Easter Delights: Timeless Spring Treats

Easter recipes

Easter celebrations in Czech cuisine have always been, and still are today, full of home cooking and baking. Customs and ancient traditions are observed, even though the younger generation may no longer know what each custom actually relates to. Let’s take a look, for example, at the sweet part of Easter. Baking began as early as the first Sunday of Lent, which in Bohemia is called “Black”, because on that day women would set aside their colourful clothes as a sign of mourning, “Pučálka”, named after a dish made from sprouted and roasted peas, or also “Liščí”. Why ‘fox’? On the night before Sunday, mothers would secretly bake small sweet pretzels, which they would hang from fruit trees in the garden using coloured ribbons. In the morning, they would wake the children by telling them that a fox had dropped the pretzels in the garden. However, this custom has now almost been forgotten. The next baking takes place on what is known as Ugly Wednesday, that is, the last Wednesday before Easter. On that day, one should bake “Jidáše”.

Tips for Easter

Traditional lamb cake

Ever since pagan times, Easter has been the most important spring festival and some old traditions are still observed in Czech cuisine today. You will find an Easter lamb. It is actually a sweet cake, which symbolised Christ’s sacrifice. The baked lamb is carefully turned out of the tin, raisins are placed in its eyes, and the still-warm figure is sprinkled with vanilla sugar or drizzled with chocolate icing. A decorative ribbon with a bell.

And how do you make the lamb? Try a recipe similar to that for bishop’s bread: you will need 130 g icing sugar, 200 g butter, 4 egg yolks, 7 egg whites, 130 g sugar, 360 g plain flour and 1/2 tsp baking powder. Mix 260 g of chopped nuts, raisins and candied fruit into the dough; chocolate for the icing will also come in handy.

First cream the egg yolks, butter and icing sugar. Whisk the egg whites and sugar into stiff meringue. Mix the chopped fruit with the flour and baking powder. Then gradually combine everything together: first fold the mixture of egg yolks, butter and sugar into the flour, then add the meringue. Finally, pour the batter into a greased and floured lamb-shaped tin and bake for 1¼ hours at 160–190°C. Once the lamb cake has cooled, pour chocolate icing over it.

Mazanec just like Grandma used to make

The lamb’s faithful companion on the Easter table is the mazanec. It is a loaf made from sweet yeast dough, which tastes similar to vánočka. Mazanec was traditionally baked on Holy Saturday; why not try making it this year using a tried-and-tested ‘grandmother’s’ recipe yourself! It’s not complicated, it just takes a little time.
For the yeast dough, you will need: 1 kg strong flour, 220 g butter, 220 g sugar, 4 egg yolks, 60 g yeast, about 1/2 l milk, lemon zest, vanilla, 40 g raisins (soaked in rum), 70 g almonds, 10 g salt and 1/2 egg for glazing.
In a warm place , leave the yeast made from yeast, 40 g sugar and a handful of flour. Cream the warmed butter, egg yolks and sugar until fluffy; add salt to the milk. Then sift the flour into the butter mixture (keep some aside for kneading the dough on the work surface). Then add the yeast mixture, milk with salt and knead the dough thoroughly so that as much air as possible is incorporated (this ensures it rises well), finally, work in the raisins, the lemon zest and the chopped almonds. Place the kneaded dough in a warm place, cover with a tea towel and leave to rise until it has doubled in volume (approx. two hours, or even longer). Then tip the dough onto a work surface and shape into loaves.
Divide the fluffy dough into three equal portions and press the air out of it with your palms. Shape the portions into smooth loaves, whichto rise again. Then brush them with beaten egg, sprinkle with sliced almonds and cut a cross in the centre with a sharp knife.

Bake in a preheated oven – first for 15 minutes at 200°C, then reduce the temperature by about half and bake until golden brown. In total, the mazance buns take about 45 minutes to an hour to bake.

Jidáše symbolise a rope

In many regions of the Czech Republic, at Easter you can come across Easter Judas bread. This sweet pastry is said to symbolise the rope on which the traitor Judas hanged himself. And that’s not all – according to tradition, jidáše are coated in honey and eaten on Maundy Thursday morning, preferably early in the morning, if possible before sunrise. This is said to ensure not only good health, but also protection against snake bites and wasp stings.
To ensure the yeast dough can be shaped beautifully, it must be well-kneaded, elastic, supple and at the same time soft. It must not tear and must hold its shape. It must not crack and must always resemble that famous rope. So, how do you do it? For the Jidáše, prepare 500 g plain flour, 70 g butter, 2 egg yolks, 300 ml cooking cream, 80 g caster sugar, 25 g yeast, 4 g salt, a pinch of grated nutmeg, and the zest of 1/4 lemon.
The method is similar to that for mazance: First, make a starter from the yeast, a tablespoon of flour, a tablespoon of sugar and a little cream. Once it has risen, mix it with the other ingredients and start kneading into a smooth dough. The dough should then be left to rise until it doubles in volume. When it has risen (don’t rush it, dough with cream rises particularly slowly, even up to 3 hours), shape it into Jidáše and leave them to rise a little longer on the baking tray. Jidáše also symbolise the end of winter and the beginning of new life, so in addition to the classic shape ‘knots’ you can shape them into symbols of birds, crayfish, snails, ducklings, snakes, hedgehogs or even little turtles…

Brush the shaped Easter breads with egg beaten with two tablespoons of water and leave to rise for another 20 minutes. Brush the second-rise Easter breads with egg only and place in preheated oven at 190°C and bake for 15 minutes.

Whilst the Jidáše are baking, prepare the honey glaze. Heat 2 tablespoons of honey and add a tablespoon of butter to the hot liquid. Stir until the butter has melted into the heated honey. As soon as you take the Jidáše out of the oven, brush them with the honey glaze.

Easter stuffing – with nettles, parsley or spinach?

On Holy Saturday, when Lent ends, tradition dictates that one should prepare the so-called ‘hlavička’ or ‘hlavnička’, i.e. the main dish. This is astuffing made from several types of meat or smoked, to which green herbs and young nettlesare added as a symbol of spring. The stuffing should include eggs, but also something green. Nowadays, parsley parsleyis most commonly used nowadays, but young nettles are also excellent; you could even try basil and other herbs. If you want the stuffing to contain as little fat as possible, use lean meat – stuffing made with smoked chicken is very tasty. You can basically mix anything into the stuffing; it all depends on your taste and imagination.
One of the traditional recipes is stuffing with nettles. You’ll need 10 stale bread rolls, 6 eggs, 400 g smoked meat, 1 glass milk, 2 handfuls of chopped nettles, butter for greasing the tin, nutmeg, sliced almonds, pepper and salt.

Cut the bread into cubes and mix with the milk, egg yolks, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Leave to soak. Clean and blanch the nettles, tear them into pieces and mix with the mixture of bread and egg yolks. Then dice the meat and add to the bowl. To enhance the flavour, the smoked meat can be briefly pan-fried just before mixing, but this is not essential. In a second bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff and gently fold the whites into the other ingredients. Grease the tin with butter or lard, pour in the mixture and smooth the surface. Sprinkle almonds on top. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 °C for about 30–45 minutesuntil the filling is firm and golden.

Also delicious is stuffing with pork and spinach. For this you will need: 150 g pork shoulder, 100 g smoked shoulder, 8 stale bread rolls, 1/2 onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 200 g spinach (frozen is fine), 50 g butter, 6 eggs, a handful of chopped parsley, salt, ground black pepper and lard for greasing the baking dish.

Cook the pork and smoked meat separately in salted water until tender. Leave them to cool, then dice them. Similarly, slice the bread rolls, then moisten them with the meat stock. Finely chop the onion and garlic, chop the washed spinach leaves. Then fry the garlic and onion in butter (until the onion turns translucent). Add the spinach leaves, cook briefly and season with salt and pepper. Mix everything together in a bowl, grease a baking dish or tin with lard, place the stuffing inside and bake in a preheated oven at 180 °C for approx. 30 minutes.

Easter Šmigrustovka

This is where many might hesitate – but Moravians in particular will know that the word šmigrust refers to the Easter whip and the customs associated with it. The soup of the same name is said to traditionally contain whatever the carol singers collect. It certainly looks a riot of colour on the plate and is said to be able to soothe even an upset stomach after a strenuous welcome to spring…
For 1 litre of water you will need 1 large onion, 300 g of smoked meat, 1 spicy sausage, 1 egg yolk, 4 hard-boiled eggs, 2 tablespoons plain flour, 50 ml whipping cream for whipping, 1 teaspoon sweet ground paprika, grated horseradish, chives, salt and pepper.
Cook the smoked meat and sausages together with a whole onion. Strain the smoked stock and bring to the boil. Whisking constantly, pour in the cream mixed with the flour and simmer for about 10 minutes. Then remove the soup from the heat, thicken with an egg yolk, add a dash of vinegar, and stir in finely grated horseradish, pepper and paprika. Dice the smoked meat and slice the sausages into rounds, then divide between plates or bowls. Add 1 hard-boiled egg, sliced, to each portion. Pour the prepared soup over the top; it must be thick.

Familiar yet unfamiliar dishes: pučálka, pražmo and drchanice

Be sure to include the following among your spring dishes traditional pučálka – sprouted peas, which is quickly fried in hot butter and then seasoned with pepper and salt. It can also be prepared as a sweet dish with raisins, or with honey and cinnamon. An interesting alternative of a similar nature is a dish that was once very widespread, known as pražmo – sprouted grains, which, just like the peas in pučálka, are fried quickly in butter and then seasoned.
As a sweet tip to finish with we’ve saved Easter drchanice.

These fried rings are made from unleavened dough and dusted with sugar after frying. This pastry, which resembles the sun in shape, was traditionally used to celebrate the end of Shrovetide and the return of spring and sunshine. For the doughnuts, you will need 500 g plain flour, 100 g butter, 100 g sugar, 6 tablespoons white wine, 4 egg yolks, lemon zest, vanilla and oil for frying.

Using the flour, egg yolks, butter, sugar, white wine, vanilla and well-washed lemon zest, knead a firm dough. This is then rolled out into a sheet about 4 mm thick and cut out larger circles using a cutter. Fry them in oil and, whilst still hot, dust the fritters with sugar.