Kulich from Lydia Chakovskaya
My grandmother, Nina Mikhailovna Kiselevich, baked the best! This is her family's recipe, and my mother and I have become its only keepers. The recipe is similar to others, but has several differences: soda, slaked with fat sour cream, is put in it, and an odd number of eggs is taken - five pieces for three glasses of water. There is a bouquet of aromas in this cake, it smells like a “herringbone”, as my grandmother used to say. My grandfather always kneaded the dough with mighty hands. I myself now bake Easter cakes on sourdough, but if you do not have enough experience, use ordinary yeast.
Ingredients
- 2 cups sugar (glass volume 250 ml)
- 5 eggs
- 600 g butter
- a pinch of soda
- 2 tbsp. l. fat sour cream
- 1.5 h.l. year
- zest of 1 lemon
- nutmeg
- cardamom
- 100–200 g raisins or candied fruits, optional
- 1800-2000 g flour
- 3 glasses of milk
- 60 g pressed yeast
Cooking
Step 1
Soak the raisins for 3-4 hours in lukewarm water, then pat dry. From 1 glass of milk and 100–130 g of flour with yeast, make a dough (it should have the consistency of liquid sour cream) and leave to ferment for 6 hours. By the end of the dough, the whole thing should bubble.
Step 2
Knead the dough. To do this, beat the eggs with sugar, add the remaining milk, sour cream and flour mixed with salt and soda (but not all). Add the softened butter. Now start adding the dough bit by bit and the rest of the flour. Gradually add the oil, mixing thoroughly with your hands or with a mixer. With manual kneading, you will have to knead for at least 25-30 minutes, the better the dough is mixed, the better the Easter cakes will be. The dough will be quite thick.
Step 3
Enter the zest and spices. Let the dough rise in a warm place. Divide the dough into pieces, add raisins or candied fruits. Form blanks and lay out in forms. Fill out the forms one-third. Set to rise in a warm place for about 2.5-3 hours.
Step 4
Bake Easter cakes at a temperature of 180 C for 40-50 minutes, depending on the size of the form.
Step 5
Readiness is determined by a thin stick: if it is taken out clean, the cake is ready. After you have taken the cake out of the oven, it is better to let it cool, putting the form on its side, otherwise the cake may settle.
Step 6
While the cake is in the oven, open the door very carefully so that the dough does not fall off. To prevent the top from burning, put a piece of paper or foil on top of the cake (do this carefully after the top is browned).