1 Video View·Apr 3, 2026 #easter #ukraine Paska is one of Ukraine’s most meaningful Easter foods. Chef Yevhen Klopotenko returns to his family kitchen to bake it with his mother and show why this Easter bread is both recipe and ritual, from pre Christian symbolism to today’s Easter baskets. Whether written as Paska, Paskha or Pasca, it remains a symbol of life, renewal and home.
CREDITS
Report: Yevhen Klopotenko
Camera: Lev Kostenko, Oleg Gienko
Edit: Gleb Sushchev
RECIPE
750–800 g wheat flour
250 ml warm milk (2.5%)
25 g fresh yeast
1 egg
1 egg yolk
225 g sugar + 1 tbsp for the starter
10 g vanilla sugar
1 orange (juice and zest)
100 g softened butter (82.5%)
2 tbsp sunflower oil
100 g cranberries
200 g powdered sugar
a pinch of salt
decorative sprinkles (optional)
Step 1
Take the butter out of the refrigerator—it should come to room temperature. Rinse the raisins well, place them on a paper towel, and pat them dry with another towel. They should be completely dry.
Prepare the starter. Heat 220 ml of milk (2.5%) in a saucepan to 30–35°C and crumble 25 g of fresh yeast into it. Mix well until fully dissolved. It’s best to do this by hand to make sure there are no lumps.
Add 1 tbsp of sugar and mix again until the sugar dissolves. Cover with a clean towel or plastic wrap and leave in a warm place for 20 minutes so the yeast can activate.
Step 2
The starter should double in size. Then add one egg and one egg yolk to it.
Step 3
Add 225 g of sugar, 10 g of vanilla sugar, and a pinch of salt.
Step 4
Add 100 g of softened butter (82.5%) and 2 tbsp of sour cream (20%). Mix everything well with a whisk. You can also use a stand mixer with a whisk attachment on medium speed.
Step 8
Add 750–800 g of flour and mix the dough with a spatula until smooth. The amount of flour will depend on the size of the eggs you used. For baking, we usually use size M eggs (marked C1).
Step 9
Knead a soft dough. It’s best to knead it for about 10 minutes so it becomes smooth and uniform. You can use a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment. The dough should not stick to your hands.
Shape it into a ball and place it in a large, deep bowl greased with sunflower oil. Cover with a towel and leave in a warm place for 1 hour to rise. The dough should increase in volume by 2–3 times.
Punch down the dough and shape it into a ball again. Let it rise once more for 40 minutes to achieve a light and airy Easter bread.
Step 10
Then knead the dough again and incorporate 100 g of raisins into it. Do this in a way that the raisins are not on the surface of the dough, so they don’t burn while baking the Easter bread.
Preheat the oven to 180°C using the convection setting.
Step 13
Fill paper or metal molds with the dough, but only up to 2/3 of their volume. If using metal molds, line the bottom with parchment paper first, then grease both the bottom and the sides of the mold with butter.
Step 14
Leave the molds in a warm place, covered with a towel, until the dough rises to the edges of the molds. Bake the Easter breads in an oven preheated to 180°C for 20–35 minutes, depending on the size of the molds.
Use either the convection setting or top-and-bottom heat. Check for doneness with a wooden skewer.
#easter #ukraine
This is a Ukrainian Easter egg and this is my mom
In Ukraine we have one very
well-known tradition called paska
Above all make sure the house is completely quiet
because they say that if there's noise there will be shouting and noise
If the music is too loud the dough won't rise
And if it doesn't work the pastries won't turn out
My name is Yevhen Klopotenko and I am a well-known Ukrainian chef
I'm trying to discover authentic Ukrainian gastronomy
And I strive to share these recipes and this culture with the world
I think you're familiar with something similar In
Italy during Christmastime people prepare panettone
In Germany people prepare stollen
Of course those guys are very well known on Christ
But in Christ we have the Passover
If you want the palette to be a truly bolder color
Then you need to add a lot of eggs
The more eggs you use the more colorful your Paska will be
Of course he's just a boy
For Ukrainians the boy was very important to their lives
From the beginning of time there were only mushrooms
and from mushrooms people began to create fruits
And from the fruits they began preparing the boy
The guy is 90% old recipes
For Ukrainians a boy is something
sacred something that gives us strength
Gives us love
gives us connection to our homes
He was baked in practically every household
There were many recipes for baking paska
There are as many ways to make paska as there are housewives
A must-have condition for what Mom baked was
They were supposed to decorate the bun on top
with a little flower or some little pinecone or something like that
and so that it doesn't slide anywhere during baking
On Palm Sunday they took
that willow branch and
straight through it they pierced it Seriously
Seriously
I love changing things every time
That is one such recipe
I don't have that recipe for which I bake exclusively
They can recur annually for me
or add something new something different
But what I bake every year is definitely it
When we came back to work after the holiday
we always brought whatever each person had
prepared sharing those little pieces of cake
The one who baked and the one who
liked it the most at the
time exchanged recipes
Then the following year the recipe was tested at home
Right now this is not just bread
not just sacred bread for us
but also a tradition
o show my friends that I
'm making the best pascha
And then the friends must show that I can
do it It's like a championship of ropes
While were talking
about many different
things our dough keeps falling apart
And wants to run
away but we have
to stop it and make the best pass
Right now we need to take the cottage cheese
We need to divide our dough into three parts
Two parts will be our Easter decoration
and one part will be for display
Decoration also includes streamers
We need to add streamers to our banner
History is also about seaborne trade
You can see what kind of texture this is
It has a nice elastic shape and we can
easily work with the
dough but the mother says
ever speak to her
Right now we need to add the risks
a certain lemon and orange risk
because they'll give off this wonderful aroma
You can mix them like this
I think you can mix it up
various ways you can mix the paste
And I think this might
also be interesting for your Easter
Right now we need to divide our dough
into two parts to create a nice decoration
We have hundreds of different websites
but I think we should take
more time to discuss this
because you'll be able to talk about our sites
in just a
few days I have such a nice decoration
We need to wait 20 minutes and
then we can put it in the oven
We have another tradition
When we go to church
We bring along some basketball but the
basketball must be filled
with various agreements
This evening the ladies were gathering their baskets
to take them to church at night or in the morning
Be sure to include the boiled egg
which was baked
Hard-boiled eggs are essential
Any color you like
Must have a sausage
Mustard can be added
Salt must be included
Oil And cheese
is absolutely essential
And with this basket people would
go to church where it was blessed
If there were friends or acquaintances
there everyone greeted one another
They could treat themselves to whatever was in the basket
They would come home
Breakfast began precisely with what
had been brought from the church
We'll set it up in a few minutes then
you can do it like this
And this is the
most essential and
widely used way of
doing We call it caps
Or heads
She taught him this
way Because those times when I was still learning
There was no such thing as
decorating pastries as it is now
It's already happening now
Previously they just took the farm
And she has
Decorate however you like
So you can
do whatever you want
using your own hands
And this method is even more familiar
today People do something very easily
but also very nicely
That is why this well-known Ukrainian
bread is called paska
