Alexandria Easter cake with baked milk

Step-by-step preparation

Cooking time: 12 hr

1. STEP 1

   

   How to make Alexandria Easter cake? Prepare the necessary products - everything should be at room temperature. Take the highest grade flour. I have fresh yeast, but you can use dry yeast, 20-25 grams. Be sure to take the best butter, do not replace it with margarine or spread. It should be at room temperature. Raisins are light, candied fruits are orange, but it’s better to take different, multi-colored ones.

2. STEP 2

   

   Steam the raisins with hot water for 8 minutes, rinse, remove the stems and dry. Finely chop the candied fruits if necessary. I used a mixture of candied pineapple and homemade orange peel (there will be a link below on how to prepare them). Dust the raisins and candied fruits with flour, stir and shake off the excess through a sieve or colander, so the candied fruits and raisins are evenly distributed in the dough.

3. STEP 3

   

   Start preparing the dough. /It is not quite ordinary, since it does not contain flour, so it must stand for 8-12 hours/. Lightly beat the eggs and yolks with the sugar until the sugar dissolves.

4. STEP 4

   

   Then add soft butter to the egg-sugar mixture; no need to melt it.

5. STEP 5

   

   Mix the butter well until smooth with a mixer at low speed.

6. STEP 6

   

   Crumble fresh pressed yeast into another container, pour in a little warm milk /so that your finger is not hot/, rub it well. Add the rest of the milk and stir until completely dissolved. /If the yeast is fresh and of high quality, it should disperse quickly. Check the expiration date and do not use old ones. Baked milk will give the Easter cakes a beautiful shade and a brighter creamy taste.

7. STEP 7

   

   Now pour the yeast into the egg mixture and mix with a mixer at low speed.

8. STEP 8

   

   Cover with a towel and leave for 8-12 hours at room temperature to ferment. It is convenient to prepare the dough in the evening so that it is ready in the morning.

9. STEP 9

   

   This is what the finished dough looks like after fermentation.

10. STEP 10

    

    The dough will have an oily layer on top, and underneath it there will be a lot of sizzling bubbles.

11. STEP 11

    

    Separately, sift the flour 3 times, mix it with salt and vanilla sugar. Then add it to the dough in parts, mix everything well. At first I mixed it with a whisk, when it became difficult, I continued kneading with my hands. The dough should not be clogged, but tender and sticky to your hands. To make it easier, grease your hands with odorless vegetable oil; there is no need to stuff with flour.

12. STEP 12

    

    Add raisins, candied fruits and a spoonful of cognac (cognac will give the baked goods a special airiness). Continue kneading, the dough will remain soft and sticky, as it should be.

13. STEP 13

    

    Transfer the mixture into a deep, oiled container, taking into account that the dough will increase significantly in volume. Cover the dough with oiled film (I make small holes in the film) or a towel and leave in a warm place to proof for 1.5 hours. /I put it in an oven heated to 35' and turned off/. I use a skewer to control it; this way the dough rises easier and more evenly.

14. STEP 14

    

    As time passes, the dough will approximately triple in size. I have a 5L bowl for kneading dough, put it in a 7L pan and it was just enough. Ready dough - 3.120 kg.

15. STEP 15

    

    Gently knead the dough, divide into pieces according to the number of molds, form an even bun and fill the greased molds 1/2 - 1/3. Cover the molds with film and place in a warm place to proof for 1 hour. You can grease the molds with either butter or vegetable oil, then dust with flour and shake off excess.

16. STEP 16

    

    During this time, the Alexandria dough should rise 2 times. Bake in a preheated oven at 180' for about 20 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 160', cover the top of the cakes with foil or parchment and bake for another 40 minutes. Do not open the oven unless necessary. Then turn off the oven, remove the foil and leave the cakes in it for 30 minutes. I bake in the top-bottom mode on a medium level. You focus on your oven.

17. STEP 17

    

    Check doneness with a skewer; if it comes out dry, it means the baked goods are ready! Let the cakes cool. I just cover them with a towel and don't put them on their sides. Then remove the cakes from the molds. Do not prepare the glaze in advance as it sets quickly, so prepare just before applying.

18. STEP 18

    

    Start preparing the GLAZE. Beat the chilled whites until fluffy, first at low speed, then gradually increasing the speed. Without stopping whisking, add sifted powdered sugar in parts. At the very end, add lemon juice and continue beating a little more. The glaze should have a uniform consistency, smooth and shiny. To thicken the glaze, add powdered sugar, but only a little at a time. You can buy ready-made glaze at your convenience.

19. STEP 19

    

    When the cakes have cooled, cover them with glaze and decorate with confectionery sprinkles. Easter cakes ripen within 8 hours. This is how they will look in cross section. Well-baked, light, airy, porous, slightly moist dough. Moderately sweet, with a pleasant creamy taste and vanilla aroma. The taste can be changed a little by adding different flavors to the glaze. You can add more raisins and candied fruits to this amount of dough.

Comments on the recipe

Admin Rina

10.12.2023

4.9

I baked my first cakes when I was about 17 years old, and from then on I fell in love with working with yeast dough. But I have never encountered such a method of preparing dough as in Alexandria Easter cake with baked milk. This is what interested me - I like to learn something new, even in something that seems familiar and familiar for a long time. I would like to note that for beginners this recipe may seem very complicated and troublesome, but it is not so. A huge plus that I immediately noticed for myself: you don’t have to spend more than half a day preparing the dough, as in standard Easter cake recipes with regular dough. Here the process is divided into two stages: in the evening you place the dough, in the morning you start kneading the main dough. This is really very convenient and much less tiring (by the way, until the last moment I doubted whether I would bake Easter cakes precisely because of lack of time, but Alexandria Easter cake literally saved the situation). About the process: I had dry active yeast, I didn’t add candied fruits (replaced them with raisins in the same proportions), cognac - yes, the dough stood for about 10 hours (the finished dough really sizzles!), the dough and Easter cakes in the molds took about half an hour longer , than the author (note for beginners and those who do not know: this is normal, because you need to look not only at the clock, but also at how the dough rises). I baked it as standard for my oven, at a level slightly below average, and kept it in the switched off oven for only 10 minutes (I love moist dough and was afraid that it would become a bit dry). We didn’t stock up on sprinkles or decorations for Easter cakes, so we used raisins as a “building material” on top of the icing. My youngest daughter really enjoyed the process...and the icing. The finished Easter cakes came out very airy and soft (I filled the molds 1/3 full with dough and it rose almost 3 times). Thanks for the recipe and I definitely recommend it to everyone! It turns out very tasty!

Kat

10.12.2023

4.7

I’m making Easter cakes with baked milk for the first time, I’m very interested in what they will taste like) I think they are very tasty and creamy. My dough turned out to be so active that it even ran a little over the edges of the container. The dough turned out nice, moderately sticky, and not difficult to knead. From candied fruits I added dried cranberries, cherries and raisins. Thanks to the Author for the recipe!

Julia

10.12.2023

4.6

BLUE-EYED, what beautiful, delicious Easter cakes! Just great !

Natalie

10.12.2023

4.6

Please tell me, is it possible to replace fresh yeast with dry yeast? And if so, what amount of dry yeast should I use for this recipe?

Yana

10.12.2023

4.8

I have a question, if the dough sits for more than a day, will it go bad?