Larks

Description

Such lean yeast buns with a slight sweetish taste in the form of small birds with eyes - raisins were always baked in Rus' on one of the most revered Orthodox holidays - March 22, on the day of commemoration of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (Christian soldiers who died for their faith in Christ in Sebastia ( Lesser Armenia, modern Turkey) in 320). These "birds" symbolized their souls, which ascended to heaven. And since this day is also known as the day of the meeting of the coming spring, which, according to legend, is carried on their wings by migratory birds returning home, the buns began to be called "Larks" - in honor of the birds that were the first to arrive from warm countries. March 22 falls on Great Lent, and the dough for buns is made lean - without the addition of milk and eggs, but in vegetable oil, for which relief is given on this holiday. The larks themselves in this recipe are formed in the traditional way - by tying dough flagella into a knot.

Cooking

Step 1

Turn on the oven and heat it to number 3 (about 170 ° C) so that the dough can be put on it if there is no other warm place, for example, a radiator, for it. Prepare a dough, for this, dilute 20 g of sugar in 250 ml of warm boiled water, pour it into a large 4-5 liter saucepan and pour in the yeast. Let the yeast get wet and sink to the bottom. Sift flour (70 g) into the pan through a fine sieve, stir it in with a whisk. Set the pan in a warm place and let the dough bubble and double in size (this may take about 20-30 minutes).

Step 2

Measure and lightly heat vegetable oil in a separate saucepan. Weigh the required amount of wheat flour for the dough (400 g) according to the recipe and set it aside for now.

Step 3

Start kneading the dough. To do this, add sugar, salt, vanilla sugar or finely grated lemon zest (if you use them in the recipe) to the dough, mix with a whisk and add about ⅓ of the norm of flour for the dough (about 130 g), sifting it through a sieve and also mixing with a whisk.

Step 4

Then pour warm vegetable oil into the dough and mix it in with your hands, as if squeezing the dough into them and passing it through your fingers, and then collecting the dough from the walls of the pan to the center with your palm (do not forget to first collect the rest of the dough from the whisk). Then add another ⅓ flour, sift in. Then, in portions, introduce the rest of the flour, each time carefully kneading the dough, until it is smooth and uniform and stops sticking to the hands and walls of the dish (it is allowed if the dough only sticks to them slightly). Do not save time on kneading the dough: the better you knead it, the more magnificent and tastier the "larks" will be.

Step 5

Shape the dough into a ball, put it in a saucepan, cover with a lid or a towel and leave it in a warm place for 60-90 minutes, so that the volume of the dough has increased by about 2-3 times.

Step 6

While the dough is coming up, brew strong black tea according to your taste, then pour 50 ml of tea leaves and dissolve in it 3 teaspoons with a medium slide (20 g) of granulated sugar (to lubricate the top of the blanks). Set aside the resulting syrup to cool.

Step 7

Punch down the risen dough with your hands and return to a warm place. When it rises a second time (increases 2-2.5 times), crush it into a ball and divide it into 2 parts. Leave one in a saucepan (you can on the table at room temperature), and form a rather plump sausage from the second.

Step 8

Divide the resulting sausage from the dough into 10-12 parts. Roll a ball out of each, collecting a cake of dough in your palm from the edges to the center and so on in a circle, and start sculpting "larks".

Step 9

Now roll each ball between your palms into a thin sausage 17-18 cm long, one side of which should be a little thicker than the other. Trim the sausage a little on the table, then tie it in a knot, while the weave of the knot, as well as the thickened tip of the sausage (it will have a bird's head) should be on top.

Step 10

Form a beak on the head by stretching out some of the dough with your fingers. If desired, you can also make a crest on it by cutting the dough with scissors and then lifting it up.

Step 11

Gently flatten the other end of the sausage with your finger and make two cuts on it with a knife, imitating feathers on the tail.

Step 12

Wash the raisins and dry them on a paper towel, cut each raisin into 3-4 pieces. On both sides of the bird's head, make small indentations with a knife and insert into them, helping yourself also with a knife, ⅓-¼ of raisins (which must first be dipped in sweet tea). Try to sink each raisin as deep as possible into the dough so that they do not fall out during baking.

Step 13

Turn on the oven and heat it to number 3 (about 170°C) (if you have not already done so). Line a large aluminum baking sheet (21 x 32 cm, 5 cm high) or any other similar or larger area with non-stick baking paper. Lay out the fashioned birds at a great distance from each other, because. they increase in size when baking, let them stand in a warm place for 30 minutes for extra rise, covering them with a paper towel to keep their surface from drying out.

Step 14

Using a culinary brush, brush the entire surface of the buns with the previously prepared sweet tea. Put the baking sheet with the buns in the oven and bake them at number 3 (about 170°C) for about 35-40 minutes until lightly browned.

Step 15

Remove the ready-made larks from the baking sheet, grease with sweet strong tea, as you did before baking (I prefer to grease them with butter, which is not quite right for fasting, but in my opinion it tastes better). Then cover them with baking parchment or a paper towel and on top of it with a regular cloth towel and let stand in this form for 20-30 minutes. Then remove the top towel and leave the buns under the parchment or paper towel until completely cool and you can already serve them to the table. With the remaining test, repeat everything described above.

Step 16

You can store ready-made "larks" at room temperature in an open container for up to 3-4 days. Over time, they dry out and become crispy.