Easter kulich with cinnamon and nuts made with dry yeast

We start by sifting the flour (through a sieve). It should be noted that we sift the flour no less than two times. Now we can prepare the dough starter. We take 200 grams of sifted flour and pour it into a deep bowl. Now we measure out 150 grams of granulated sugar. From this amount of sugar, we take 1 tablespoon of sugar. We pour this portion of sugar into the bowl where we already have 200 grams of flour.

This time we will make Easter kulich with dry yeast. We have instant dry yeast, which we add to the flour. So, we weigh 7 grams (that’s how much yeast is needed according to the recipe) and send it to the bowl with flour. We mix the dry ingredients quite thoroughly in the bowl.

Now we add milk. We took condensed milk. You can use regular milk, but kulichs made with condensed milk turn out especially delicious. They have a creamy taste. Of course, the milk needs to be warmed up beforehand.

We mix the components of the dough starter using a mixer.

We cover the bowl with the dough starter with a clean kitchen towel. We find a warm, draft-free place for it. We leave the dough starter there for about half an hour. The yeast activates in the warmth, raising the starter in the bowl with a frothy cap. We wash two raw chicken eggs. We break them, separating the yolks and whites into separate bowls.

To the prepared dough starter, we add the other ingredients we prepared for the Easter dough. Before adding the chicken eggs to the dough, we beat them with a mixer. We beat the egg yolks and whites separately. We pour the remaining sugar into the egg yolks. Then we beat the yolks with sugar using a mixer until white foam appears. We pour this foam into the dough starter.

The next ingredients we add to the dough are softened butter and margarine. We soften them in a water bath, not bringing them to a liquid state. Since we only slightly soften the fats, they are not hot. We add the butter and margarine to the dough starter. We mix the fats in the dough starter with a mixer.

We beat the egg whites with a mixer and a pinch of salt. The beaten egg whites also go into the dough starter. We combine them with the starter, mixing with a spatula.

Gradually, we add the previously sifted flour. First, we mix the dough with a spatula, and then we start kneading the dough (with our hands).

We knead the dough for a long time. At first, the rich, sweet dough sticks to the hands. Therefore, to make it easier to knead the Easter dough, we often grease our hands with sunflower oil. For this, we just pour a little oil onto the back of our hand. The dough becomes stretchy, fluffy, and layered. It already easily comes off the walls of the bowl and our hands. We transfer the kneaded dough to a pot, cover it with gauze, and place it in a warm spot.

We prepare the additions for the dough. We add cinnamon, raisins, and walnut kernels to the kulich. We have light raisins. After washing the raisins, we place them on a napkin to absorb any excess moisture. We cut the walnut kernels into smaller pieces.

When the dough in the pot doubles in size, we punch it down. We add the raisins and nuts.

We add 1 tsp. of ground cinnamon, spreading it over the entire surface of the dough.

We thoroughly mix the additions into the dough. We place the pot with the dough in a warm spot for the dough to rise again. When the dough rises, we can distribute it into molds.

We have metal molds. We line the inside of the molds with greased paper and fill one third of the mold with Easter dough. We place the molds near the oven for the dough to rise in them. We cover the molds with paper napkins on top. When the dough rises and levels with the edges of the molds, we place the molds in the oven, which by this time is heated to +180 °C. Small Easter cakes bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes. When the tops of the cakes turn golden, light brown, we cover the tops of the cakes with foil. When the browned sides of the cakes start to pull away from the mold, it's time to take them out of the oven. Carefully remove the cakes from the molds. Once the cakes are free from the paper, we place them on their side on a towel. While the cakes are hot, their soft and tender sides can get squished. Therefore, we flip the cakes over on the towel a few times from one side to the other.

We decorate the cooled cakes with glaze made from gelatin. In our opinion, gelatin glaze is the best glaze for Easter cakes. Since this glaze is tasty and does not crumble when cutting the cakes.

We pour a teaspoon of gelatin with two tablespoons of room temperature water. We stir, leaving the gelatin to swell for 20 minutes.

We pour powdered sugar according to the recipe into a metal bowl. We add 2 tablespoons of water to the powdered sugar and mix. Placing the bowl over the heat, we bring the icing to a boil, but do not let it boil. Next, we introduce the swollen gelatin into the sugar icing, mixing. Now we add a pinch of grated lemon zest here.

We cover the cold Easter cakes with cinnamon and nuts made with dry yeast with this gelatin glaze. To do this, we dip the top of the cake into the glaze. We slightly rotate the cake in the icing, and then place the cake in a small plate. We quickly decorate the Easter cakes with cinnamon and nuts before the icing solidifies on them. By the way, another plus of gelatin glaze is that it sets quickly, and the decorations on it hold very firmly. Wishing you a bright Easter!