After the strict fasting of Lent, an explosion of "forbidden" foods appears on the Eastern European Easter table. There is no better example than these slightly sweet yeast breads full of butter, sugar and, sometimes, cheese. A staggering number of eggs, a symbol of fertility, rebirth, spring, and the Resurrection, figures prominently in them. Their names, often some form of the word paska, which means "Easter," can be a bread in some countries and a molded cheese dessert in others. The fun is in trying to figure out which is which! Check out these other Easter Bread Recipes Around the World.
1. Bohemian / Czech Easter Bread Recipe - Hoska
© 2009 Barbara Rolek licensed to About.com, Inc.
2. Croatian Easter Bread Dolls Recipe - Primorski Uskrsne Bebe
© 2009 Barbara Rolek licensed to About.com, Inc.
Croatian Easter Bread Dolls take center stage on a table all decked out in Easter linens, silver and crystal. Kids love them!
3. Lithuanian Easter Bread Recipe - Velykos Pyragas
Flickr by Ballad of Yoko
Lithuanian Easter bread is similar to many other Eastern European offerings -- a sweet yeast dough with raisins. It's delicious on Easter morning slathered with butter and a good accompaniment to the hard-cooked colored eggs everyone "clinks" together to see whose egg is the strongest.
4. Polish Babka Recipe - Babka Wielkanocna
© 2009 Polana Foods, www.polana.com
Polish babkas or babas, literally meaning "grandmother," are so named because they are typically baked in a fluted pan resembling an old woman's full skirt or a grandmother's top khot. Half cake and half bread, babkas exist in other Eastern European countries as well. They are completely different in the Jewish tradition, but just as delicious. This Easy Babka Recipe requires only one rise and uses only three eggs as opposed to 15 egg yolks in the traditional version!
5. Romanian Easter Bread Recipe - Cozonac
Flickr by yujai
Romanian Easter bread is called the Italian panettone of Romania because of its shape and similar texture. Bulgarians serve the same bread but call it kozunak. When Romanian Easter bread dough is filled with farmers cheese, it becomes the delicious pasca, which, in turn, is similar to Polish kolacz.
6. Russian Easter Bread Recipe - Kulich
Flickr by happy-dee-dooo
Russian Easter bread takes the form of kulich, a tall, cylindrical sweet yeast-risen bread. On Easter morning, Russian ladies engage in a little good-natured rivalry centering around who has the tallest kulich while waiting for the priest to bless their basket of delicacies.
7. Serbian Easter Egg Bread Recipe
Flickr by Souvlaki For The Soul
This sweet braided egg bread features red hard-cooked eggs, symbolizing the blood Christ shed and his rebirth or resurrection. Some people shape their bread into a cross with an egg at the head, foot and arms of the cross. This is very similar to Bohemian hoska.
8. Slovenian Easter Bread Recipe - Velikonocni Kruhki
Flickr by Twenty Cent Mixture
Slovenian Easter bread dough is formed into individual balls similar in appearance to hot cross buns, except there are no eggs in the dough and no icing cross on the top. They are blessed on Holy Saturday in the zegen basket and eaten on Easter morning.
9. Ukrainian Easter Bread Recipe - Paska
Flickr by Blue Fin
Ukrainian Easter bread or paska is also served by Slovaks at Easter time. It's similar to other slightly sweet yeast breads of its type mentioned here but this recipe doesn't contain fruit. This paska recipe shouldn't be confused with the Ukrainian molded cheese dessert known as paska, paskha or pasca or pascha in Russia, Lithuania, Poland and other Eastern European countries.
