“Night paska”: a step-by-step recipe for Oleksandria paska with a photo

Traditionally, Easter is not complete without eggs and soft, buttery paska. We at Joy-pup offer one of the best Easter baking recipes – Oleksandrijska paska. It is often called “night paska” because it can be prepared in advance in the evening and baked in the morning. This name comes from the tradition of making Opara, which “rests” at night. Oleksandrijska paska comes out moist and does not go stale for a long time. This recipe will make 6 strips with a diameter of 13 cm.

Paska Oleksandriyska – recipe with photo

Ingredients for Oleksandriyska paska

Sponge:

• 200 ml of condensed milk
• 500 g of sugar
• 250 g of butter
• 5 eggs
• 3 yolks
• 75 g of pressed yeast

Dough:

• 1.25 kg of flour
• 1 tablespoon cognac or rum
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract (or 1 bag of vanilla sugar)
• peel of 1 orange
• 200 g of raisins
• pinch of salt

Step-by-step recipe:

1. Let’s start by preparing the broth. Pour sugar into a deep bowl, add warm condensed milk and mix with a whisk. Throw in pressed yeast and mix the ingredients.

2. In a bowl with yeast, add 5 eggs, 3 yolks and cold butter, chopped into cubes. Beat everything with a mixer. Cover the bowl with steamed cling film and leave for 10-12 hours.

3. When the time has passed, remove the film from the oven, added 1 tbsp. l cognac or rum, salt, vanilla extract, zest, dried fruits. Gradually add flour – first half and mix with a whisk. Next, pour in the second half of the flour and knead the mass with your hands until it becomes homogeneous and smooth. Knead the dough until it does not lag behind the walls of the bowl and hands. Put the dough in a warm place for 1.5-2 hours.

4. Divide the dough into 6 parts. Shape them into balls with an even top, on which there should be no raisins, and put them in molds. Cover the forms with a towel and put in a warm place for 1 hour.

5. When the paskas has doubled in size, brush the top with yolk.

6. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Put the paskas in the oven and after 2 minutes reduce the temperature to 160°C. Bake for 50 minutes until golden on the surface.

7. After baking, remove the paska from the oven and let them cool before serving.