of butter, 1 tbsp of orange peel and 1 tsp of cinnamon.
Preparation is extremely simple and quick: beat the butter with sugar, egg yolks and zest until it becomes a thick foam. Add flour and knead the dough. Roll it out to a thickness of 5 mm and cut it into the appropriate shape. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes at a temperature of 170-180 degrees.
These cookies can be completely covered in white icing and painted with food coloring, or you can mix dyes with the icing divided into several parts and paint the baked goods with it.
3. British Easter cake
The literal name of this famous Easter cake is Simnel Cake. He is a real pride for the people of Great Britain, so you will definitely not be disappointed.
There are many ingredients and not all of them are used in traditional Easter baking, but the result is worth it! So, take 175g each of butter, brown sugar and flour. For the dough, you will also need: 3 eggs, 150g of candied fruit, 55g of orange peel, the zest of half a lemon and a pinch of salt. Also prepare one egg white for the glaze and 2 tablespoons of apricot jam for spreading.
The cake is prepared with almond paste, and for its preparation you need: 250 g each of ground almonds and powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon of almond extract and 2 eggs. Add all the ingredients for the pasta to one vessel and mix thoroughly - that's the filling.
Beat the sugar and butter for the dough, then add the egg, flour and all other ingredients. Pour half of the finished dough into a baking dish greased with butter. Spread the almond paste on top of it, and spread the second half of the dough on top of it.
Bake the cake for an hour and a half, adjusting the temperature around 150-170 degrees. Leave the cake to cool. Next, cover its top with jam, decorate with balls from the remains of almond paste and cover all this with whipped egg white. Put it in the oven for a few minutes so that the protein starts to form a crust.
4. Viennese Easter cake
Cheese is one of the main components of the Easter basket in Ukraine. So a Viennese dish made from homemade cheese is a great idea for a festive table. In addition, the products in the composition are quite familiar to us and it is extremely easy to prepare.
For 1 kg of cheese you need: 5 eggs, 100 g of butter, 1 tbsp of corn starch, 1 tbsp of wheat flour, 1 cup of powdered sugar, 1 packet of vanilla curd. And also candied orange peel and dried cherry for decoration.
To begin with, take butter at room temperature and beat it thoroughly with a mixer together with sugar. Next, while continuing to mix, add eggs, followed by cheese, flour, starch and vanilla. Pour the batter into a baking dish lined with parchment. You can immediately put it in the oven, or you can cover it with foil and hold it in a water bath for a while - this way the dough will become even more tender.
Bake at 150 degrees for one and a half hours. Garnish with dried oranges and cherries. If desired, you can rub with chocolate.
5. An unsweet bonus from the Germans: ham in bread
A traditional dish for the Easter festive table in Germany is ham in bread. The dish is extremely easy to prepare: a piece of ham is wrapped in the dough mixed for bread, and baked in the oven until golden brown.
