Sweet Easter Breads- the recipe
Now, this recipe is NOT mine, but a nice lady from a Bulgarian forum( Scarlet, THANK YOU!). You can see the original recipe in Bulgarian here.
For the dough
7 and 1/2 cups( to 8 cups, depends how big are the eggs) sifted flour
1/8 tsp salt
6 large eggs
1 and 2/3 cup white sugar
4 tsp dry yeast
1 and 1/4 cup room temperature milk
1 tsp sugar
2/3 cup melted butter
2/3 cup vegetable oil
First preheat the oven at 350F( I use it to warm up the room at first).
Mix on high speed the eggs and sugar until creamy.
Sift the flour and add the salt.
In a bowl combine the milk, yeast and 1 tsp of sugar. Stir until the yeast dissolves completely, then cover with plastic wrap, cover with blanket or something similar, so it can stay warm and wait 15 min to rise.
If using bread machine, place first the wet ingredients, then the dry ingredients on top. Add the flour spoon by spoon, and start the Dough program on your machine. Use the cycle 2 times in a row, as you gradually add the oil and butter.
If kneading by hand, place the dry ingredients in the container where your are going to knead, then on top of them add the wet ingredients. Knead at least 40 minutes. The longer, the better! Gradually add the butter and oil while kneading. When the dough is ready, leave it in warm place ( today it was 95F at my kitchen) to rise.
After the dough is ready, shape it in a desired form, place in a greased pan, brush with egg white on top, sprinkle some sugar and/or some nuts and bake in the preheated oven for 40-50 minutes, depending on the shape you chose and the size of the pan you are using.
Enjoy!
You can see the breads I did make for the past 3 years here.