Pasca — Print Recipe — The Culinary Codex

A rich, tall Easter bread filled with a sweet cheese mixture, decorated with braided dough on top, baked until golden and fragrant.

Ingredients

500g bread flour
200ml warm milk
100g sugar
100g butter, softened
3 eggs
10g instant yeast
Zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
For filling: 500g fresh cheese
100g sugar
2 eggs
50g raisins
1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

1 Dissolve yeast in warm milk with a pinch of sugar. Let stand ten minutes until frothy.
2 Mix flour, sugar, and salt. Add yeast mixture, eggs, softened butter, lemon zest, and vanilla. Knead for fifteen minutes until smooth.
3 Let dough rise in a warm place for one and a half hours until doubled in size.
4 Mix cheese with sugar, eggs, raisins, and vanilla for the filling. It should be smooth and sweet.
5 Press two-thirds of the dough into a buttered round tin, bringing it up the sides. Pour filling into the center.
6 Braid remaining dough and arrange in a cross pattern over the filling. Let rise thirty minutes. Brush with egg wash and bake at 170C for fifty minutes.

Did You Know?

In Moldova, pasca must be blessed by a priest at church on Easter morning before the family is allowed to eat it, and cutting the first slice is a ceremonial moment.