Easter Bread With Raisins

This Easter Bread with Raisins is a rendition of traditional Paska bread! It’s a sweet loaf, enriched with milk, eggs, sugar, and butter. It’s topped with a delicious glaze that makes it beautiful and perfect for an Easter dessert. Even though it’s an Easter-themed bread, it’s so delicious you’ll want to make it all year round!

Easter Bread Origin

Paska is a traditional bread that is made to celebrate in countries like Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, and Russia. It has different variations in different countries, but it is generally an enriched sweet bread filled with raisins. Occasionally it’s made with cheese or other savory ingredients, but it’s still a celebratory bread regardless of flavors.

I love experimenting with making bread from around the world, so I wanted to create my own version of a paska. I tried to make it as traditional as possible, but I took inspiration from different versions, and the result is amazing.

If you like making trying different bread from around, you should try my Chocolate Babka Bread and Apple Raisin Challah!

Bread Ingredients

• Unsweetened almond milk
• Raisins
• Turbinado sugar
• Active dry yeast
• Fine sea salt
• Pure vanilla extract
• Zested Lemon or orange
• Eggs
• Unsalted butter 
• Unbleached all-purpose flour
• Organic powdered sugar

Ingredient Notes

There are a few ingredients that be substituted in this recipe and ingredients that are very important to create the perfect bread.

For the milk in this recipe, I used unsweetened almond milk because that is usually what I have at home. However, dairy milk, oat milk, coconut milk, or rice milk can be used in its place.

The sugar I used for this bread is natural turbinado sugar, but if you prefer you can use white sugar or brown sugar instead. It won’t change the sweetness or texture of the bread.

To add extra flavor to this bread, I used vanilla extract and the zest of one lemon. Orange or lime zest can also be used instead of lemon, but definitely add the citrus! It makes a big difference in how the flavor develops!

Raisins are the traditional fruit added to paska, but you could replace them with dried cranberries or dried apricots. I recommend adding fruit of some kind because it adds to the presentation and taste.

The yeast for bread is always important, and that includes this recipe. My yeast of choice is Redstar active dry yeast or their Platinum yeast. It makes the dough rise quickly even with all of the butter, sugar, and eggs. If you choose the right yeast, bread is almost guaranteed to be great!

Bread Making Equipment

• Stand Mixer with dough attachment
• Measuring cups and spoons
• Spatula
• Whisk
• Large mixing bowl
• Parchment paper
• 9-Inch spring bottom cake pan

The pan I used for the bread is a 9-Inch Spring Bottom Pan because it has deep sides and gives plenty of room for the bread to grow. I also wrap parchment paper around the inside of the pan and let the sides go up about 5 inches.

Recipe Notes

• If you’re worried about if your yeast is fresh, test it with 1/4 cup warm water, 1 tsp of sugar, and a pinch of yeast. If it bubbles after a few minutes, it is still good to use.
• Kneading the dough by hand will take closer to 12 minutes of kneading to develop the gluten.
• To store the bread, wrap it in aluminum foil or plastic wrap and keep it at room temperature for up to 3 days.

I hope you love this Easter Paska Bread With Raisins! If you make it for your Easter celebration, I would love to hear how it turns out. Let me know in the comments below or tag me on Instagram!

Easter Bread with Raisins

Alyssa

This Easter Bread is a rendition of traditional Paska bread! It's a sweet loaf, enriched with eggs, butter, and full of juicy raisins. It's topped with a delicious glaze that makes it beautiful and perfect for an Easter dessert.

5 from 11 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 45 minutes mins

Proofing Time 3 hours hrs

Total Time 4 hours hrs

Course Bread, Dessert

Cuisine Polish, Ukranian

Servings 12

Calories 287 kcal

Equipment

• Stand Mixer with dough attachment
• Measuring cups and spoons
• Spatula
• Whisk
• Large mixing bowl
• Parchment paper
• 9-Inch spring bottom cake pan

Ingredients

  

• 1 Cup Unsweetened almond milk
• 1 Cup Raisins
• 1/4 Cup Turbinado sugar
• 2 1/4 teaspoons Active dry yeast
• 1 tsp Fine sea salt
• 1 ½ tsp Pure vanilla extract
• 1 Zested Lemon or orange
• 2 Large Eggs
• 1/4 Cup Unsalted butter melted
• 4 Cups Unbleached all-purpose flour

Glaze Topping:

• ¾ Cup Organic powdered sugar
• 1 Tbsp Unsweetened almond milk

Instructions

 

• In a stand mixer bowl, combine the warm milk, sugar, and yeast. Leave for 5 minutes to activate and bubble up. Add the raisins to a bowl of water to rehydrate slightly.
• Add in the salt, eggs, vanilla, lemon zest, and melted butter to the mixer, and whisk to combine. Add in the flour and turn on the mixer and knead it for 6 minutes on low. Then drain the raisins thoroughly and add them to the dough. Knead for an additional 2 minutes.
• Lightly oil a large bowl. Transfer the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and allow it to rise for about 1 ½ hour in a warm location.
• Form the remaining dough into a ball and place into a greased, round baking dish, about 9 inches wide and 4 inches deep.
• Allow the dough to rise for about another 1 ½ hours.
• Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Bake for 40-45 minutes. Cover the top with foil at 20 minutes in baking to keep it from getting too brown.
• Let cool in the pan. Once it's cool enough to handle, remove it from the pan.
• Mix the powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk to form a glaze, then pour it onto the cooled paska. Optionally sprinkle with Easter-colored sprinkles.

Notes

Keyword Easter Bread, Easter Bread with Raisins, Easter Paska Bread, Paska Bread