Easter recipes

I mentioned in 2014 that I'll do food post from time to time. Well, the time has come and here is the first (and I hope not the only) food blog post, focused on Easter. I have three recipes for you this time - mazanec, Easter stuffing (nádivka) and egg spread.

Mazanec

I love it. Mazanec and vánočka have the same batter so once you master it, you can bake Czech specialities both for Easter and Christmas. Ingredients bellow are for two baps (loafs). 

2 cups of all-purpose flour

1 cup of milk

1 piece (0,5 lb or 250 grams) of butter

1/2 cup of granulated sugar

2 yolks

1 packet of dry yeast

2 tea spoons of vanilla sugar

1 tea spoon of lemon peel 

pinch of salt

First of all you need yeast starter - warm up half cup of milk (should be warm, not hot), add two tea spoons of granulated sugar and dry yeast. Let it rise for about 20 minutes. 

Then melt the butter, mix it with the rest of milk and sugar, add yolks, lemon peel and vanilla sugar and stir together. Then add the yeast starter, stir again. Mix flour with salt and start to add it to batter. Now the important part comes - when all flour added, work the dough until it's smooth and elastic, but not sticking. It could take up to ten minutes, so patience is needed. :)

When the dough is ready, let it rise for one and half hour in flour-sprinkled bowl. After that 1,5 hour divide the dough into two pieces and form loaves. Place them on baking tin and let them rise for another half an hour. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C), smear the loaves with mixed (creamed) eggs and bake it for 20 minutes. Then lower the temperature to 280°F (140°C) and bake for another abt 15 minutes. Check if mazanec is ready by sticking a skewer into the loaf - if it is dry, mazanec is ready. 

Easter stuffing (nádivka)

Well. There is no "correct" recipe for nádivka. It could be done in million different ways, it depends only on your imagination. Basis of nádivka is smoked meat and eggs, the rest is usually different from family to family. So, here is one idea for nádivka: 

1 lb smoked meat (smoked pork)

4 rolls or 4 slices of bread

8 eggs

2 cups of chopped young nettles

1 cup of chopped spring onion 

1/2 cup of chopped parsley tops

1/2 cup of chopped chives

1 spoon of butter

milk (abt 1/2 to 1 cup)

salt, pepper

Chop the smoked meat and rolls/bread to 1x1 cm pieces. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Dip the rolls/bread pieces in milk, mix the eggs and butter with nettles, onion, parsley and chives, add the meat and rolls/bread, add salt and pepper. Stir well and pour into square form sprinkled with oil or fat. Let bake for abt 30 to 35 minutes.

Egg spread
There usually is one large problem after the Easter Monday in CZ: what to do with all those hard-boiled eggs you have? One of the possible ways how to solve this problem is egg spread.

You will need:
6 hard-boiled eggs
1 glass of mayonaisse (abt 250 ml)
1 small onion
1 spoon of mustard
salt

Peel off the eggs and onion and cut them to small pieces. Mix them with mayonaisse, mustard, add salt according to your taste. Easy, quick and very tasty with bread or toast. :)

And what about your families? Do you have some Easter specialities?