Celebrating Easter Mindfully / Grandma’s Paska

Slippery, sticky, yellow dough. Exotic saffron. Raisins. Old coffee tins and pretty loaf pans. Generations of women’s hands kneading, shaping, tasting. This is something I want to pass onto our children, especially now that their great-grandma has passed. She would have been 99 this fall!

I thought I’d share my grandmother’s original recipe (you can see her recipe card there in the photo below), as well as an updated version that subs a few ingredients such as unrefined sugar. Grab the printable Grandma’s Paska PDF to print out the recipe or tuck it away in your recipe folder on your computer.

If you have a recipe or skill to share that was passed on to you by your grandmother (or grandfather!), please write to us at Heirloom Offerings :: The Grandma Project. We’d love to share your story and skill!

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This post was shared as a part of Thank Goodness It’s Monday, Fat Tuesday, and Real Food Wednesday.

4 comments

  1. Hi, I can’t tell in the pdf version where the sourdough comes in. I would think that if you are using a sourdough starter that the yeast would be omitted.

    1. Hi Michele,

      You are completely correct. I didn’t end up sharing the sourdough version this time – all my photos were from the yeast version, and rather than spend time taking new photos, I decided to just enjoy being present in baking our batch this year (which was yeast based anyway since I am without a starter right now). Thanks for catching that – and for stopping in!

  2. My recipe is huge, always lots to share! It also seems to have more eggs than most.
    Paska
    3 pkg. yeast – or 7 tablespoons
    4 cups sugar
    16 eggs
    1 cup margarine
    1 tsp salt
    juice and rind of one lemon
    juice and rind of 1 orange
    3 cups scalded milk
    8 cups flour
    Soften yeast in 1 cup water and 2 tsp. sugar
    Beat eggs well and add sugar – beat well. Add the rest of the ingredients slowly ending with the yeast. Mix well and then add flour as needed (around 8 to 10 more cups)
    for a soft dough. Let rise, punch down, let rise again and put into well greased pans. Bake at 325 for 1 hour. Yield – 12 paskas.

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