Saf Instant Yeast | Ingredients | Lyukum Cooking Lab

Guglhupf | Kougelhopf | Alsatian Brioche

What we call brioche is a bread highly enriched with milk, eggs, and butter. The more eggs and butter in the ratio, the puffier the bread, the more tender its crumb, the longer it stays fresh and soft (read it as moist). Similar dough recipes exist in many cuisines and have different uses. Differently shaped and cooked, brioche is loved all over the world. Alsatian brioche can be less sweet and served with foie gras and Riesling and can be sweeter and served as a dessert with coffee.

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Pyrizhky | Pies

This is one of the best dough recipes for small stuffed baked pies common for Eastern-European cuisines. It is best for its ability to keep the crumb soft, fluffy, and moist for a few days, because this enriched dough comes close to the dough for brioche. Can you imagine two-bites sized stuffed brioche pies? That’s what I am talking about.

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Sweet Snowflake | White Poppy Seed Bread

With slight variations, this versatile dough recipe is used for many baked goods all over Ukraine. The same dough is made for savory garlicky pampushky served with borsch and for sweet, plain or filled with fresh berries, jam (povydlo), poppy seed filling, and dusted with sugar powder. Pies, braided and intricately decorated loaves of sweet bread, rolls — it is good for all of them. Try it this holiday season! This snowflake-shaped sweet bread makes a light, fluffy, nutty, and delicately sweet gift to remember.

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Miche | Heirloom Wheat Flours by Barton Springs Mill

Sandeep Gyawali (MicheBread.com) and James Brown (bartonspringsmill.com) are two people responsible for bringing sourdough bread back to my kitchen. After their workshop and tasting a variety of bread loaves made with the heirloom grains available locally, I started baking sourdough bread on a regular basis again. With Sandeep’s permission, I am publishing an extract from the workshop — a universal formula for a delicious and healthy bread a novice can easily make at home.

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Ramps Pita Bread | The Same-Day Pita with Ramps Puree

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For me, the most inspiring part of the Modernist Bread pita section is the recipes with vegetable purees. I can’t describe how marvelously appetizing ramps flavored pita smells while baking! Ramps season is coming, and I have to share the recipe. This version is for the same-day pita, but feel free to slow down the bulk fermentation in the fridge and develop pita flavors even better.

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Maslenitsa | Crepe Week, Day 7 | Boûkète, Limburg Crepes with Speck and Sirop de Liege

The longer I lived in the States, the more I realized it’s possible to find almost anything in specialty food stores and online. And later, traveling places and getting edible gifts from around the world proved that unfathomable are the ways of experiencing delicious food. A few years ago, this crepes recipe sounded exotic to me because of its unusual ingredients. Later, it became an illustration for the provocative statement above. Being curious is fun!

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Polish Doughnuts | Pączki

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Until a few days ago, I was sure Polish Pączki have something to do with Easter bread Paska because for a Russian speaking person this word looks like it should sound the same. I was wrong, and I was wrong. Apparently, Pączki are pronounced POONCH-key [ˈpɔnt͡ʂkʲi] and are similar to what I know as Ponchiki from my childhood. Only now I discovered their name came to Russian from the Polish language!

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Pretzels

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Pretzels are my obsession. I like all of them, including soft Auntie Anne’s ones offered in most American malls and airports. No wonder pretzels were my point of interest during the trip to Hessen and Reinland-Pfalz states in Germany and Alsace region in France. Those I loved. The recipe below is my favorite version of homemade pretzels adjusted to locally available ingredients.

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Russian Nobility Blini | Графские блины | Shuvalovs’ Family Recipe

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Russian Blini | Valentina Shumskaya's Recipe

A friend of Shuvalovs family in California, Klavdia Motovilova was using this recipe as a volunteer to make Russian crepes — blini — for the guests of annual Russian festival in February, organized by the Russian Center in San Francisco. For years, many Californians had a chance to enjoy these amazingly delicate crepes during Maslenitsa. My friend Anna Derugin was lucky to team up with Klavdia Motovilova and save the recipe. Klavdia is 90+ years old now, still in good health, but doesn’t volunteer anymore. With her permission, I am very grateful for the chance of being able to add this treasure to my online collection and make it available for more home cooks to enjoy.

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Kefir Cheese Easter Bread

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Easter Bread with Keffir Cheese | Kulych

Since the kefir culture started living in my kitchen, I have fresh kefir products (drinking, strained, and soft cheese) in my fridge all the time. When they are handy, I find more amazing culinary uses for them all the time. The moment I saw a kulich recipe where farmer’s cheese was an ingredient to add to the dough, I knew I have to try it with my kefir cheese. I also wanted to try an idea I saw a few time online (don’t know who the author is) for forming this Easter bread as a flower, sunflower or daisy. The result is amazing! There is a faint hint of cheese. The texture is so creamy, a comparison to Japanese Souflee Cheesecake came to my mind. It is still a sponge, but the sensation of crumb melting in your mouth is incredible.

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