The Easter Basket of special foods (described below) is arranged on Holy Saturday and taken to church, where a special blessing ceremony with prayers and sprinkling with Holy Water, is performed by the parish priest. The blessed food is served on Easter Sunday Brunch, once the fast is broken after the morning Easter Liturgy.
Easter is one of my favorite holidays, because of its rich traditions. One of these is the blessing of a basket of special foods which becomes the Easter Sunday brunch, being the first meat meal, after a strict fast on Good Friday and Saturday. One of the special foods in that basket is a round shaped Easter Bread, called Paska in Ukrainian, or Babka in Polish. The top of this bread is elaborately decorated with fancy dough ornaments, having a cross as the central motif. Here is my family Paska recipe, which makes two large loaves, or several small ones.
I have my favorite Easter Paska recipe, which I have been baking for many years and my family loves it.
However, I was always very impressed by my aunt’s light and airy Paska/Babka, so as soon I received her recipe I baked this wonderful and delicious bread in my own kitchen and was very happy with the final results. My family fully approved as well.
Baking is a lot of fun, but when you work with yeast for your baked goods, you need to set aside a much longer period of time to complete your project to allow for the rising time of the dough. Plus you need a favorable temperature of your surroundings to have success with your baking.
I am dedicating this post to all my bread and rolls, and all recipes requiring yeast as the leavening agent.
Most Catholic Christians already celebrated Easter this year on April 21st.
However Orthodox Christians, and some Catholics whose churches still follow the Julian Calendar, will celebrate Easter this Sunday, April 28th.