When Easter comes, our homes are "painted" in a variety of spring, warm colors. Colors that fill us with joy, gaiety…thirst for games.
The most fun part for every adult and of course every child is painting eggs and decorating the Easter cake.
First we start with the preparation of the Easter cake.
Products:
1 kg sifted flour
6 eggs
1 1/2 tsp fresh milk
300 g sugar
1 tsp s alt
200 g cow butter
1 vanilla packet
bread yeast as much as a matchbox (or two packets of dry yeast)
Preparation:
Dissolve the yeast in a cup with 4 fingers of warm milk, then add 1 spoonful of sugar and enough flour to make a slurry. Before letting the yeast rise, sprinkle it with flour (about 1 finger) and leave it like that without stirring. In order for the porridge to rise faster and then the dough, I personally turn on the oven for a few minutes and leave them inside warm (the oven should be very slightly warm, otherwise the dough can spoil). The eggs and sugar are beaten together until white, then the remaining milk and vanilla are added. Put the flour in a heated pan, make a well in the middle and, as soon as the yeast rises, pour it in together with the egg mixture and 1/2 teaspoon of s alt. The dough should be kneaded for a long time, dipping your hands into the fat from time to time. When the dough becomes smooth, spread it with oil, cover it with transparent foil and a towel and leave it in a warm place to rise. Due to the large amount of sugar, you have to wait a lot longer than when making a regular pita. When the dough rises, it is smeared with yolk and put to bake in a preheated oven. The kozunak is baked first in the lower and then in the upper oven at 180 degrees.
To turn our kozunak into a fresh green field full of spring flowers, when braiding it, we finally gather the two ends and put the dough in a not very high round shape. In this way, when the kozunak is ready, we remove the form and stick a pre-cut and decorated green ribbon in its place.
For the eggs of course there are various ways of dyeing. Personally, I always make a few solid colors, a few patterned, painted or a few completely extravagant ones, for example. For the patterned eggs, I use cotton, which I have pre-soaked with a few drops of the different colors of paint. The same can be done with a harder kitchen paper, from which the eggs become not only patterned, but also various white lines remain on them. To draw or write something on them, we just need a candle. Where it has been passed with a candle, it does not catch paint. So you can write the year or just draw small flowers, for example. Already painted eggs can be rolled in sugar, or simply painted different shapes using varnish with a thin brush or varnish-chemical. And finally one of my new ideas, namely wrapping the eggs with thin wire. An idea that promises only Easter fighters:)
Happy cooking and happy painting everyone!
