Ukrainian Challah Braided Paska Bread Recipe

My recipe for my fam­i­ly’s Ukrain­ian “Pas­ka” bread.

Ingre­di­ents:

7 cups of all-pur­pose flour

2 pack­ages of dry yeast (4.5 teaspoons)

2 cups of water

1/4 cup of sugar

1/4 cup of but­ter (Ker­rigold Irish But­ter is my favorite!)

2 tea­spoons of salt

3 eggs

1 egg yolk

1 table­spoon of water

1 Table­spoon of olive/sunflower oil

Step 1:

In large mix­er bowl com­bine 3 cups of flour and the yeast.

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Step 2:

In saucepan, heat togeth­er the 2 cups of water, sug­ar, but­ter, and salt- just until warm and but­ter is almost melt­ed; stir con­stant­ly. (I removed it when it was warm and kept stir­ring until all the but­ter melted.)

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Step 3:

Add melt­ed mix­ture to flour and add 3 eggs.

Bear at low speed with elec­tric mix­er for 1/2 minute, scrap­ing bowl.

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Step 4:

Beat 3 min­utes at high speed.

Stir in as much of the remain­ing 4 cups of flour as you can mix with a spoon.

Turn out onto light­ly floured sur­face or bowl.

Knead in enough of the remain­ing flour to make a mod­er­ate­ly stiff dough that is smooth and elas­tic (8 min­utes total)

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Step 5:

Lift dough from bowl. Pour some olive oil (or any oil) in bowl and rub around the bowl.

Drop dough in bowl and then flip dough

(The idea is to have the dough cov­ered in oil.)

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Step 6:

Cov­er bowl and let it rise in a warm place until it dou­bles in size (about 45 minutes)

I sug­gest warm­ing the oven at a 100 degrees for a bit (while knead­ing the dough)- just to cre­ate a warm envi­ron­ment and air. 

(You do not want the oven on or cook the dough when it’s rising)

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Step 7:

Punch down dough (once)

Divide dough into 3 por­tions. (This depends on the size of bread. Bread in pho­tos is 3/4 of this dough recipe)

Let the piece of dough rest for 10 min­utes in bowl and cov­er with cloth

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Step 8:

Spray pan and place dough in pan

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Step 9:

Use some of the extra dough to dec­o­rate the top of the bread

Cov­er, let rise until near­ly dou­ble (about 35 minutes)

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Step 10:

Brush the top of bread with mix­ture of egg yolk and 1 table­spoon of water

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Step 11:

Bake 375 degrees in oven for 25 to 30 min­utes or until light­ly browned.

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Step 12:

Remove from the oven

Let it cool and then enjoy!

I’ll try and post a new tuto­r­i­al and recipe for Ukrain­ian wed­ding bread. 

Below is an image of the Ukrain­ian pas­ka wed­ding bread my Aunt Olga made for my sis­ter’s wed­ding day!