Easter Bread, or Ukrainian Babka Recipe (2024)

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Easter Bread, or Ukrainian Babka, is one of my household’s most beloved Easter traditions. I come from a Ukrainian family, and both of my grandmothers would make Babka every Easter. When my Grandma wasn’t around to make it, my Mom would then take over. I have been making Easter Bread since I had my own children and have taught them the tradition as well. This post was updated on March 20, 2018, to include some new photos and a how-to video! I have left my old step-by-step photos in the post, as they are very important and helpful!

Ukrainian Babka Recipe

It isn’t Easter in my household until we eat this bread for 4-5 days until we have our fill, then are sated for yet another year. This recipe is called Babka by mainly Canadian Prairie Ukrainian settlers, as it has been argued ( as you can read in the comments!) that this is Paska. Now, here on the Prairies my Mom and Baba swore up and down that actual Paska is not a sweet bread, is braided and has no raisins. Here on the Prairies we tend to actually have our own little culture when it comes to being Ukrainians. We pronounce kielbasa as ” koooo-basa” – which is the ONLY place that it’s pronounced like that! Isn’t that strange? It’s a uniquely Canadian prairie version of saying the word, however with our very large population of Ukrainian settlers it’s no less authentic, just as calling this Babka is no less authentic. Ways and words were changed when my ancestors arrived hereand adapted to a new life.

Also on another interesting note, it’s unique to the Edmonton area that we spell it “perogy” instead of pierogi. We have a Perogy House here, it’s just how we spell it sometimes!

What is Easter Bread or Ukrainian Babka?

It is a light, buttery yet slightly sweet yeast bread with raisins, baked in coffee tins and is so fantastic toasted with some butter on it. Or plain with margarine. Or toasted with anything on top. It is also a labor of love and takes a few hours.

Ingredients Needed:

• 1 cup of butter
• 2 cups of milk
• 3/4 cup of white sugar
• 1 cup of cold water
• 1/2 cup of warm water
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 tbsp of traditional yeast
• 6 large egg yolks
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 2 tsp of salt
• 8-9 cups of flour
• 2 cups of raisins
• 7 small coffee tins
• One beaten egg to brush the tops with

Now, I put the butter, milk and 3/4 cup of white sugar in a pot and brought it to a near boil, you want to slightly scald the milk.

Then I called my mother, and during that conversation, she mentioned that she throws it all into the microwave and nukes it until it’s incredibly hot.

Now, that is certainly not how my predecessors did it. However, this modern woman on her second batch used the microwave.

And it works like a charm!

Now, you have to let the mixture cool, and adding that cup of water certainly helps; thus, we leave it until the end here.

Mix the warm water and 1 tsp of sugar in your yeast thoroughly and let it start bubbling away.

Beat your egg yolks and turmeric. The turmeric gives the bread its lovely color. You can also use three whole eggs instead of the six egg yolks but the yolks make a richer bread. So three eggs OR 6 yolks, folks.

Add it to the cooled milk mixture.

Then add the yeast.

I use the mixer for this now because it is one heck of a job. Mix the salt into the flour, add the first four cups of flour, then your raisins. Then, slowly add another 4-5 cups until the dough is slightly sticky.

My dough always climbs the hook eventually, so I used the mixer to combine it and kneaded as much as possible, then removed it and kneaded it on the counter for a while.

Once that’s done, it needs to rise. Put it into a bowl(s) in a nice warm place.

Cover it of course.

Once it’s doubled in size, it’s time to punch it down and put it in the tins to rise again. You want to fill the tins only halfway with punched-down dough; this dough rises like you wouldn’t believe!

Grease the heck out of those coffee tins. I only had six this year, so you can also use a loaf pan. This would make a perfect seven tins.

It’s time to let it rise again. I had a nice warm stove from banana bread, so they sat on there. Let them rise until they are almost at the top. They will rise in the oven as well when they start baking, which is why you want them only to rise barely to the top of the tin.

Remove all the oven racks except the bottom one. Kick the tires and light the fires to 325 degrees.

Bake for 30-40 minutes on the very bottom rack. The tops will get very golden brown but don’t fear. The inner part has to cook, and the tops will get and stay brown.

Cool very slightly in the tins, then remove to ensure the bread doesn’t sweat, and the bottoms don’t get soggy!

Happy Baking,, you guys! I am so happy to share this recipe with you. It’s our family tradition, and I’m thrilled that you can bake it as well!

Love,

Karlynn

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