Comments on: Paska with almonds.

By: Kyra

Kyra — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 11:01:47 +0000

More properly, the Greek word pascha translates to Passover and is inherited from the Hebrew “pesach”.

Also as a note of interest: there appears to be a dialect crossover of terms for this type of bread. For my mother’s church and family (OCA), paska refers to the cheese curd dish, and kulich is the term for this bread.

By: Agatha

Agatha — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 09:37:44 +0000

I’m not a linguist. Will a qualified guess do? The Finns got the name from the Russians, who got it from the Greeks. (Paska is the Greek word for Easter.)

By: Aspsusa

Aspsusa — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 05:54:11 +0000

The name of it is interesting. In Finland (Carelia and Eastern Finland originally, has spread to become a mainstream national thing starting about 60 years ago or so) there’s an Easter dish called “pasha”, which is a kind of very rich, sweet curd.

Any linguists out there that can confirm my suspicion that both names ultimately have to do with Hebrew (or Jiddish?), as in “Pesach”?

By: poproxy

poproxy — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 19:00:26 +0000

Your paska looks pretty accurate (and delicious, I might add). Most of the ones I’ve seen have some sort of cross shape on top. They are supposed to be kind of irregular around the edges.

By: wolly

wolly — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 18:39:30 +0000

Did Laura ever wake up yet?zzzzz Gosh that bread is beautiful.

By: Ms. Clark

Ms. Clark — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 14:21:54 +0000

Was Laura happy with the result? I want some!! I have to go make a sweet egg bread now… I cheat, I use a bread maker, but I don’t buy a mix.

By: Rosemary

Rosemary — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 17:30:35 +0000

I love Easter breads. I made an Italian braided bread for today..you put five dyed eggs on the top and it is braided , too. The whole house smells so good from the bread. We are a big family, so it one bread does not last very long.

By: ballastexistenz

ballastexistenz — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 17:01:02 +0000

I think what I like about bread, by the way, is how patient yeast is as opposed to a lot of other foods. It doesn’t demand that you do something right this instant generally, and doesn’t make you sit there and monitor it every second to make sure that it stays within some kind of vague parameters that don’t even make sense in the first place. It gives you a lot of leeway, and a lot of time, that most cooking doesn’t.

(This is probably also why I can usually make blender-made preparations. I’m told I might be able to use a crock pot too but I haven’t tried yet.)

I am now, however, impatient, because Laura did not get enough sleep last night, and is napping, and I can’t bring the paska over until she wakes up, and I don’t know when that will be. So I can’t eat it yet, but have to sit with it sitting around in the oven smelling good. And I have no more butter so I can’t make more bread today unless I find a butterless recipe in any of these books.

By: mcewen

mcewen — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 16:51:42 +0000

I can almost smell it! Now I’m going to sulk. Cheers

By: ballastexistenz

ballastexistenz — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 15:23:03 +0000

I’m currently in the process of making another one, this time I’m going to try to bake it on a flat pan instead of one with sides and see how that changes it. (I’m on the second rise right now.) The tiny bit I’ve tried of the first one (from a part that broke off on the pan :-/ ) tasted good.

Oddly, bread does not confuse me at all. I don’t find it too complicated or difficult. I don’t understand why I don’t, because I suck at chemistry and I suck at regular cooking.

I really like this particular dough because it’s not as thick as a lot of the dough I’ve been making before, and it’s interesting this way, still thinner and stickier but easier to deal with in some ways too.

By: bullet

bullet — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 15:08:00 +0000

That looks delicious :).

By: JanB

JanB — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 15:06:36 +0000

It looks great. Did it taste good? Bread is a hard thing to cook, what with all the chemical interactions with the yeast and having to have it just at the right temperature to rise. Congratulations on a successful loaf. I will have to try it. I love making bread. I have a bread machine, but find that hand made bread always comes out better than those loaves cooked in the machine.