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April 7, 2020

Russian Easter Bread Kulich

Name: Russian Easter Bread Kulich
Prep time: 370 min
Cook time: 45 min
Ingredients: 500ml/2 cups + 2 tbsp warm whole milk; 6 eggs (large, room temperature); 9g/1 tbsp active dry yeast; 400g/2 cups sugar; 250g/0.5lbs butter (melted (if using salted butter, omit the salt)); 1/2 tsp salt; 125ml1/2 cup sour cream (full fat); 1 tsp vanilla; 1kg 80g/9 cups bread flour (divided); 175g/1 cup chocolate chips or raisins; 200g/7oz white chocolate (melted); 1 tbsp sprinkles

Published April 7, 2020 | Julia Frey (Vikalinka)

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This brioche like sweet Easter bread glazed with a simple sugar icing or melted white chocolate, aka Kulich or Paska in Russian, is always the biggest hit at holiday brunches!

Try this Kulich recipe with another Russian Easter favourite Sweet Cheese Pudding Paskha.

I feel an incredible pull of tradition every year when Easter comes around. No matter how busy I am, the need to cook, bake and colour eggs overpowers everything else.

I’ve written about Russian Easter tradition of egg colouring. And if you’ve been following me for a while, you know that Easter is the biggest holiday in the Orthodox tradition, which affects everyone in the whole country… Orthodox or not. Everyone celebrates Easter.

What is Russian Easter Bread?

It’s called Kulich or sometimes Paska. It is a sweet bread, that every Russian and Ukrainian family eats for Easter. It’s an unbreakable tradition.

Its sweet, rich and buttery yellow-coloured flesh studded with all kinds of great things like golden raisins, candied citrus peel, almonds is what I want to stuff my face all the time.

But I wait till Easter like a good girl. If I were to compare it to anything I would say it’s a cross between Italian Panettone and French Brioche.

How to make Kulich

My grandma would start the dough the night before, let it rise overnight and wake up well before dawn to make all kinds of goodies. Sweet and savoury filled pastries, cinnamon buns and Kulich.

Waking up to the sweet aroma of freshly baked bread is one of my favourite childhood memories. And I hope to pass them onto my children.

My grandma’s baking was the best, none of my friends’ grandmas came even close to her greatness. Unfortunately, she never wrote down any recipes, and some of the most traditional Russian recipes, which she was the keeper of, got lost with her passing.

Because of such high expectations, only heightened by my nostalgic memories, I never thought I would like another Kulich. However, I wanted to revive the tradition in my own family, so I went on a recipe hunt.

I spent a while searching in hopes to find one that resembled my grandma’s. Truth is, I was only a child and didn’t remember how grandma made the bread. In the end, I had to turn to Natasha’s Kitchen.

Here is my rendition of the recipe. I used chocolate chips instead of the traditional raisins and I topped it with melted white chocolate instead of sugar glaze.

If you make bread or cinnamon rolls, making this Easter bread recipe is not too different. It takes a whole day because it consists to 3 stages. Nonetheless, none of them are time consuming or difficult.

What pan to use for Kulich

Kulich is baked to be a very tall bread, so large coffee cans are often used in Russia to create that traditional shape. However, I bake mine in a deep 8 inch cake pan.

You can also order special pans and molds, that are made for the Italian Panettone to bake yours.

Decorating Tips

Traditionally Kulich is covered with a simple sugar glaze made with a mix of icing sugar and water. My grandmother poured a combination of beaten egg white and sugar, which hardened and turned glossy.

I personally prefer using melted white chocolate to top my Easter bread. Sometimes I like to keep it unglazed and pipe the traditional Orthodox lettering on it.

XB, which stands for Christ is Risen in Russian. It’s the phrase you will hear people say to each other all day long. Powerful words that replace ‘hello’ for the day!

Usually our first loaf disappears within a couple of hours…thank God the recipe makes 3!

So you can indulge before the day knowing that your Easter table will be crowned with this gorgeous bread, that’s been enjoyed by generations of others before us.

Happy Easter!

More Easter recipes

Recipe originally published in 04/2015. Updated and republished in 04/2020.