Once a year, the entire Orthodox part of humanity prepares for the brightest and most important holiday of Christians, Easter.
Of course, the main concern, after the longest fast, symbolizing spiritual cleansing, is the festive table, where the main place is occupied by Easter or Easter cake, consecrated in the temple.
This is where the gala dinner, or rather breakfast, begins.
Easter recipes are different not only in each individual region, but also in each family. They are often passed down from generation to generation.
Many women prepare Easter and bake Easter cakes using the secrets of their grandmothers, although the traditional exchange of experience remains relevant.
One of the relatively new recipes that has appeared in recent decades is the Easter recipe for kefir, with and without yeast.
It is clear that kefir in unleavened and rich dough is necessary as a means to ensure the fluffiness and lightness of baked goods. But the use of kefir in yeast dough seems more like a desire to come up with something new, because the activity and effectiveness of lactic bacteria pales against the background of yeast.
Although there is still some benefit from such a tandem. Let's look, at least in general terms, at how yeast works together with lacto- and bifidobacteria.
Easter with kefir - basic technological principles
Many housewives are familiar with the secrets of preparing yeast dough. It should be noted that in the standard norms of the baking industry and confectionery shops there is no such thing as kefir dough with yeast, although in practice this method of preparing dough is quite common.
The use of kefir in combination with yeast at first glance seems pointless, because yeast and lactic acid bacteria are representatives of the same, largest colony of living organisms on earth. Yeast and lactic bacteria, however, belong to different types of microorganisms and they feed differently: yeast prefers sugar, and bifidobacteria and lactobacteria prefer dairy products. But both of these groups emit carbon dioxide during their life processes, causing fermentation of the dough.
On the other hand, they do not interfere with each other and can coexist in the same environment. Therefore, it is quite possible to use kefir and yeast for dough at the same time. True, it should be noted that the action of yeast is still more effective than its “colleagues.”
If yeast is not supposed to be used to prepare the dough, then in order to start the carbon dioxide release reaction, which will ensure the rise of the dough, it is necessary to add components that provide an alkaline environment: soda, ammonium or other additives approved for use in the food industry.
In the case of a combination of yeast and lactic bacteria in the total mass, the use of baking powder is not necessary.
1. “Red Easter” with kefir without yeast
Products:
Salt, fine
Sugar 300 g
Kefir 200 ml
Raspberries, fresh or frozen 180 g
Eggs 3 pcs.
Vanilla 3 g
Lemon (juice) 20 ml
Butter (82.5%) 140 g
Preparation procedure:
Mix flour with soda and salt. Beat the butter with sugar and eggs until fluffy, adding them one at a time. Add vanilla. Press the berries through a sieve to remove any grains. Combine raspberry juice with kefir and mix. For a more saturated color, you can add food coloring.
Add kefir and flour to the butter-egg mixture alternately, continuing to beat the dough.
Line cylindrical molds with oiled parchment and pour the prepared dough into them, filling ¾ of the volume.
Bake for up to half an hour at 180Ϲ. Check the readiness of the products with a wooden stick. Remove the cooled cake from the pan and decorate the top with white frosting or whipped cream, sprinkled sugar or raspberries.
2. Cottage cheese Easter on kefir without yeast: a recipe for Russian cuisine
Product composition:
Whole milk 5.0 l
Raisins, dark 150 g
Butter 250 g
Kefir 1.0 l
Sugar 0.5 kg
Eggs 10 pcs.
Candied fruits 350 g
Rum or extract
Preparation procedure:
In a large saucepan, heat the milk to 40Ϲ: it is better to buy homemade (farm) milk, whole, with a high percentage of fat content. Pour kefir and salt into the heated milk. Stir and leave the pan until most of the whey has settled to the bottom of the pan.
Line a sieve or colander set on a tray with gauze. Use a slotted spoon to collect the curd mass that has formed on the surface of the pan and transfer it to cheesecloth. After folding the edges of the cheesecloth, use a press (use a jar of water) to remove any remaining whey from the curd.
Separate the yolks from the whites, grind them with sugar, add to the whipped whites and mix. Carefully, piece by piece, add the curd mass, stirring with a spoon or spatula, from bottom to top, so as not to destroy the fluffiness of the egg mass.
Turn on the oven at 110-120Ϲ. Place a pan filled with water below and heat the water to a boil. Place the curd dough into molds and place on the middle rack of the oven. Reduce the temperature to 80-90Ϲ and warm up the Easter with steam for 60 - 70 minutes, adding water to the tray if necessary.
Turn the cooled forms onto a plate and place the Easter eggs. Place the candied fruits “XV”, sprinkle with colored sugar and refrigerate.
3. Easter cottage cheese on kefir without yeast with cherries in chocolate glaze
Product composition:
Cherry 200 g
Cottage cheese (18%) 1.0 kg
Sugar 350 g
Kefir 250 ml
Milk chocolate 400 g
Eggs 7 pcs.
Butter 150 g
Vanilla extract 20 drops
Preparation procedure:
Add butter to the cottage cheese and rub through a sieve. Grind the whites with sugar, combine with pre-cooled and whipped whites. Add soda, vanilla, and lightly salt to kefir to enhance the taste. After combining kefir with the curd mass, add flour and knead the dough. Place fresh or frozen cherries in it. Combine the prepared mass with the eggs, mix and place in molds, filling them to 2/3 of the height.
Bake for up to 45 minutes at 180Ϲ. Products must be removed from the mold when cooled to room temperature. Melt the chocolate in a steam bath and cover the Easter with it.
4. Easter on kefir with yeast: Easter cake with saffron
Grocery list:
Kefir (2.5%) 250 g
Eggs 4 pcs.
Candied fruits 100 g
Oil 100 g
Dry yeast 8 g
Saffron 2 g
Orange zest 60 g
Sugar 450 g
Vanilla (powder, crystalline) 2 g
White raisins 120 g
Preparation procedure:
Separate fresh egg whites from the yolks and put them in the refrigerator for a while. Combine the yolks with sugar, add soft butter, rum, orange zest and saffron brewed in 50 ml of boiling water. Add a third of the flour, a little sugar, and yeast to the kefir; Stir and let sit warm for the yeast to start working. Add the prepared pastry, add the rest of the flour and wait until the dough is kneaded, cover it and place it closer to the stove for proofing. Set it aside when it rises, add raisins and candied fruits, knead until it begins to easily come off your hands and utensils. If necessary (if the flour has high humidity), add more flour. Grease the Easter cake pans and fill them 25% with dough. Place in a warm place, wait until rise and bake. Check the inside of the cakes for doneness using a wooden skewer.
Beat the chilled egg whites, gradually add the remaining sugar and vanilla. Brush the top of the cooled Easter cakes with the prepared glaze and decorate with sprinkled sugar or candied fruits.
5. Almond Easter on kefir with yeast
Product composition:
Instant yeast 20 g
Almond flakes 100 g
Dried apricots 140 g
Kefir 150 ml
Fresh eggs 6 pcs.
Oil 200 g
Sugar 350 g
"Amaretto" 100 ml
Vanilla 3 g
Procedure:
Combine egg yolks, sugar, butter and grind. Sift the flour and combine 100 g with warm kefir and yeast, adding 2-3 tablespoons of sugar; combine this part with the egg-butter pastry. Place in a warm place, covering the dough. When a stable foam appears, add vanilla and liqueur, flour combined with dried fruits and nut crumbs. Knead the dough. After rising, divide into portions and place in prepared pans. Let the cakes rise again and bake.
Prepare the protein glaze as indicated in the previous recipe and decorate Easter with kefir and yeast.
6. Easter on kefir with yeast, orange
Products for the test:
Sugar 350 g
Squirrels 7 pcs.
Kefir (2.5%) 250 ml
Oranges 2 pcs.
Flour 1.2 kg
Butter (or margarine) 100 g
Powder 50 g
Live yeast 80 g
Chicken yolks 7 pcs.
Vanillin 4 g
Powder 200 g
Preparation procedure:
Remove the zest from the oranges, free the pulp from the peel and membrane; puree the pulp with a blender, combine with kefir, add 100 g of granulated sugar, 2 g of vanillin. Combine the butter with the remaining sugar, beat, adding one yolk at a time. Combine both prepared masses and add yeast and a quarter of the flour. Let the dough rise and add the rest of the flour. Knead well, place in molds, preparing them in advance. When the cakes rise to the edge of the pan, place them in a preheated oven. After baking, let cool, remove from the mold, brush with glaze made from chilled egg whites, powder and 2 g of vanillin. Decorate with sugar sprinkles.
7. Easter on kefir with yeast and fructose
Easter cake is traditionally prepared with the addition of large amounts of sugar, eggs, and fat. But for those who, even on the Great Holiday, cannot afford such a pastry, there is a recipe that is no less sweet and tasty, but at the same time dietary.
Grocery list:
Dry yeast 7 g
Kefir 0.5 l
Flour 0.5 kg
Fructose 250 g
Vanilla 3 g
Dried fruits 300 g
For milk syrup:
70 ml whole milk
50 ml raspberry juice
150 g fructose
Preparation:
Sift the flour, add vanilla and fructose. Dissolve yeast in warm kefir and combine it with flour. Add prepared dried fruits to the risen dough, mix, distribute into molds, and transfer the proofing container to a warm place. Bake after doubling the dough volume.
Boil milk with raspberry juice and add fructose (150 g). Cook until thickened. To make the glaze shine on the surface of the cakes, add 20 g of butter at the end of cooking.
Excess baking soda can ruin baked goods. Baking soda helps baked dough products dry out quickly. Its excessive presence in baked goods tastes unpleasant, and the finished baked goods have an unsightly gray tint.
In yeast doughs, it is also important not to overdo the use of yeast. Their excess will give the dough a sour smell; Baking that is oversaturated with yeast quickly becomes moldy during storage and becomes unsuitable for consumption.
The consistency of Easter dough made with kefir without yeast should be softer. Lactic bacteria work less actively, so it is advisable to add less flour. The dough should float slightly when raw. After baking, the excess moisture contained in kefir will evaporate, and the milk protein will turn into elastic and dense fibers, which will provide the desired texture for baked goods.
It is very important to pay attention to the quality and freshness of products, because this is the key to success for any dough product.
Nowadays, household kitchen appliances help reduce time costs, but it is still better to knead the dough by hand. It’s not for nothing that our grandmothers often repeated that you need to feel that the dough is alive. There are other tips for preparing dough that, at first glance, seem like fiction or superstition. But, if you think about it, there is also a scientific basis in these tips. Remember how your grandmother as a child did not even allow you to enter the kitchen when she was putting out the dough for Easter cakes. These prohibitions are not explained by prejudice, but by the fact that yeast dough does not like sudden changes in temperature, drafts, or sudden and sharp mechanical vibrations. It turns out that the grandmothers, not knowing physics and chemistry, were absolutely right.
You can argue or talk as much as you like about the benefits and harms of yeast fungus, but the point of reconciliation between supporters of the yeast and yeast-free methods of preparing dough still needs to be recognized by the fact that humanity lives in close proximity to billions of microorganisms that inhabit not only corners of our planet inaccessible to humans, but also and the human body.
These inhabitants have not been fully studied by microbiologists, but some of them have already been registered and recognized as “helpers” of people.
These include some types of yeast and lactic acid bacteria.
These invisible representatives of the earth's fauna, no matter how hard we try to isolate ourselves from their presence, enter our food and air from our bodies.
Therefore, people, having stopped senseless resistance, accepted them into service, which brought noticeable success to the development of world cuisine, especially in such areas as winemaking, cheese making, and bread baking.
Kulich on kefir without yeast - basic technological principles
There are several types of yeast-free dough that can quite successfully replace traditional yeast dough.
It's no secret that the splendor of baked goods is achieved by rising the dough, which is ensured by yeast releasing air bubbles during the proofing process. The gas released is a waste product of yeast, resulting from their feeding on sugar and flour, which in turn contain carbohydrates - a nutrient medium for yeast.
What to do if, for some subjective or objective reasons, the housewife does not want to use yeast to prepare baked goods?
An alternative to yeast - kefir starter.
It’s probably possible to compare how dough rises with yeast or with kefir. But in terms of the strength and intensity of the fermentation process, such a comparison will undoubtedly indicate a significant superiority of yeast. Lactic acid bacteria, participating in the biological chain, like yeast, prefer to choose dairy products as their habitat. They work on the same principle as yeast, but less intensively.
Even if the dough is prepared without using yeast, lactic acid bacteria still need a warm environment, so kefir must be warm. It is possible (and even better!) to use a fermented fermented milk drink, but without traces of mold or bitterness. Almost any fermented milk product that is not consumed before the specified date produces wonderful dough. True, in order for milk bacteria to rise the dough well, you need to add a little more of them than yeast, and they also need more time to multiply in a milk environment. Sugar and flour additionally provide milk microorganisms with energy.
It will take from 24 to 76 hours to prepare kefir starter. Not all housewives have enough time and patience for such a long process, although using kefir Easter cake starter without yeast is the most effective way to make baking truly festive.
The second option for preparing kefir dough without yeast is using soda or other leavening agents. The lactic acid medium in combination with an alkali, which is baking soda, causes a rapid and violent process of release of gas bubbles, which, lingering between the fibers of the dough formed by fiber, ensure its rise. When using this method of kneading dough as the main one, you need to ensure that the amount of soda and acid is as balanced as possible. Excess soda leads to the fact that its residues, which have not reacted with lactic acid, make the dough and subsequently baked goods dark and unpleasant to the taste, heavy and settled.
You can achieve the required increase in dough for kefir cakes without yeast by combining the physical and biochemical properties of products (eggs, butter and others) with methods of their mechanical processing, for example, beating, during which the egg white is converted into fibers, trapping air bubbles in the mass. In this case, you should handle it the same way as when preparing sponge dough: combine the whipped mass with the rest of the dough components carefully, trying not to destroy the porous structure of the protein, and then immediately bake the product.
Recipe 1. Easter cake with kefir without yeast
Ingredients:
Kefir 300 ml
Eggs 3 pcs.
Vanillin 4 g
Sugar 200 g
Orange: juice – 100 ml; zest – 30 g
Cognac 30 ml
Salt, fine
Butter (spread) 150 g
Seedless raisins 200 g
Glaze 70 g
Powder 50 g
Preparation procedure:
Mix kefir (20-25 C), juice and half the sifted flour and soda in a deep bowl. Cover tightly with film and keep warm; You want bubbles to appear on the surface. Beat the eggs, gradually adding sugar: the mass should increase 3 times, as for making a sponge cake. Add soft butter to the eggs, continuing to beat, zest, cognac, vanillin. Combine the second half of the flour with washed and steamed raisins.
Combine gradually, adding first the beaten egg-butter mixture to the dough, then flour and raisins, one spoon at a time. The dough should be very soft and airy, almost liquid.
Place it in equal parts into springform cake pans, or use disposable parchment pans, pre-greased. Immediately place the dough in a preheated oven (180 Ϲ) and bake.
Cover the cooled Easter cakes with egg white glaze and sprinkles.
Recipe 2. Kefir cake without yeast, butter
Ingredients:
Kefir (1.0%) 100 ml
Sour cream, full fat 180 g
Butter 450 g
Soda 30-40 g
Vanilla 5 g
Saffron 3 g
Sugar 350 g
Candied fruits (small cubes) 150 g
Eggs 4 pcs.
Preparation:
Separating the yolks, grind with sugar (150 g) and soft butter, add sour cream and kefir, saffron brewed and combined with rum, vanilla (3 g). Mix soda with sifted flour, add a pinch of salt and finely chopped candied fruits. Combine the liquid and dry parts of the dough and mix it well. Place 200g cupcake tins and bake until golden brown.
Brush the finished Easter cakes with pre-cooled egg whites whipped with sugar (200 g). Add 2 g of vanillin to the protein mass before finishing beating. Decorate the cakes with candied fruit shavings.
Recipe 3. Sourdough for Easter cakes with kefir without yeast
For those who love fluffy baked goods, but at the same time avoid using yeast and too much baking, which makes the yeast-free dough “dressy” - a recipe for kefir starter.
Products:
Kefir of any fat content 0.5 l
Sugar 100 g
Cooking method:
Pour the kefir into a larger jar so that there is free space for the added products and for the fermentation process when the starter starts to rise. Add sugar and stir it well to dissolve. Add the specified amount of flour gradually, dividing it into 2-3 parts, with an interval of 10-12 hours. All this time, the jar with the starter should be covered with gauze and kept close to the heat source. When the leaven rises and acquires a characteristic sour smell, take half of it to prepare the dough, and store the rest at +3-5C, adding kefir and flour once a week. The consistency of the starter should be similar to pancake batter.
Recipe 4. Kulich on kefir without yeast, with sourdough
Ingredients:
Sourdough 300 ml
Sparkling water, table 200 ml
Sugar 250 g
Vanilla extract 5 mg
Saffron 3 g
Premium flour 800 g
Cottage cheese (18%) 400 g
Eggs 5 pcs.
Oil 100 g
Cooking method:
Beat the butter with sugar, gradually adding the eggs. Combine the mixture with the cottage cheese, continuing to beat. Add brewed saffron and vanilla extract.
Sift the flour and, combining it with salt and soda, add to the prepared mixture. Add steamed and slightly dried raisins to this. Stir the dough, gradually pouring in the starter mixed with sparkling water until it reaches a homogeneous consistency, which should be similar to thick sour cream.
Place the prepared dough into molds, no more than 200 g per serving. The forms must first be generously greased with oil (vegetable) or sent with oiled parchment. Place the molds on a tray or baking sheet, covering the top of the dough with an airtight material. Keep the pieces in this form for about a quarter of an hour and immediately send them to a preheated oven. Check the readiness of the Easter cake dough using
Recipe 5. Small kefir cakes without yeast
Ingredients:
Eggs 3 pcs.
Semolina 200 g
Kefir 150 ml
Spread 140 g
Sugar 250 g
Baking powder 35 g
Dried fruits 300 g
Orange juice 100 ml
Flavors of your choice
Preparation:
Separate the egg whites and yolks. Remove the whites temporarily to cool. Save half the sugar for making the glaze. After cooling, beat the whites until foamy, gradually adding sugar, or replace it with the same amount of powder.
Mix semolina, flour, baking powder. Add a little salt and vanilla powder to the dry mixture if you want to add flavor to the baked goods. Beat the yolks with sugar and spread. You can replace the spread with any oil, vegetable or butter. Add kefir to the oil mixture, heated to room temperature and combined with juice made from fresh orange.
Gradually add dry ingredients, prepared dried fruits (or candied fruits) to the liquid mixture and knead a thin dough. Pour it into small muffin tins and bake at 180Ϲ for 20 minutes. When the products have cooled, remove from the molds and brush the surface with glaze.
Recipe 6. Honey-nut cakes with kefir without yeast
List of ingredients:
Eggs, large 6 pcs.
Honey, linden or buckwheat 400 g
Boiling water 200 ml
Mint (fresh or dried leaves) 20-30 g
Linden (flowers) 50 g
Butter, butter or margarine 200 g
Kefir 350 ml
Powdered sugar 100 g
Nuts, crushed (cashews, peanuts, almonds) 250 g
Vanilla 4 g
Preparation:
Brew the chopped herb in 200 ml of boiling water, strain the infusion and mix with warm honey to make a thick syrup. Add 3 eggs and 3 egg yolks to it. Beat the mixture in a deep bowl until it doubles in size. Pour kefir and melted butter into the mixture. Mix the sifted flour and nut crumbs, soda and half the vanilla powder. Add a pinch of fine salt. Gradually add the flour mixture to the liquid part of the dough. The dough should have the consistency of pancakes.
Distribute the dough into pre-prepared small-volume cylindrical molds, filling them just above the middle of the height.
Bake on the middle rack of the oven. You can check readiness with a wooden skewer or by pressing on the “cap”: it should be elastic.
Recipe 7. Kulich on kefir without yeast from two-layer dough
Ingredients:
Cottage cheese 400 g
Cherry, dried 200 g
Semolina 150 g
Liqueur, cherry 100 ml
Condensed milk (8%) 400 ml
Eggs 4 pcs. + 3 yolks
Kefir 250 ml
Baking powder 10 g
"Amaretto" 50 ml
Oil 200 g
Vanilla powder 8 g
Cocoa 50 g
Sugar 250 g
For the glaze:
Powdered sugar 150 g
Protein 3 pcs.
Vanilla 4 g
Preparation:
Place the fatty cottage cheese in the bowl of a blender or food processor. Pour in cherry liqueur and condensed milk, add 3 whole eggs. Beat the mixture to a homogeneous and fluffy consistency and add 100 g of softened butter, without stopping whipping. Place dried cherries into the whipped mixture, after sorting and washing them.
Add 4 g of vanillin, salt (half of the amount taken) and baking powder to the semolina. Add the dry mixture gradually to the whipped mass, mix thoroughly and leave for a while: you need to wait until the semolina swells.
Prepare hard cylindrical molds for Easter cakes (it is better to take detachable ones). Grease them and, after dividing the dough made from flour and cottage cheese, place them in molds. Place the molds in a baking tray with a high side, at an angle: so that the dough flows from the bottom to the edge of the mold, not reaching 2-3 cm. After baking, a diagonal line should form between the two layers of Easter cakes.
Carefully place the tray in the preheated oven for 15 minutes, add boiling water to it and steam the curd dough until the water has evaporated. As soon as the dough acquires a dense consistency and is brewed, remove the tray with the molds from the oven. Without removing the molds from the tray, let them cool. Then place the molds straight and pour in the kefir dough with cocoa powder.
To prepare the dark dough, combine sifted cocoa, flour, soda, the second part of salt and vanilla powder. Pour the prepared raisins into the flour.
Beat eggs with sugar, add soft butter, kefir and Amaretto. Combine the dry and liquid mixture and stir. Fill the molds with the curd dough with the prepared mixture and return them to the hot oven. Bake at 180Ϲ. Check the readiness of the Easter cakes with a wooden stick.
Cool and remove from pans. Decorate with protein cream by whipping chilled egg whites with powder and adding vanillin.
To ensure that baked goods made from yeast-free dough do not dry out for a long time and maintain freshness, try to add oil to the dough, which, due to its properties, retains moisture in flour products. For the same purpose, you can mix flour with a small amount of starch.
If you prepare dough using cocoa, then you need to take into account that it absorbs moisture more than flour. Therefore, for chocolate dough, it is better to add more wet ingredients and be sure to mix in butter to create a soft chocolate consistency in the finished baked goods.
Considering that the moisture content of flour may not be the same, since it depends on many factors, be more attentive to the amount indicated in the recipe: in almost all cases, adjustment of its weight is necessary.
It will be better if the consistency of the dough (the required density) is achieved by kneading it, rather than increasing the amount of flour. Remember that the duration of kneading determines the formation of its fibers and the saturation of the dough with air.
Easter is a holiday that cannot do without the most delicious, beautiful, rich pastries, without Easter cakes. Today I want to tell you how to prepare a very tender and tasty cake with kefir. With the addition of fermented milk products, such as kefir and I also added snowballs to the dough, the baking becomes even more tender, tall and porous. This magnificence cannot but please the eye and the kefir cakes always turn out simply excellent. Once again I want to congratulate all Orthodox Christians on the upcoming Easter and wish peace in the family, prosperity, love and mutual understanding!
Required:
For the test:
- Kefir – 0.5 tbsp. (you can make Easter cakes with just kefir, for fun I added half the volume of the snowball)
- Snowball – 0.5 tbsp.
- Flour – 700-800 gr.
- Butter – 100 gr.
- Sour cream – 100 gr.
- Sugar – 1 tbsp.
- Eggs – 3 pcs.
- Instant yeast – 1 tbsp.
- Vegetable oil - for lubricating hands and dough when kneading and laying out in forms.
- Salt – a pinch.
- Raisins - optional - I have 100 grams.
- Dried apricots - optional - I have 100 grams.
- pine nuts - 1-2 handfuls (optional)
- Vanilla sugar – 1 pack. (1 gr.)
For fondant and decoration:
- Protein – from 2 eggs.
- Sugar (or powdered sugar) – 0.5 – 1 tbsp.
- Coconut shavings - for sprinkling Easter cakes.
- Almond petals - for decorating Easter cakes.
- Confectionery sprinkles - different for decorating Easter cakes.
- Sugar pencils - for writing inscriptions on Easter cakes.
- Forms for baking Easter cakes.
How to prepare delicious and tender Easter cakes with kefir:
First we need to prepare the dough: add yeast to warm (room temperature) kefir, 1 tbsp. sugar, and 3-4 tbsp. flour. 
Mix thoroughly and leave to rise. When the dough has slightly risen, add sour cream (also at room temperature), softened butter and mix everything. 
Separately, grind the yolks with the remaining sugar. 
Beat the whites separately with a pinch of salt until they form a strong foam. 
Add the mashed yolks to the dough and mix. 
Then add the gently whipped whites. Mix in one direction. 
We begin to gradually add sifted flour in small portions. 
Knead the dough. 
We put it in a warm place so that it grows. I put the bowl of dough in the oven at minimum temperature (20-30 degrees). In about 1 hour, the dough increases 2-3 times. This is clearly visible in the photo. 
Then we need to add raisins, chopped dried apricots and pine nuts. 
Knead the dough again. 
Now we divide it into buns and arrange them into molds (put 2/3 of the dough into the molds). This year I'm using paper cake pans again. It is very comfortable. 
Again, put the molds with the dough in a warm place. When the cakes are sufficiently cooked, increase the temperature in the oven to 180 degrees and bake the cakes until fully cooked. It took me 20-25 minutes. As usual, we check the readiness of the Easter cakes using a wooden skewer. 
While the cakes were baking, we prepared the protein fudge: beat the egg whites with sugar and a pinch of salt until stiff peaks form. 
We take the finished cakes out of the oven and immediately coat them with icing on top while they are hot. On top, if desired, decorate the cakes with sprinkles, almond petals, coconut flakes and sugar inscriptions. 
This is how my kefir cakes turned out – and what about you? 
How soft are they? Well, simply excellent - the name says it all - UNPARALLELED!
Svetlana and my delicious one wish you all a bon appetit and a great mood on Easter kulinarochka2013. ru!
If you haven't yet found your perfect Easter cake recipe, then it's quite possible that you just don't like baking with milk. In this case, be sure to pay attention to the recipe for Easter cake with kefir - incomparable without exaggeration! Everything is balanced: the crumb is soft, without the smell of yeast, with the aroma of duchess, the taste is delicate, the caps are tall and rosy. The recipe never fails, the main thing is to cook with love and knead the dough properly - it really loves the warmth of your hands and when kneading for a long time it turns out delicious, porous and soft.
The dough is kneaded with kefir and sour cream, not milk. For a special, very pleasant aroma, I recommend adding a little Duchess essence instead of the usual vanillin. The rest of the Easter cake recipe is traditional, based on yeast sponge dough, with two approaches and proofing. The result is excellent, the cakes are well baked, sweet, with beautiful even caps. I hope you enjoy the recipe and become your favorite!
Ingredients
for dough
- kefir 0.5 l
- 20% sour cream 100 g
- pressed yeast 50 g
- sugar 0.5 tbsp.
- wheat flour 1 tbsp.
for test
- whole dough
- butter 200 g
- sugar 2 tbsp.
- salt 0.5 tsp.
- eggs 3 whole and 1 yolk
- flour 1 kg
- light raisins 50 g
- Duchess essence 20 drops
- vegetable oil 1 tbsp. l.
- icing and sugar sprinkles for decoration
Yield: 4 Easter cakes, 1 liter mold
Note: 1 cup = 200 g. Pressed yeast can be replaced with dry yeast; for the indicated amount of products you will need 1.5 tbsp. l. dry yeast. Kefir is suitable with a fat content of 2.5% or 3.2%, sour cream - 20% or 30%. It is advisable to remove the products from the refrigerator in advance so that they warm up to room temperature (eggs and butter can be taken out even in the evening). The butter for this recipe should not be melted in the microwave or in a water bath. It must be softened, not melted, then the crumb will be more tender.
How to cook Easter cake with kefir
The first stage is preparing the dough. To do this, I combine kefir and sour cream, either in a ladle or in a saucepan. I heat the mixture on the stove to about 35 degrees, but no more (your hand should feel pleasantly warm). I add yeast to the warm fermented milk mixture and stir with my hands until it disperses.
Pour the warm mixture into a bowl convenient for kneading. I add 0.5 cups of sugar and 1 cup of sifted flour. I stir and cover with a towel. I leave the dough to rise in a warm place, without drafts. After 30 minutes, a good cap will rise, which means that the dough is ready. The time is approximate and depends on the room temperature. It may take up to 1 hour, be guided by the rise - the dough should grow 2.5-3 times, be bubbly and airy, playful.
While the dough is preparing, I prepare the eggs. I separate the whites from the yolks. You will need 3 whole eggs and 1 yolk (the white will be used for icing). I grind the yolks with 2 cups of sugar until white using a spoon. And I add salt to the whites and beat with a whisk until foamy.
When the dough is ready, add soft butter. I add the yolks, ground with sugar, and mix with a whisk. Then I add the whites with salt and mix again.
I pour it into a larger container (I have a 5 liter saucepan). Gradually add flour, which must be sifted through a sieve. There is no need to sprinkle too much flour, 1 kilogram plus or minus 100 grams is enough. I wet my hands in vegetable oil and knead the dough. It will be sticky, unruly, and stretchy. It will gradually become slightly liquid due to the fact that the butter will melt from the warmth of your hands. You need to knead carefully and for a long time, at least 20 minutes, with love. With prolonged kneading, the yeast dough will be saturated with oxygen and become more porous. Cover the pan with a towel and leave to rise for 1 hour in a warm place.
The dough should double in size. Now I add raisins, steamed in boiling water, dried and sprinkled with flour. I knead again so that the raisins are distributed evenly. I leave it in a warm place for a second time for 1 hour so that the dough rises.
I pour in the essence (20 drops, that’s about 2/3 of a teaspoon) and lightly knead the dough one last time. I place them in molds, wetting my hands in oil. If the molds are metal, then you need to grease the bottom and line the walls with parchment. Paper and silicone ones do not need to be lubricated. The dough should fill the molds 1/3 of the volume.
I put the molds to proof, in a warm place, maybe with the oven door open while it heats up. The dough in the pans should rise almost to the edges, this may take 20-30 minutes.
I bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees. Easter cakes in small forms will be ready in 25-30 minutes, in large ones they will bake for about 1 hour. I don’t open the oven door for the first 20 minutes, I check the readiness with a wooden skewer. To prevent the top of the cakes from burning, I cover them with foil. Yield: 4 large cakes in 1 liter molds (I have 1 liter, 850 ml, 650 ml, 3x300 ml, 2x250 ml).- When cool, decorate with whipped egg white, powder and sugar sprinkles.
Easter cakes made with kefir are soft, porous, very aromatic and tasty. Happy Easter! Christ is Risen!
Today you can find a whole sea of different Easter cake recipes on the Internet. But we decided to offer you something special - “Peerless” kefir cakes.
What do you think makes this baked product special? The whole secret is in the name, because the cakes turn out simply incredible! Lush, aromatic, airy, soft, and they just melt in your mouth!
You owe it to yourself to try both of the recipes we created for you. There is both a classic version (that is, with yeast) and a quick one (it is without yeast, so it’s ready in half an hour). Let everyone choose for themselves which one they like best.
Step by step recipe
| Ingredients | Quantity |
|---|---|
| flour - | 545 g |
| kefir - | 260 ml |
| granulated sugar - | 280 g |
| butter - | 125 g |
| white chocolate - | 50 g |
| compressed yeast - | 40 g |
| salt - | 2 g |
| eggs - | 2 pcs. |
| raisins - | 70 g |
| sour cream - | 65 ml |
| vanilla sugar - | 15 g |
| lemon - | 1 PC. |
| Cooking time: 220 minutes | Calorie content per 100 grams: 300 Kcal |
Prepare Easter cake with kefir “Peerless” step by step:
- Mash the yeast into crumbs using a spoon or your hands;
- Add 10 g of sugar, 30 g of flour and 30 ml of water to them, stir well;
- Place the mixture in a warm place for ten minutes;
- During this time, pass another glass of flour through a sieve into a large container;
- Heat the sour cream and add to the flour;
- Send kefir and yeast there;
- Stir and leave the mixture for fifty minutes;
- Leave the dough for about an hour, during which time it should rise;
- When the hour has almost passed, beat the eggs;
- Add the eggs to the dough and the remaining flour through a sieve and half the sugar;
- Knead the dough and put it in a warm place for another hour;
- Cut the soft butter into cubes and mix it with the remaining sugar;
- Beat with a whisk until fluffy and fluffy;
- Add salt, vanilla sugar, stir;
- Wash the lemon and dry it. Remove the zest with a grater and also add to the butter;
- When it has risen, add oil to it and again mix thoroughly, but first with a spoon, since everything is terribly sticky. Then you can connect your hands;
- Knead a soft dough, sprinkling the table with flour;
- Add raisins and chocolate pieces to the prepared mixture;
- Divide the mixture into parts to fill 1/3 of the mold;
- Leave for thirty minutes to rise;
- Preheat the cabinet to 160 degrees and bake the cakes for 20 minutes, then add to the temperature of 20 degrees and bake for another 10 minutes.
Kulich kefir “Peerless” without yeast
- 160 g granulated sugar;
- 135 g butter;
- 330 ml kefir;
- 15 g vanilla sugar;
- 140 g raisins;
- 340 g flour;
- 1 lemon;
- 3 g soda.
Time – 1 hour and 10 minutes.
Calories – 286.
Preparation:
- Rinse the lemon and cut off the zest with a special grater;
- Add soda to kefir, mix and leave for ten minutes;
- Throw the butter into a saucepan and dissolve it over the fire;
- Add sugar and zest to it and mix well;
- Mix oil with kefir, stir;
- Add the raisins, then pour the flour little by little through a sieve;
- Knead into a thick dough with a spatula;
- “Pour” into molds, filling them 1/3 full;
- Preheat the oven to 180 Celsius and bake the “Peerless” Easter cakes for no more than thirty minutes – judge by the rosy caps.
It is advisable to first remove all products for preparing the dough from the refrigerator so that they are all at room temperature. Thanks to this, no cold product will stop/delay yeast activity. The only exception would be if the recipe indicates that a particular product needs to be further heated or, conversely, cooled.
If you are afraid that the growing mass will stain the towel, you can cover it with cling film or pre-treat the dough with flour and vegetable oil.
To ensure that raisins or other dried fruits/nuts/candied fruits are better distributed throughout the dough, they can be rolled in flour and added as is. The flour will distribute the product evenly throughout the mass. By the way, flour cannot be replaced with either powdered sugar or starch.
To make sugar dissolve faster in dough or butter, you can use powdered sugar instead of sand.
When you prepare yeast dough for Easter cakes with kefir, you definitely need to remember what conditions you need to provide it with. Firstly, during kneading, the room must be warm, there should be no wind or drafts. The same applies to the time when the mass rises. Well, and one more nuance, which, by the way, may seem funny - a good mood. They say that the better your mood, the better your baked goods will turn out.
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