What to cook for Easter: recommendations from chefs and influencers

What to cook for Easter: recommendations from chefs and influencers

With the arrival of spring and the approach of Easter, many of us are thinking about the holiday menu. If you are looking for inspiration for celebrating with your family and friends, chefs and influencers are ready to share their best Easter recipes with you.

We have collected for you not only classic recipes, but also author’s interpretations that can add a unique taste and flavor to the festive table.

Yulia Lebedeva, editor-in-chief of Woman Magazine

Family recipe for Easter cake

Ingredients:

• Flour 2.5 kg (pre-sifted)
• Milk 1 liter
• Live yeast 100 g
• Цукор 700 г
• Salt ~0.5 teaspoon
• Eggs 7 pcs. (beat with a whisk or mixer)
• Butter 200 g (melt)
• Margarine – 200 g
• Raisins 1 – 1.5 cups (rinse, dry)
• Vanilla sugar – 2 sachets

Method of cooking:

Add the yeast, sugar, butter and margarine, and beaten eggs to the warm milk. Gradually add 2 kg of flour and salt and vanilla sugar. Knead the dough, using the remaining 0.5 kg of flour for your hands. Stir for 20 minutes until the dough stops sticking to your hands.

At the end, add the raisins, sprinkling them with flour. Let the dough stand for about 2 hours. Then put it into industrial molds to 1/3 of the height. Let stand for another 40 minutes.

Bake in a preheated oven for 40-45 minutes at 180 degrees. Let cool slightly and decorate the top.

Hanna Neplyah, співачка, блогер 

In my family, we always prepare for Easter, and thanks to my mom, we have delicious homemade kulichy. Since I am a creative person, I am only trusted to decorate, because to be honest, I am afraid of dough and my mother’s Easter cakes, baked with love, always turn out delicious, so I will share the recipe from the heart. 

Ingredients:

• 1 liter of milk
• 10 eggs
• 100 grams of yeast
• 2 packs of margarine (or butter)
• 1 kg of sugar

Method of cooking:

Put everything in a container without stirring and leave it for 12 hours (overnight), and knead it in the morning. Then add 3 kg of flour, raisins, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla. Knead the dough and leave it for 1 hour to rise. Put into molds, 1/2 part in each, and leave again for 30 minutes. Bake for 30-40 minutes over low heat. 

What to cook for Easter: recommendations

Protein glaze for Easter cake: 

• Powdered sugar -100 g.
• Egg white – 1 pc.
• Citric acid – 2 g or 1 tsp of lemon juice.

The egg should be cold. Separate the egg yolk and egg white, beat the egg white with a mixer first at low speed, then at high speed. While whisking, add powdered sugar and citric acid to the egg whites. Beat until the mixture becomes homogeneous, smooth and shiny. The icing should be applied to the cake immediately before it hardens. Decorate to taste.

Alik Badretdinov, chef at Negorkiy restaurant

Recipe for 12 Easter cakes

Ingredients:

• Egg yolks – 20 pieces
• Sugar – 800 g
• Butter – 800 g
• Wheat flour – 3 kg
• Optionally, add the zest of three oranges and lemons
• Dried apricots – 500 g
• Candied fruit – 500 g
• For the sourdough starter
• Milk – 1 cup (warm)
• Yeast – 100 g
• Sugar – 100 g
• Salt – 1 teaspoon
• Wheat flour – 400 g

Method of cooking:

Knead the starter according to the recipe and leave it for 1.5 hours in a warm place without a draft and an open window.

Then mix the yolks well with the sugar and add the melted butter, gradually add all the flour, dried apricots, candied fruit, zest and sourdough starter. Knead the dough well and leave it in a warm place for another 1 hour.

After the dough has risen, knead it again and form it into molds, filling the molds by 1/3. Bake for 30 minutes at 175 degrees. But check the dough with a long skewer for doneness, so that it is not wet and underdone.

Kateryna Kaplyar, host of the hit parade “Our Best”

Family recipe for Easter cakes

“I remember not liking to wake up at night, but I would get up, sleep in the car, and then we would go to church to celebrate Easter. The most vivid memory from my childhood is that I used to make Easter cakes with my mother, dye eggs, and then, according to tradition, go to my grandmother’s house, where our whole extended family would gather. Our family has one secret recipe for delicious Easter cakes, and I’m ready to reveal it,” Kateryna says.

Ingredients:

• Milk – 500 ml
• Wheat flour – 1 kg
• Butter – 200 g
• Sugar – 300 g
• Eggs – 6 pcs.
• Dry yeast – 12 g
• Raisins – 275 g
• Vanilla sugar – 1 teaspoon
• Salt – 0.25 teaspoon

Method of cooking:

Take the eggs and butter out of the refrigerator in advance, they need to come to room temperature. Dry yeast should be calculated for 1 kg of flour.

First, put the dough in. To do this, take half of the total amount of flour and mix it with dry yeast. Heat the milk; it should be pleasantly warm to the touch, but not hot. Pour it into the flour while stirring constantly. Cover the bowl with the dough with a towel and put it in a warm place for half an hour. 

Separate the eggs into whites and yolks. Beat the yolks with the sugar and vanilla sugar until fluffy and light. Whip the whites to stiff peaks. Add the beaten egg yolks to the dough and mix. Add salt and softened butter. Knead it well with your hands.

Then add the whipped whites. Gently mix the mass with the whites from the bottom up. Sift the remaining flour. Add the flour gradually, in small portions, focusing on the desired consistency of the dough.

Cover the bowl with the dough with a towel and put it in a warm place for an hour. While the dough is rising, prepare the raisins. First, rinse them and then pour boiling water over them for 15 minutes. Drain and spread the raisins out to dry on a napkin. Add a spoonful of flour to the dry raisins and mix well so that each one is coated in flour.

The dough should double in size during proofing. Add the raisins to the dough and knead it so that they are evenly distributed. Cover with a towel and leave for 10 minutes.

Prepare the baking tins. За потреби змастіть їх олією. Put the dough into the molds, filling them by one third, no more. Easter cakes will increase in size when baked. Leave the dough in the molds to rest for another 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 100°C. Put the molds with the cakes in the oven and keep them at this temperature for 10 minutes, then increase the heat to 180°C and bake them until they are done, 45-50 minutes.

Zlata Ognevich, singer

Every year, at Easter, my mother used to cook a delicious curd cake. Now I still make Easter cakes according to my mother’s recipe when I have inspiration and free time, and my friends just eat them up.

Ingredients:

• 800 g of cheese
• 1 cup of sugar
• 2/3 cup sour cream
• 200 g of peeled walnuts

Method of cooking:

Rub the cottage cheese through a sieve to make it homogeneous. Then add sugar and sour cream and mix well.  Chop the walnuts into small pieces and add to the cheese mixture. After the ingredients are mixed, put the mixture in a mold and place it in a cold place for 12 hours. Once the cake has set, it can be removed from the mold and served.

Hector Jimenez-Bravo, chef, restaurateur 

Easter cake with orange juice and raisins

Ingredients:

• Flour – 600 grams;
• Eggs (yolks) – 3 pcs;
• Milk – 300 ml;
• Butter – 180 grams;
• Sugar – 180 grams;
• Dry yeast – 8 grams (or 24 grams of live yeast);
• Salt – 1/2 tsp;
• Dried fruits (raisins) – 150 grams;
• Orange (zest) – 1 pc;
• Vanilla sugar – 1 tsp;
• Orange juice – 120 ml;
• Strong alcohol (brandy, rum, whiskey) – 50 grams.

 Merengue:

• Eggs (whites) – 100 grams;
• Powdered sugar – 100 grams;
• Sugar – 100 grams.

Method of cooking:

He saved the proteins that remained after the dough was cooked. Prepare the meringue as follows:

Proteins + sugar, put in a water bath. Stir the mixture until the powder dissolves. Beat the meringue on a slow speed with a mixer, gradually increasing it and adding powder. Pour the dried fruit with orange juice, add strong alcohol and put on the fire, boil and cook. Prepare the dough. Pour the yeast and sugar into the warm milk, stir and place in a warm place for 7-10 minutes until a thick yeast cap forms.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks with the salt, sugar and vanilla sugar until fluffy and light. Add softened butter and orange zest, beat well. Add the risen dough to the mass and mix. Next, add the sifted flour in parts, knead with a spatula, and the dough turns out like thick sour cream. Cover and place in a warm place for 40-60 minutes until doubled in size.

What to cook for Easter: recommendations

Add the dried fruit, stir, cover with foil and leave it warm for another 30-40 minutes. Grease the baking molds with vegetable oil. Put the finished dough into molds (fill the mold with 1/3 of the dough) and leave it warm to rise for 1 hour.

Bake the cakes in a preheated oven to 170 degrees for 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 160 and bake for another 15 minutes. After 20 minutes, you can cover the cakes with foil to prevent the top from burning. Check readiness with a dry toothpick.

YAROMIYA

This is a recipe that has been passed down from generation to generation (the recipe of my great-grandmother from the city of Sambir).

Ingredients:

• 0.5 liters of milk
• 3 eggs
• 100 g of butter
• 1 kg of flour
• Yeast (50 g) or dry pack
• 200 g of sugar
• 1 pinch of salt
• Vanilla sugar
• Raisins
• Jewelry

Method of cooking:

Boil the milk, let it cool (so that it is warm). Crumble the yeast, mix, add 200 g of sugar with three eggs, mix again and add milk. Add a pinch of salt.

Add the flour, gradually mixing until the dough does not stick to your hands, like bread or pies. Add the vanilla sugar and raisins and mix again. Melt the butter and add it to the dough, knead it so that everything is well absorbed. If the dough is too thin, add more flour.

Leave our dough in a warm place for 40-45 minutes to rise. Then we divide the dough into molds, half filling each one, and let it rise again. Brush the top of each mold with egg yolk and bake for 40-25 minutes at 180 degrees.

After baking, decorate as desired. Bon appetit!

Iryna Bilyk, singer

What to cook for Easter: recommendations

Since childhood, Easter has been a great holiday for me. Unfortunately, my mom and dad, my family, are gone. We used to gather as a family at my aunt Katia’s house (her voice can be heard in the song “Paints”). My aunt used to cook wonderful rice according to her own recipe and we waited a whole year to try it for Easter!

Recipe:

To prepare, boil 3 cups of rice and cool it. Then melt half a stick of butter in a frying pan, add finely chopped onions (2-3 small onions), grated carrots (2-3 pieces), add garlic to taste and fry everything. When the rice is no longer so hot and dry, add it to the pan, then add 6-7 diced eggs. Mix everything well and fry again in the pan. Then pour the finished dish onto a dish, add the stewed chicken on top and garnish with green onions. This is a fantastic dish for Easter!

MIRAMI

Yeast Easter cake

Ingredients:

• 1 kg of flour
• 1.5 cups of milk
• 6 eggs
• 300 grams of sugar
• 200 grams of butter
• 50 grams of yeast
• 200 гр родзинок
• A pinch of salt, vanilla, lemon zest.

Method of cooking:

Heat the milk and dissolve the yeast and 0.5 kg of flour in it. Cover and leave in a warm place for the products to “make friends” (about 30 minutes). Separate the whites of 6 eggs from the yolks and beat them into a froth. Mix the yolks with sugar and vanilla and beat until white.

Add melted warm butter and beaten egg yolks to the dough. Stir. Then add the beaten egg whites and the rest of the flour. Knead the dough – it should become soft and lag behind your hands and the bowl. Cover it and wait for the dough to double in size. Add the raisins to the dough, previously sprinkled with flour. Добре перемішуємо тісто з родзинками і викладаємо у форми. The dough should occupy 1/3 of the volume of the mold. 

When the dough has risen and is level with the edges of the mold, brush the top of the dough with an egg and bake at 180 degrees for about 40 to 50 minutes.

To prepare the icing, take 1 egg white, 200 grams of powdered sugar and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. Beat the egg whites with the powdered sugar and add the lemon juice. The mass should have the consistency of sour cream. 

Spread the baked dough with icing and decorate with sprinkles… Let it dry for 30-40 minutes.

Enjoy your Easter! Happy holidays!

NAVKA, singer 

What to cook for Easter: recommendations

After the Christmas holidays, Easter is my second favorite holiday, because I feel the spirit of our ancestors in this holiday. Since childhood, I have witnessed my grandmother kneading dough in a large tub. I still remember the smell: a wooden tub greased with oil and dough that is souring.

In the end, there’s this divine smell of the dumplings that my grandmother pulls out of the oven. And my grandmother made a dove especially for us, and I’ve never seen anything like it before.

My Easter cake recipe is my grandmother’s recipe. It’s very simple: yeast in warm water, a little sugar, water, flour, and oil. Nothing dairy. For me, this is the most delicious Easter cake, I can eat it without anything, these fresh crusts are divine. 

TUMAZAR

I love sweets, so I recommend trying the chocolate Easter egg nest. But be careful, because this culinary masterpiece can make your buttocks stick together!

Ingredients:

• 200 g of dark chocolate
• 100 g of milk chocolate
• 150 g of wheat flakes
• A few mini eggs
• 12 cupcake molds
• Cooking spray

Method of cooking:

Break the dark and milk chocolate into small pieces and place them in a bowl. Melt the chocolate in a water bath, stirring every 30 seconds, until it is completely melted and smooth. Grind the wheat flakes and mix them with the melted chocolate. Take out the muffin tin and lightly spray each one with cooking spray. Spoon the chocolate and crushed cereal mixture into each muffin tin, making a well in the center to form a nest.

Place the quail eggs (for safety) in the center of each nest, pressing them lightly. Охолодіть гнізда для шоколадних пасхальних яєць принаймні 30 хвилин або поки вони не затвердіють, потім замініть перепелині яйця на шоколадні, аби ті не розтали раніше часу подачі.

When the nests have set, carefully remove them from the muffin tin. Serve the nests with the chocolate Easter eggs on a plate, sprinkle with grated nuts and raisins and enjoy! 

Photo: press service