Delicious Finnish Easter Bread (Pääsiäisleipä) usually made in milking pails. Simple bread with This is simple bread scented with cardamom, lemon, orange zest
Hope you all had a great Easter. This year too I baked my Easter bread by travelling to Finland, yes, I added Finnish Easter Bread (Pääsiäisleipä) to my list. This bread is adapted from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads. I made this bread after two failure to make Portuguese Easter bead. So, decided to try this and was able to make it. This is simple bread scented with cardamom, lemon, orange zest.
Finnish call this bread a festive loaf that celebrates the arrival of spring and Easter. This is a cylindrical bread made in large milking pails to celebrate the arrival of new calves (usually in spring). Since I couldn’t find any milking pails here, I used jumbo muffin tin and coffee tin.
This bread is cut into quarter wedges. Each quarter is finally sliced into triangular slices. It's delicious with soft cheeses such as Camembert, Brie, breakfast cheese, or natural cream cheese. And hard cheeses such as Edam, Swiss, or smoked Gouda are also excellent accompaniments.
I lived in Sweden for two years and visited Finland during my visit, I took a ferry overnight to reach there, a small beautiful country you can see it in a day. I like Scandinavian cuisine as they use whole grain rye. I love this bread, and used rye flour. Rye can grow in harsh climate so that is abundant in their cuisine.
Since the original recipe measurement is in cups, but for the bread I prefer it in grams. As they make perfect bread each time. I don’t have golden raisin in my hand if you have it in hand, then use that. That gives beautiful color.
I used sliced almonds. I used pearl sugar and almonds to decorate you can skip that if you don’t want. Give try you will like this simple yet delicious bread.
According to Jessica Vaughn from facebook
"I am’m Finnish and have never heard of this 
. I suspected it might come from Russia and a quick search proved me right. It is called kulitsa and is usually served during Russian-Orthodox Easter with pasha (milk quark pudding).
Other Easter bread are
Primorski Uskrsne Bebe / Croatian Easter Bread Dolls
Finnish Easter Bread (Pääsiäisleipä)
Ingredients
- Sponge
- 197.5 g all purpose flour
- 107 g cream
- 33 g water
- 2 g yeast
- For Bread
- 190.5 g all-purpose flour
- 102.5 dark rye flour
- 88 g water
- 103 g milk
- 32.5 g egg yolk about 2 egg yolk
- 2 g yeast
- 3 g salt
- 56.5 butter
- All of sponge
- 2.5 g ground cardamom
- 2.5 g lemon zest
- 2.5 g orange zest
- 71.5 g golden raisins
- 51.5 g almonds
- egg wash
- sugar
- almonds
Instructions
- Heat the cream to 180F remove the pan and set aside.
- In another add flour, water, cooled cream, yeast and mix well and set aside.
- Cover bowl, or transfer sponge to a covered container, and ferment at 80-82F, until doubled and just starting to collapse back on itself. It took about 3 hours.
- While sponge is fermenting, prepare ingredients: chop almonds, soak raisins in some hot water; set all aside.
- In a large bowl, combine flours, salt, cardamom. Add lemon and orange zest mix so that evenly distributed in the flour.
- When sponge is ready, place in large bowl and combine with 95F water; I used a dough whisk to do this.
- Add flour mixture and mix with dough whisk and mix well
- To this add egg, yeast milk mixture and continue to knead
- Gradually incorporate the butter and knead once again to combine everything.
- Drain the raisins and add almonds and mix well once again.
- bulk ferment for 2 hours at 80F, with a stretch and fold after one hour.
- Divide into Six 120g pieces and then rest into single piece . Preshape tightly, as boules. Shape and place in greased tins. Cover with plastic, proof at 80F until risen 1" above pan. Do an egg wash and add pearl sugar and sliced almonds.
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Remove plastic wrap, and place pans in oven. Reduce oven temperature to 350F and bake for approximately 30 minutes, for muffin tin and 35-40 minutes for coffee tin or until done.
- Remove from oven, remove breads from pans, and while hot. If you want you can brush with butter or simple syrup.
Video
Nutrition
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This is Swathi ( Dr. Ambujom Saraswathy Ph.D) from Zesty South Indian Kitchen who loves to explore cuisines from all over the world. Whenever possible I try to to give an Indian touch to several of the world cuisine, and has weakness for freshly baked bread. All the recipes you see here are created by me and approved after taste-test by my family.
Kristie Cirak says
We could have this anytime of the year it looks and sounds so delicious!
Princess Quinn says
This is a type of bread I won't get tired eating. Definitely my Go To snack that kicks out the kids in me. Also pretty simple to make.
Enriqueta E Lemoine says
I simply adore the one in your hero pic. It looks like a mini Italian panetone! Beautiful. Adorable.
Amber S. says
This is the prettiest bread I’ve ever seen! The mix of ingredients and spices sound flavorful and interesting! Can’t wait to try my hand at this!
Jennifer Tanney says
I've never tried this bread. It looks really pretty and rye is one of my favorite flours. And of course, I love bread so will have to try out the recipe.
suman d says
I love your recipes, they look so delicious and easy to make. I can survive on breads for ever. Going to try this Finnish bread soon
Terri Beavers says
This looks like a bread we'd all enjoy. I love baking bread of all sorts so I'll have to give this recipe a try soon. I didn't even realize there was an Easter bread.
Rachel says
We have had something similar at our aunt's house for Easter. They are Ukranian.
Marysa says
How neat that you used a can to bake this in! This sounds like a delicious bread and a lovely tradition.
Heather says
Oh my goodness, this looks utterly delicious! I'm super excited to try this recipe!
physio-sports says
it looks like cupcake it should be delicious
Ruth I says
This is interesting! I love pastries, would love to try this, yum!
Jayashree says
This is something different and looks so nice. I am intrigued to try this one, it looks so delicious,
Anagha says
I haven't gone to the depths of the bread so far. This bread looks different and must be yummy.
Caroline says
I've never made this bread, but it looks so good! It's crazy that something as simple as bread can be made so differently all over the world!
Cheese Curd In Paradise says
One of my good friends is from Finland, and I will have to ask her about this bread! I love the look of it!
Terri Steffes says
I enjoy breads of all kinds, but I particularly like breads made especially for Easter, like hot cross buns. This looks like one I need to try.
Marcie W. says
This is the first I'm hearing of Finnish Easter bread but it is now a must try! The flavor profile sounds wonderful and I love the individual portions.
Sarah Bailey says
I have to admit I don't think I've tried this Easter treat before! I love how so many different places have different traditions! It sounds like it would be absolutely delicious!
Natalia says
I've never made Easter bread on my own! Too bad I'll have a chance to try it out next year, although I bet it could be done any time! 🙂
Tasheena says
This bread looks so yummy. It would be perfect paired with the dinner I'm making tonight.
ohmummymia says
I've never heard about this bread but looks really delicious so I will save a recipe for next year
Liz Mays says
This is impressive! I'd love to make a bread like this for the first time. Having it with some cheeses would be nice.
Tara Pittman says
I love the way you cooked the bread. I need to save some coffee cans and make this bread.
Krysten Quiles says
I've never heard of this before but it looks so pretty. Would love to make this sometime, thanks for sharing.
GiGi Eats says
It's just so pretty! I would love to have been in your kitchen while it baked - because I just want to enjoy the glorious smells! 🙂
Amber Myers says
I've never tried bread like this. I'm intrigued, so I'll have to try it for sure. I love my bread, so I bet I'll gobble it right up.
candy says
I have never made this type of bread before and it sounds interesting. I enjoy making homemade breads of all kinds.