Alexandria cake
- Nutrition Facts
- Calories: 318
- Protein: 4.94
- Fats: 7.5
- Carbohydrates: 55.5
Alexandria dough for Easter cakes is very popular on the net. This is due to the fact that the dough does not need long manual kneading, and the dough is suitable for several hours. It is very convenient - on the evening before Maundy Thursday, put the dough to play, and early in the morning you can bake fragrant holiday cakes. By lunchtime, everything will be ready and you can start cleaning.
History of the dish
The origin of the word "Kulich" from the word "Kolacha", which means "Cha" - a child, "Kolo" - the sun. Easter cake is a symbol of the Easter rite; in some regions, Easter cake is even called Easter. Even in Ancient Russia, it was customary to end the service with a treat for all those praying with bread and wine, which were lit during the service.
In Russia, Easter cakes took different forms, but most often they gave it the appearance of a high church prosphora and cooked it as rich and modest as possible, thanks to the large amount of sugar, eggs and butter. Each housewife has her own signature recipe, which is passed down from grandmother to granddaughter. One of these in our family is the Alexandrian dough for Easter cakes. The recipe will tell you step by step about all the intricacies and secrets of preparing this holiday baking.
Ingredients:
Dough Ingredients:
- Butter - 60 g
- Chicken eggs - 1 pc.
- Yolk - 1 pc.
- Baked milk - 120 ml
- Sugar - 110 g
- Fresh yeast - 20 g
Ingredients for kneading dough:
- Wheat flour - 300 g
- Seedless raisins - 50 g
- Salt - a pinch
- Vanilla sugar - 1 tablespoon
- Mandarin or orange (for zest) - 1 pc.)
Protein Glaze Ingredients:
- Confectionery topping
- Egg white - 1 pc.
- Powdered sugar - 150 g
Cooking plan:
- We begin to prepare such important pastries on Easter day as Alexandrian Easter cake. The recipe tells the steps of preparation step by step and in an accessible way. It's no secret that delicious Easter cakes will come out perfect only when you take all the products for it of perfect quality. Much depends on flour and yeast, freshness and the highest grade are important.
Prepare the ingredients for baking Alexandrian Easter cakes.
- The dough must be prepared the evening before, the yeast will beat overnight, and then the Easter cakes will be without their inherent smell. In a deep bowl, combine 1 egg and 1 yolk with the entire amount of sugar (we leave the protein in the refrigerator to prepare the sugar glaze). Stir with a whisk until the sugar is completely dissolved.
Mix sugar with eggs. Leave 1 egg white for icing.
- We dilute the yeast in warm baked milk - crumble into a glass and mix with a spoon until dissolved.
Mix milk with fresh yeast.
- Pour the yeast dissolved in milk into a bowl with sugar and eggs.
Combine milk with yeast and sugar with eggs.
- Add softened or melted butter to the same bowl. Mix until smooth. Cover with a bag or film and leave the resulting dough at room temperature overnight (6-8 hours).
Mix soft butter with the rest of the ingredients. Let the dough ferment for 6-8 hours.
- During the downtime, the contents of the bowl will “play” - rise and fall, while there will be a layer of oil on the surface, and fermentation under it.
Opara will “play”, rising and falling.
- In the morning, add raisins, vanilla sugar and dried apricots cut into pieces into a bowl of dough.
Add dried fruits and vanilla sugar to the dough.
- We continue to prepare the Alexandrian dough for Easter cakes. We introduce wheat flour step by step, be sure to sift it with a fine sieve. This will remove unnecessary inclusions and enrich the baking with oxygen.
Slowly adding flour sifted through a sieve, knead the dough.
- When we added all the flour, the dough for the Alexandrian Easter cake step by step turned out to be quite liquid, and sticks to our hands a little. Don't let that scare you, the cakes will keep their shape perfectly.
The dough for Easter cakes is slightly sticky to your hands, knead it with a spoon.
- Set aside the bowl of dough in a warm place (for example, in the oven with the light on) for another 60-90 minutes to rise. The contents of the bowl will increase by 2-3 times.
Set the bowl of dough aside in a warm place to rise for 1-1.5 hours.
- We release air from the dough (knead). Lubricate paper forms with butter or vegetable oil and fill one third with dough.
We fill the greased forms with dough by a third.
- I got 2 Easter cakes of 250 g each and 2 Easter cakes of 150 g each. We put the forms with the dough to part in heat until the dough doubles in size, it will take 1-1.5 hours.
We put the forms for proofing for another 1-1.5 hours.
- We bake the Alexandrian Easter cake at a temperature of 180 degrees at the middle level of the oven for about 30 minutes. We will check the readiness of Easter cakes with a toothpick or an ordinary match - if it remains dry, then Easter cakes can be taken out.
We bake Easter cakes in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for 30-35 minutes.
- We cover the cooled Easter cakes with protein glaze and sprinkle with sugar decorations.
Decorate the cake as you wish
The benefits of the dish
The benefits of such a festive and high-calorie dish as the Alexandrian Easter cake, the recipe of which you just read, are rather doubtful. After all, baking contains a large amount of muffin and wheat flour of the highest grade. But after a long fast, you don’t think much about the benefits, do you? Although for those who still want to know what the Alexandrian Easter cake contains, let's say that it contains a lot of vitamins (PP, B2, B1, E, A, beta-carotene) and trace elements (iron, phosphorus, magnesium, calcium) as well as proteins and carbohydrates. For many, there is no tastier dessert than the Alexandrian Easter cake. Unfortunately, the calorie content and history of this dish does not make it possible to use it every day, but on the bright day of Easter, an Orthodox family simply cannot do without it.
