Russian Kulich - Easter Bread #BreadBakers

The traditional Russian kulich is baked in multiplies for family gatherings to celebrate Easter and is often eaten on Easter Monday as picnic fare. It's a lovely sweet bread made with either raisins or chocolate chips.

This month our Bread Bakers host is Camilla from Culinary Adventures with Camilla and she chose international Easter breads for our theme. I must confess that I really didn’t pay attention to whether the second Tuesday fell before or after Easter because I loved the theme so much.

Turns out that it is after Easter for those of us who follow the Gregorian (new) calendar, which is much of the western world. For those who follow the Julian (old) calendar, we are right on time with Easter bread recipes, as they will celebrate next Sunday.

That said, as Camilla rightly pointed out, most of us all over the world are still staying home to stay safe so many family Easter celebrations have been postponed until we can all be together. If that’s you, dear reader, please bookmark or pin your favorite recipes from our list, found below my recipe.

Russian Kulich - Easter Bread

This recipe is adapted from several I found online. Traditionally, Russian kulich would be baked with raisins instead of chocolate chips, but I did find one recipe by an actual baker with a Russian grandma who added chocolate, so I am feeling pretty good about my choice. I’ll be honest. My daughter is home and she is not a fan of raisins. I wanted to bake sweet bread that she would eat!

Ingredients
For the kulich:
1/2 cup or 120ml warm milk (I used 2% milk)
1/2 cup or 100g sugar
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 whole egg, room temp
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup or 56g butter, melted and cooled
good pinch salt
2 tablespoons sour cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/4 cups or 281g all-purpose flour
3/4 cup or 140g raisins or for a less traditional bread, substitute chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet chocolate.)

To bake the kulich:
2 1-lb coffee cans
parchment paper
butter

For the glaze:
1/2 cup or g 62 icing sugar
2 teaspoons fresh lemon or orange juice

Optional to decorate: colored sprinkles

Method
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the warm milk, sugar and yeast. Set aside to prove. The yeast should start to get a little foamy on top.

Whisk in the egg and egg yolk, melted butter, sour cream, salt and vanilla.

Whisk in half of the flour. Your batter will be very thick, mounding briefly when you let it drip off the whisk back into the bowl.

Cover the bowl with cling film and let it rise in a warm place, ideally 100°F or 39°C for about an hour. I achieve this by filling a larger bowl with hot water from the sink and set the batter bowl in it. Occasionally check the temperature and add more hot water as needed.

Using a wooden spoon or a stiff spatula, add the rest of the flour a little at a time.

The dough will be quite soft. Stir in the raisins or chocolate chips. Cover and let dough rise another hour in a warm place, again ideally at 100˚F or 38°C. Use the hot water bowl trick again for best results.

Butter your clean coffee cans then line them with baking parchment.

Spoon the dough into the two prepared coffee cans, trying not to mix it too much. We want to keep as many of the bubbles in the dough as possible. Mine were filled about halfway, which is hard to see in this photo. Trust me.

Again, leave the dough to rise uncovered in a warm place for an additional hour or until the coffee cans are almost full. I put my two cans back in the big bowl and added more hot tap water then covered the bowl with cling film and a folded towel.

If you do this, do be careful getting them out of the bowl when you are ready to bake. One of mine tipped over a bit as I tried to get them out and I lost some height on the rise.

Towards the end of the hour rising time, preheat your oven to 350˚F or 180°C.

Bake the kulich for 30-35 minutes until the top is golden brown. If they start browning too quickly, you can cover the tops with foil.

Cool for about 10 minutes on a wire rack then gently loosen the edges with a knife and turn the kulich out of the coffee cans. Leave them to cool completely, bottom side down on the wire rack.

To make the glaze, stir just enough of the lemon or orange juice into the powdered sugar to get a drizzling consistency. Pour the glaze over each cooled kulich. Top with sprinkles, if desired.

Enjoy!



Check all the lovely Easter breads from around the world! If you don't bake one this month, you'll be glad to have the recipes for another special occasion. Many thanks to Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla for hosting this month!

• Choereg (Armenian Easter Bread) by Making Miracles
• Easy Glazed Baked Donuts by Shockingly Delicious
• Folar da Páscoa, a Less-Than-Traditional Version by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• German Osterbrot Easter Bread by Ambrosia
• Hot Cross Buns by Sneha's Recipe
• Polish Babka by A Messy Kitchen
• Kalach (Hungarian Easter Bread) by Passion Kneaded
• Kozunak (Bulgarian Easter Bread) by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Russian Kulich - Easter Bread by Food Lust People Love
• Sourdough Hot Cross Buns by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Sourdough Ukrainian Paska by Zesty South Indian Kitchen

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our of lovely bread by following our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated after each event on the Bread Bakers home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Pin this Russian Kulich Easter Bread!

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