Descendants of coal miners, Jim and Dolores Cox of Muse preserve Easter traditions their ancestors brought from Europe.
Amid their ethnic Easter basket, one finds ham, homemade cheese, lamb-shaped butter, kielbasa, dyed eggs, salt and, of course, a round crown of rich, raisiny bread known as paska.
Eating the blessed food on Easter breaks the fast that Byzantine Christians begin on Good Friday.
Both Eastern European and Mennonite Christians bake Easter paska, a rich, typically golden yeast dough studded with jewel-like raisins. It symbolizes the risen Christ's body as the bread of life.
The name of the Easter paska is derived from Paschal, referring to Passover. "Paschal Lamb" refers to the victorious risen Christ, who celebrated a Passover meal with his disciples before his crucifixion.
Dolores Cox, 81, bakes paskas each spring, employing a recipe from her late mother.
"I make a different one. My mother made a white dough and a yellow dough," she said. "I've been trying to keep my mother's thing going." The two-tone dough may be unique to Cox and her extended family; it's not something one sees at supermarkets or bakeries.
Her mother, Anna Pozonsky, made the bread solely from memory, but Cox wrote down the ingredients and formulated amounts. She uses only egg yolks in each dough because she thinks egg whites make the dough too dry.
"I put a little more sugar in mine than she did," Cox said. Soaking raisins makes them more pliable and helps set them in the raw dough. Golden raisins keep the bread moist after baking.
Cox, 81, a member of St. Michael Byzantine Catholic Church in Canonsburg, bakes a dozen loaves at a time, using either a deep round pan or an angel food cake pan.
No bread machine or fancy mixers with dough hooks pass muster with Cox.
"You have to feel the texture of the dough," she said. "If it sticks to your hand, you need a little more flour. You use your muscles."
Her recipe:
Dolores Cox’s
Two-Tone Paska
n MAKES 6 loaves
Yellow Dough
Ingredients
1 large cake yeast
1 (12-ounces) can evaporated milk
1 can hot water
1⁄2 cup oil
4 egg yolks
5 cups flour
1⁄2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1 stick of butter (1⁄4 pound),
room temperature
1 cup cooked white rice
1⁄2 ounce turmeric
1 (1-pound) box of golden raisins, soaked in hot water to soften. (Discard water once raisins are added to dough.)
Pour can of evaporated milk into small mixing bowl. Remove lid and fill can with hot water, then pour into bowl with milk. Add yeast to milk-hot water mixture, breaking it up and stirring to dissolve. Set aside for 15 to 20 minutes, then add 1⁄2 cup oil.
Beat egg yolks with whisk and set aside.
Sift flour into large bowl. Add sugar, salt and turmeric to the flour and mix. Then rub butter into the flour mixture. Add rice in same manner.
First temper egg yolks with a bit of the milk-water-yeast mixture, then add yolks back to the milk-water-yeast mixture. Mix, then pour into flour-turmeric mixture. Add raisins. Work thoroughly. Add more flour until dough is not sticky.
Cover bowl with a kitchen towel and allow dough to rise in a warm place for one hour; punch down. Allow to rise for another hour before shaping.
In meantime, start second batch of dough.
White Dough
Ingredients
1 large cake of yeast
1 (12-ounces) can evaporated milk
1 can of hot water
4 egg yolks, beaten
6 cups sifted flour
1 tablespoon salt
1 cup sugar
2 sticks butter (1⁄2 pound),
room temperature
1⁄2 cup oil
1 (1-pound) box of golden raisins, soaked in hot water (Discard water once raisins are added to dough)
Pour can of evaporated milk into small mixing bowl. Remove lid and fill with can with hot water, then pour into bowl with milk. Add yeast to milk-hot water mixture, breaking it up and stirring to dissolve. Set aside for 15 to 20 minutes. Then add 1⁄2 cup oil.
Beat egg yolks with whisk and set aside.
Sift flour into large bowl. Add sugar and salt and mix. Then rub butter into flour mixture.
First temper egg yolks with a bit of the milk-water-yeast mixture, then add yolks back to the milk-water-yeast mixture. Mix, then pour into flour mixture, add raisins and work thoroughly. Add more flour until dough is not sticky.
Cover white dough bowl with a towel and allow to rise for one hour in a warm place. Punch down and allow to rise for an additional hour.
Note: White dough does NOT contain rice as an ingredient.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Shaping dough: Score yellow dough into sixths and do the same with white dough. On floured board, place one portion of white dough and flatten into a round. Place flattened round of yellow dough on top. If using angel food cake pan, make hole in center of dough. Stretch white dough up and around yellow dough to wrap it around on outside and center of ring shape. Flip over, seal any seams and place in lightly greased or sprayed angel food cake pan. Remove any raisins that poke through top or sides of pan because they can burn. Pinch off a few pieces of white dough from remaining dough in bowl and roll into long, rod-shaped strands to make a cross or two to decorate top of bread. Repeat for remaining five loaves.
Brush tops of bread with a mixture of whole egg, 1⁄4 cup of milk and 1 teaspoon of sugar.
Allow to rise in pan on tabletop for 20 minutes to 1⁄2 hour, until even with top of pan.
Bake in oven at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, then turn oven temperature down to 350 degrees and bake for an additional 30 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool somewhat, tapping pan to loosen paska before inverting and continuing to cool on wire rack. Serve as is or toasted and buttered.
(This story originally appeared in Living in Washington County, a publication of the Observer-Reporter. Photo: Robin Richards. They are republished with permission.)
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