Grandma K's Easter Bread

This bread is a must for Easter. I grew up eating this bread. My Grandmother called it gruntzkuga (not sure about the spelling) in low German, which means raisin bread. We often had it at Christmas too. The dough is a basic sweet egg yeast dough. Similar to brioche, challa, or paska. It is great for cinnamon buns also. Our Easter bread never had a sweet glaze over it, but you could add one.

Not fancy ingredients but the end product is so much more than the sum of it's parts. 

Start by proofing the yeast. Mix 1 tablespoon of yeast, 1 teaspoon of sugar and 1 cup of water

Take the temperature of the water. Yeast is fussy about temperature. the water must be between 105-120 degrees Fahrenheit.

Let the yeast sit at room temperature for 10-15 minutes. The yeast will multiply and a foam should rise to sit on top of the water

While the yeast is sitting, combine the eggs, oil, sugar salt 1 cup water vanilla and 4 cups flour into the bowl of a heavy duty electric mixer. Add the yeast after it has sat for the allotted time.

Mix on low speed, adding flour, 1/4 cup at a time until a stiff dough is formed. Aim for a slightly sticky dough. I find that one mistake that novice bakers tend to do is to add too much flour when making yeast dough. Err on the side of less flour than more. The amount of flour can vary depending on the humidity in the air. 4-5 cups of flour is just a ballpark figure. The dough will look lumpy at first. Mix the dough on low speed for 10 minutes

After 10 minutes of mixing the dough will be smooth an elastic.  Add the raisins and mix for another minute or two.

Put the dough into a large, well greased bowl. Then let it rest. I like to cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and put it in the oven with the oven light on. The oven provides the perfect, draft-free environment for the dough to rise. Do not turn the oven on. Let the dough sit for about one hour.

After one hour, pouch the dough down. Use your hands and deflate it.

Turn the dough over, cover and let it rise for another hour.  This double rise technique adds great flavour and texture to the dough.

The dough is nice and puffy

Cut three pieces of dough about the size of your fist.

Form the three lumps of dough into three 12-18 inch long ropes

Pinch the ropes together at one end.

Braid the three ropes together like you would hair. See the You Tube video for a visual tutorial.

When the ropes are all braided, pitch the end together

Put the braid into a well oiled 8 inch pie plate.

Easter is an important time in Christian religions. The three ropes represent the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and the circle represents the circle of life.

I also like to leave the braid straight. Cover the dough with a clean tea towel and let it sit at room temperature for one hour.

When the dough has doubled in volume and is nice and puffy, bake it in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes

Remove the hot loaves from the pans to a cooling rack. While they are still hot, brush them with a bit of butter.

Aren't they beautiful. 

Let the loaves come to room temperature, cover them with plastic wrap and freeze them. Thaw them at room temperature in the plastic wrap when you are ready to eat them. 

5 Tips For Working Yeast and Yeast Dough

1. Keep the yeast in the freezer. Yeast is a live organism but will become dormant in the freezer. When left at room temperature it will loose it's potency over time. Look for the expiry date when you buy it

2. Purchase a thermometer and make sure that the water that you proof your yeast in is the correct temperature. Yeast is very particular about temperature. To cold and it will not grow properly. Too hot and the yeast will die.

3. Don't add all of the flour at once. Add about 3/4 of the total flour and then add more flour a little at a time. Err on the side of too little flour rather than too much flour. The dough will initially seem too wet and lumpy but as the dough is mixed and the gluten is developed it will become smooth and elastic.

4. Let the dough rise in the refrigerator if you need more time between rises. The cooler temperature slows the division of the yeast so that the dough rises slower. Yeast doughs are very forgiving. The rising times are approximate. 1-2 hours is perfect at room temperature, 3-4 hours in the fridge.

5 Punch the dough down and let it rise two times. The second rise is not absolutely necessary but it makes the flavour and texture of the bread nicer

Watch me make it on You Tube

Grandma K's Easter Bread

This recipe will make three or four loaves, depending on the size of your loaves

1 tablespoon traditional yeast
1 cup water
1 tablespoon sugar

1 cup water
2 eggs
1/4 cup oil
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla(optional)
4-5 cups flour
1/2 cup raisins (golden or dark or a mixture of both)

Butter for glazing

Proof the yeast. Combine yeast,  1 tablespoon of sugar and 1 cup of water. The water must be about 115 degrees Fahrenheit. Use a thermometer to make sure that the water is the right temperature. Mix well and let it sit at room temperature for 10-15  minutes. There should be a layer of foam on top of the water after 10-15 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl combine 1 cup of water, eggs, oil, sugar, salt, vanilla and 4 cups of  flour. Use a heavy duty dough hook and electric mixer or combine by hand. Add enough remaining flour, 1/4 cup at a time, to make a stiff dough. The dough should still be a bit moist. Follow the pictures posted above to see what the dough should look like. Mix with dough hook, on low speed for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes the dough will be smoother and elastic and be slightly less moist than before mixing. Add the raisins and combine well. Turn dough into a large greased bowl. Cover with a clean, dry tea towel and let the dough rest in a warm area for about one hour. I like to use my oven. Just put the bowl into the cold oven and turn the oven light on. the heat generated from the oven light is perfect for providing the dough with the perfect temperature. Do not turn oven on!

Next step is to punch the dough down after the dough has risen for about one hour. Using your hands, deflate all of the air that has accumulated in the dough. Cover and let rise again for another hour. The double rise is great for developing awesome flavour in your dough.

After the second rise you are ready to form your loaves. Refer to the photos above for a detailed visual display on how I form the dough. Cut three pieces of dough, about the size of your fist. Form the dough into three, 12-18 inch long ropes. Attach the three ropes at one end and braid the three ropes together. Grease an eight inch pie plate and place the braided dough into the pie plate making it into a circle. Cover and let rise for one hour or until doubled in volume. Alternately, leave the dough in a strait, loaf shape.

Bake the loaves in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and turn dough into a cooling rack. Brush the hot loaf with a bit of butter.

Basic Pizza Dough

My family loves pizza. It's hard to believe that just six ingredients can turn into something so delicious. This dough is very versatile. I have made foccacia, pull apart cinnamon buns, stuffed buns and many other things. It provides a blank canvass on which you can express your culinary creativity.

I use a large heavy duty kitchen machine to mix my dough. This volume of dough would fit into a kitchen aid-type machine.
These are heavy duty dough hooks that do a good job of kneading the dough and developing the gluten. This is what makes a stretchy, easy to work with dough.





Thoughts About Gluten
Gluten has been given a bad wrap recently. I agree that there are some people that should definitely
not eat foods containing gluten. Those people have celiacs disease, which means that there bodies are not able to process the gluten. When people with celiacs disease eat gluten, their bodies have a kind
of 'allergic' reaction to the gluten which makes them sick. It can be diagnosed with a blood test, but is commonly diagnosed by lay people based on symptoms. The actual  incidence of celiac disease is quite low.

Proofing the yeast. 

Combine one cup of warm water(ideally 105-115 degrees, about the same temperature as a warm shower), yeast, and sugar. Mix well and let it sit at room temperature. The yeast will grow and create air bubbles. After 5-10 minutes, a layer of bubbles will develop and sit on the surface of the water. This is called a sponge.

Add the mixture to the flour in the bowl.

Combine most of the flour (4 of the 5 cups), water/yeast mixture, additional water, oil, salt
and sugar it the bowl. Begin mixing. If the dough looks too wet, add more flour in quarter cup increments until it is still a bit sticky.

The amount of flour that you need to add will vary slightly depending on the humidity in the
air. If the air is humid, you will add slightly more flour than if the air is dry.
At first the mixture looks lumpy.

After ten minutes of kneading it looks smooth and elastic. This is what gluten does. The kneading process develops the gluten fibers making the dough become stretchy and elastic.


Notice that it does not stick to the bowl.

Put the dough into a greased pan. oil the top of the dough and cover it with cling film.

To make really good pizza, with a flavourful
crust that has great texture, I like to leave the dough to rise in the fridge for 24 hours.

The cold temperature of the fridge will slow the
division of the yeast.
You can also let the dough sit covered at room
temperature for about one hour or until doubled.

The dough looks like this when it has doubled.
It is light and fluffy.

When it looks like this, you are ready to make your pizza

Watch me make it on Youtube.






Yeast dough can be difficult for the beginner. Don't give up! If it doesn't turn out, try again. My first efforts were not successful. I think my family played hockey with my buns! My family is happy that I have now mastered the task of making a light and fluffy dough. If I can do it, so can you. It's not rocket science after all.

Enough dough for two 10x15 inch pizzas. Stay tuned for pepperoni pizza and Indian inspired curry pizza.

Basic Pizza Dough

1 tbsp dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1 tsp sugar

5-6 cups flour
1 cup water
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp olive oil

Combine the first three ingredients in a two cup measuring cup or medium sized bowl. Leave yeast mixture at room temperature for 5-10 minutes. A layer of foam will develop on the top of the water.
In a large mixing bowl combine five cups of flour, water, sugar, salt, yeast mixture and oil. Mix with dough hook attachment, adding remaining flour in 1/4 cup increments until a soft dough is obtained. Mix for 10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic.

If you would like to make dough for one pizza, divide all the ingredients by half all except the yeast.