Once a year, the entire Orthodox part of humanity prepares for the brightest and most important holiday of Christians, Easter.
Of course, the main concern, after the longest fasting, symbolizing spiritual cleansing, is a festive table, where the main place is occupied by Easter or Easter cake, consecrated in the temple.
A gala dinner begins, or rather breakfast.
Easter recipes, not only in each individual region, but also in each family - are their own. They are often passed down from generation to generation.
Many women cook Easter and bake Easter cakes using the secrets of their grandmothers, although the traditional exchange of experience does not lose its relevance.
One of the relatively new recipes that has emerged in recent decades is the Easter recipe for kefir, with and without yeast.
It is clear that kefir in fresh and pastry dough is necessary as a means to ensure splendor and ease of baking. But the use of kefir in a yeast dough seems more like a desire to come up with something new, because the activity and effectiveness of milk bacteria against the background of yeast fades.
Although some benefit from such a tandem is still there. Let's look at least in general terms on how yeast with lactobacilli and bifidobacteria work together.
Easter on kefir - basic technological principles
Many housewives are familiar with the secrets of making yeast dough. It should be noted that in the standard norms of the baking industry and confectionery shops there is no such thing as kefir dough with yeast, although in practice this method of making dough is quite common.
The use of kefir in combination with yeast at first glance seems pointless, because yeast and lactic acid bacteria are representatives of the same, the most numerous colony of living organisms on earth. Yeast and milk bacteria, however, belong to different types of microorganisms and they eat differently: yeast prefer sugar, and bifidobacteria and lacto bacteria prefer dairy products. But both of these groups in the process of life emit carbon dioxide, causing fermentation of the dough.
On the other hand, they do not interfere with each other and can coexist in the same environment. Therefore, using kefir and yeast for the test at the same time is quite possible. True, it should be noted that the action of yeast, nevertheless, is more effective than their "colleagues".
If you do not intend to use yeast to prepare the dough, in order to start the carbon dioxide evolution reaction, which will ensure the rise of the dough, you must add components that provide an alkaline environment: soda, ammonium or other additives approved for use in the food industry.
In the case of combining yeast and milk bacteria in the total mass, the use of baking powder is not necessary.
1. "Red Easter" on kefir without yeast
Products:
Flour 450 g
Small salt
Sugar 300 g
Kefir 200 ml
Soda 5 g
Raspberries, fresh or frozen 180 g
Eggs 3 pcs.
Vanilla 3 g
Lemon (juice) 20 ml
Oil (82.5%) 140 g
Order of preparation:
Mix flour with soda and salt. Beat butter until lush with sugar and eggs, driving them one at a time. Add vanilla. Rub the berries through a sieve to remove the grains. Combine raspberry juice with kefir and mix. For a more saturated color, food coloring can be added.
In the butter-egg mixture, add kefir and flour alternately, continuing to beat the dough.
Line cylindrical forms with oiled parchment and pour into them the prepared dough, filling in ¾ of the volume.
Bake for half an hour at 180Ϲ. Check the availability of products with a wooden stick. Remove the cooled pastries from the mold and decorate the top with white icing or whipped cream, sugar powder or raspberries.
2. Curd Easter on kefir without yeast: a recipe for Russian cuisine
Product Composition:
Whole milk 5.0 l
Raisins, dark 150 g
Oil 250 g
Salt
Kefir 1.0 L
Sugar 0.5 kg
Eggs 10 pcs.
Candied fruits 350 g
Vanilla
Rum or extract
Order of preparation:
In a large saucepan, heat the milk to 40Ϲ: it is better to buy homemade (farm), whole, with a high percentage of fat content. Pour kefir and salt into warmed milk. Stir and leave the pan, wait until most of the whey settles to the bottom of the dishes.
Line with gauze a strainer or colander mounted on a pallet. Collect the curd mass formed on the surface of the pan with a slotted spoon and transfer it to cheesecloth. Wrapping the edges of the gauze, set the press (use a jar of water) to remove the remaining whey from the cottage cheese.
Then wipe the cottage cheese and combine it with softened butter, add vanilla and rum extract, prepared raisins, candied fruits.
Separate the yolks from the proteins, rub them with sugar, add to the whipped proteins and mix. Gently, in parts, add the curd mass, stirring with a spoon or spatula, from the bottom up, so as not to destroy the splendor of the egg mass.
Turn on the oven at 110-120Ϲ. Place a pan filled with water below and heat the water to a boil. Put the curd dough into molds and place on the middle grid of the oven. Reduce the temperature to 80-90Ϲ and heat Easter with steam for 60 - 70 minutes, adding water to the pan if necessary.
Turn the cooled forms onto a dish and lay out the Easter. Put the “XB” candied fruit, sprinkle with colored sugar and put in the cold.
3. Curd Easter on kefir without yeast with cherry in chocolate glaze
Product Composition:
Flour 150 g
Cherry 200 g
Cottage cheese (18%) 1.0 kg
Soda 25 g
Sugar 350 g
Kefir 250 ml
Milk Chocolate 400 g
Eggs 7 pcs.
Butter 150 g
Vanilla Extract 20 drops
Order of preparation:
Add butter to the curd, wipe through a sieve. Rub proteins with sugar, combine with pre-chilled and whipped proteins. In kefir add soda, vanilla, lightly salt to emphasize the taste. Combining kefir with cottage cheese, add flour, knead the dough. Put fresh or frozen cherries in it. Combine the prepared mass with the eggs, mix and place in the molds, filling them at 2/3 of the height.
Bake for up to 45 minutes at 180Ϲ. It is necessary to take products from the mold chilled to room temperature. In a steam bath, melt the chocolate and cover it with Easter.
4. Easter on kefir with yeast: Easter cake with saffron
Grocery list:
Kefir (2.5%) 250 g
Flour 500 g
4 eggs
Candied fruits 100 g
Oil 100 g
Dry yeast 8 g
Saffron 2 g
Rum 50 ml
Orange zest 60 g
Sugar 450 g
Vanilla (powder, crystalline) 2 g
White raisins 120 g
Order of preparation:
Separate fresh egg whites from the yolks and refrigerate for a while. Combine the yolks with sugar, add soft butter, rum, orange zest and saffron boiled in 50 ml of boiling water. In yogurt, add a third of the flour, a little sugar, yeast; Stir and let stand warm until yeast starts to work. Add the cooked bun, pour the rest of the flour and wait, kneading the dough, cover it and place it closer to the plate for proofing. Set it aside when it rises, put raisins and candied fruits, knead until it starts to easily stick off from your hands and dishes. If necessary (if the flour has high humidity), add flour. Form for Easter cakes grease and fill them with the test for 25%. Put in heat, wait for rise and bake. Check the readiness of Easter cakes inside with a wooden skewer.
Beat the chilled proteins, gradually add the remaining sugar, vanilla. Lubricate the top of the cooled cakes with the prepared glaze, garnish with powdered sugar or candied fruit.
5. Almond Easter on kefir with yeast
Product Composition:
Instant yeast 20 g
Flour 450 g
Raisins 250 g
Almond chips 100 g
Dried apricots 140 g
Kefir 150 ml
Fresh eggs 6 pcs.
Oil 200 g
Sugar 350 g
Amaretto 100 ml
Vanilla 3 g
Procedure:
Combine the egg yolks, sugar and butter. Sift flour and combine 100 g with warm kefir and yeast, adding 2-3 tablespoons of sugar; connect this part with egg-butter baking. Put in heat, covering the dough. When steady foam appears, add vanilla and liquor, combined with dried fruit and nut crumbs flour. Knead the dough. After lifting, divide into portions and lay in prepared forms. Let the Easter cakes rise again and bake.
Prepare the protein glaze as described in the previous recipe and decorate Easter with kefir and yeast.
6. Easter on kefir with yeast, orange
Products for the test:
Sugar 350 g
Squirrels 7 pcs.
Kefir (2.5%) 250 ml
Oranges 2 pcs.
Flour 1.2 kg
Oil (or margarine) 100 g
Powder 50 g
Live yeast 80 g
Yolks, chicken 7 pcs.
Vanillin 4 g
Powder 200 g
Order of preparation:
Remove the zest from oranges, free the flesh from the peel and membrane; Kill the pulp with a blender, combining with kefir, adding 100 g of granulated sugar, 2 g of vanillin. Combine the butter with the remaining sugar, whisk, adding one yolk each. Combine both cooked masses and add yeast and a quarter of the flour. Let the dough rise and add the rest of the flour. Knead well, arrange in forms, having prepared them in advance. When the cakes rise to the edge of the form, send them to the preheated oven. After baking, let cool, remove from mold, grease with glaze made from chilled proteins, powder and 2 g of vanillin. Garnish with powdered sugar.
7. Easter on kefir with yeast and fructose
Easter cake is traditionally prepared with the addition of a large amount of sugar, eggs, fats. But for those who, even on the Great Holiday, cannot afford such a baking, there is a recipe no less sweet and tasty, but at the same time - diet.
Grocery list:
Dry yeast 7 g
Kefir 0.5 L
Flour 0.5 kg
Fructose 250 g
Vanilla 3 g
Dried fruits 300 g
For milk syrup:
70 ml whole milk
50 ml raspberry juice
150 g fructose
Cooking:
Sift flour, add vanilla and fructose. Dissolve the yeast in warm kefir and combine it with flour. Add the prepared dried fruits to the risen dough, mix, distribute into molds, transfer the proofing container to a warm place. Bake after increasing the volume of the test 2 times.
Boil milk with raspberry juice and add fructose (150 g). Cook until thickened. To glaze on the surface of Easter cakes, add 20 g of oil at the end of cooking.
Easter on kefir - useful tips and tricks
Excess soda can spoil baking. Soda contributes to the quick drying of baked dough products. Its excessive presence in baking tastes unpleasant, and the finished muffin has an ugly gray tint.
In yeast dough, it is also important not to overdo it with yeast. Their excess will give the test a sour smell; muffin, supersaturated with yeast, during storage quickly moldy and becomes unsuitable for consumption.
The consistency of the test for Easter on kefir without yeast should be softer. Dairy bacteria are less active, so adding less flour is advisable. Raw dough should slightly float. After baking, excess moisture contained in kefir will evaporate, and milk protein will turn into elastic and dense fibers, which will provide the desired baking texture.
It is very important to pay attention to the quality and freshness of the products, because this is the key to success for any dough products.
Household kitchen appliances now help reduce time costs, but kneading the dough is still better with your hands. It was not in vain that our grandmothers often repeated that one should feel the dough, that it is alive. There are other tips for making dough that, at first glance, seem like fiction or superstition. But, if you think about it, then in these tips there is also a scientific justification. Remember how in my childhood my grandmother did not even allow me to enter the kitchen when she put dough for Easter cakes. These prohibitions are not explained at all by prejudice, but by the fact that the yeast dough does not like a sharp change in temperature, drafts, sudden and sharp mechanical vibrations. It turns out that grandmothers, not knowing physics and chemistry, were absolutely right.
