| Yield: | Makes 3 to 5 kulichs, dependin |
| Yield: | Makes 3 to 5 kulichs, dependin |
Ingredients
- 2 envelopes dry yeast
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 2 cups milk
- 2 1/2 cups sugar
- About 8-10 cups flour
- 12 egg yolks
- 1/2 pound plus 4 tablespoons butter, melted
- 1 cup chopped candied fruit
- 1 cup sultana raisins
- 1/3 cup chopped blanched almonds
- 1 tablespoon rum
- 2 vanilla beans, finely minced
- Peel of 1 lemon, grated
- Pinch salt
Instructions
- Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup warm water. Let it rest for 15 minutes. Scald the milk. Combine 1 cup sugar and 1 1/2 cups flour, and pour in hot milk, stirring until the mixture acquires the texture of sour cream. If it is too thick add an extra 1/2 cup milk. Allow mixture to cool slightly and add yeast. Beat egg yolks with remaining suagr until light. Add melted butter to yeast mixture, and then egg yolks with sugar. Gradually beat in the remaining flour. The dough will be soft, elastic, and should not stick to hands. Add candied fruit, raisins, almonds, rum, vanilla, lemon peel and salt, and knead very well, about 30 minutes. Allow dough to rise for at least 3 hours in a warm place, free from drafts, covered by a kitchen towel. After the dough has risen, place in greased and floured kulich tins or coffee cans. (Greased tins may be lined with greased brown paper.) Be sure not to fill the tin or can more than 1/3 full. Allow the kulich to rise another 30-45 minutes. Bake for about 1-1 1/2 hours at 250 to 300 degrees until puffed and golden.
Reviews
i have not actually tried this recipe, but it is somewhat similar to grandma’s. however, it’s missing cardamom, nutmeg, saffron, vanilla and almond extract. rum is optional but nice. for the person whose kulich did not rise properly, i’ve been using 6 packages active dry yeast for the same amount of flour. 27 years and i’ve never had a problem.
I made these Kulichi this Easter & got raves. Replaced dried fruit with 1 1/4 c dried bing cherries soaked in amaretto. Added 2 T amaretto to the dough. Used 2 T cardamom powder and grated lemon peel of two lemons plus juice. Ordered vanilla pods online, 16 for about $9.(Used 2 in this recipe. They were very fresh and smelled great. Instead of kneading for 30 minutes (the dough can rise poorly if you knead it too much I kneaded it for 15 minutes. Added 1 T raw honey to the dough.Ground up cookies in food processor and used the crumbs on the parchment paper. Baked at 250 degrees over two hours. Took it out of the containers and let them cool on their side for several hours. Next year I will start them earlier so they could rise longer, especially the second time. You can tell if they are done rising if you press on the dough and it collapses a bit instead of springing back.
I’ve grown up eating tons of kulich every Easter. My mother had a great knack for baking, and also for experimenting. She winged recipes on a regular basis. Routinely, we would have 3-4 different recipes for one Easter. Bottom line is that I’ve tried dozens of different recipes of kulich.
This one rates high. The taste is super-rich, exactly as it is supposed to be. The one slight disappointment was a somewhat less than expected rise of the dough. This may be due to technical reasons of which I am not aware. Now while I am a total novice, especially in baking, my wife is a graduated of NY Restaurant School (now called something else) – Pastry and Desserts.
The result was a very dense bread, but also very moist and extraordinarily rich. The taste easily gets 4.5 stars.
I’m trying other recipes this year, but at the same time, I can see returning to this one again in the future.