Grandma's sweet white bread

Oh, those old recipe books...They are the best and they bring the most memories.
When I came to Canada, many many years ago, I brought a few things with me. Among love letter, old diaries and pictures, I brought as many books as I could. I still have them all 'till this day. Yesterday, I took one of my cookbooks from the shelf right by the kitchen and started flipping through pages. It was first published in 1980, in Lithuania, and was called "Grandmother's feast" (Mociutes vaises). I found an appealing recipe, that called for simple ingredients and seemed easy to make. The result was divine! The aroma was floating in the house and everybody was anxious to see what will come out of the oven. Even I was impressed.
With this recipe, the loaf will come out medium size. The ingredients can be easily doubled, which I will do next time. It is my favorite sweet bread recipe at the time. I made many different, but similar breads, yet this one is the softest, the fluffy(est) one ever. The recipe called for poppy seeds, I put raisins. I should of just put both. Next time.

You will need:
About two cups of sifted flour
2 tsp of dry east
2 egg yolks
1/4 of a cup of sugar
100 gr of butter, unsalted
3/4 of a cup of raisins
1/4 cup poppy seed (optional)
1 cup of warm milk
1 tsp salt

First step. Take a big mixing bowl, add half of the sugar, east and warm milk. Mix well until east is dissolved. Then add half of the flour. Mix, cover with plastic and let stand for 2 hours in a warm place.
Step two. Your dough will have risen quite a lot. Mix it well with a wooden spoon. Beat egg yolks with the mixer with remaining sugar, to get almost white substance. Melt butter (make sure is not hot, just barely warm). Add both, the eggs and the butter, into the dough. Mix. Add the raisins (poppy seed if using). Then add the remaining flour and salt. Add the flower slowly, you may not need the whole cup. Kneed well on the counter with your hands.
Take a bowl, lightly oil it, and put your dough into it. Let stand and rise for another hour or so, until it will rise nicely. Transfer on the baking sheet with parchment paper. If you don't have the parchment paper, just put some oil on the baking sheet. Make a round loaf. Brush it with the egg yolk. Let rise for 20-30 minutes. If needed, brush it with the egg again. You may even sprinkle it with some pearl sugar or poppy seeds.
Step three. Heat the oven to 350 F (200 C) and place your risen bread on the middle rack. I started to bake everything on the upper middle rack, so it would not burn the bottom. If you bake once in a while, you probably know your oven. Mine has 4 racks. I now started baking everything on a second rack from the top. I call it the upper middle rack. Bake it for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Do not open the oven door for the first 2o minutes, otherwise, your bread may collapse. Check with the toothpick to make sure it comes out 'clean'. That means it's done. Let rest for 10-15 minutes. Enjoy! Serve with milk, hot coco or (herbal) tea.

Neighbors apple cake

Cake with cream cheese and raspberry jam

I call it a Neighbors cake, because many years ago, when I was only 13, back in Lithuania, we used to live together with another family, sharing the kitchen. The lady taught me this wonderful easy to make, very tasty cake. To me it's no fail cake, because it's easy to make and always comes out very good. It brings a lot of good memories, when my biggest care in the world was homework and cake making...I used to love to cook and bake even then. My dear mother wasn't a very good cook. It was not tasty whatever she made. So I came up with the idea, to try to make something myself. And it worked. Anything I made, I always did it with my heart. That rule works until today, whenever I put a piece of my heart into my dish, it comes out great! I believe, with everything in life that you do, when you put your heart into it, the result is amazing. What comes from the heart goes to the heart. 

You will need:
4-5 eggs
1 cup of sugar plus another 1/3 of cup for the apples (may be used brown sugar)
vanilla sugar or extract (1 package or 1 tsp.)
4 tbsp mayo
2 tbsp sour cream (if you use one but not the other, just add 6 tbsp of whatever you have)
1 tsp baking powder (mix it with mayo or sour cream before putting into the batter, so there will be no aftertaste)
1 package margarine (450 gr)
about 4 cups of flour, sifted (anytime I use flour, I sift it)
8 apples
1 lemon juice
cinnamon to taste (optional)
raisins (optional)

In the picture, the filling is one of my substitutions, that I wrote about at the end of the post.

Separate the eggs. Take the yolks, put into the deep medium size dish, add sugar, vanilla and mix it until you get very light yellow batter that has almost tripled in size. The best to do this is with the electric  hand mixer. I still use mine that I bought on sale for 10$, works well. Small investment but very useful gadget for everyday cooking.
Once you achieved the desired consistency, add sour cream and/or mayo with baking powder.Mix some more. Then add by cutting straight from the package with the knife margarine. This simple technique is the easiest and leaves the least mess. Beat with the mixer for another few seconds, just until you get margarine divided into smaller pieces. Do not completely incorporate margarine into the eggs, the little pieces, that's  what makes this cake melt in your mouth.
Start adding flour, first mix with wooden spoon, then use your hands. They won't become messy. That is another reason why I love this recipe, you don't have to get your hands 'dirty'. Put flour that the dough wouldn't be sticky, but still soft. I usually need about 4 cups, however, don't put all flour at once. You may need less, depending on how much sour cream/mayo you put. I like to put generous amounts, because it only makes it taste better.
Separate the dough into two even pieces, one put in the fridge for about an hour, or less.
The other half of the dough roll with the rolling pin on the piece of plastic wrap on the counter, for easy transfer. In the original recipe, back home, when we had not even heard of plastic wrap, I would just nicely even out the dough on the baking dish, not forgetting the sides, with my hands. It takes a little longer, but it is all about the creation, using your most valued tool-your hands. The baking dish I use, is about 12 inches by 10 inches that usually come with your stove (that probably is applicable for the older version of stoves). It has to have small sides, at least 2-3 fingers thick. You can use 9 by 13 inches with sides, the most common one. I try not to make this cake too thick, I like when the pieces are about 1 and a half inches tall. But whatever you make, it will still taste good. These are just some references for you to keep in mind.
Put that aside. Wash the apples and grate them with the grater, medium size, meaning grate that it still would have some texture, not the mush. Usually, the grater has two main sides. Very fine that makes 'a mush' and the medium one, that leaves some texture.
Once you are done grating, add sugar to taste, depending on how sour or sweet your apples are. Add some lemon juice (not all, you will need the rest for the egg white topping). Add raisins, if using, cinnamon or whatever you like your apples with. Mix it.
Now, take the apple mixture and pour on top of the dough in your baking dish. Even it out.
Take another piece of dough from the fridge. Wash the grater you used to grate apples. Use again the same side, for medium grating. Take a small piece of dough and 'grate' it through the grater. You will see little crumbs coming out. Continue until you finish the whole dough. Try to put evenly on the whole cake.
Heat the oven 375 F, if you are not sure about your oven, start with 350 F. On the medium rack. Bake the cake until golder brown for an hour. When it's almost done, take the egg whites and beat them with the mixer. Make them nice and fluffy, almost white, but not quite. Don't beat to the point it will be 'standing', that is too much. Add lemon.
Take the cake out of the oven, nicely with the spatula, put the egg whites evenly on crumbled top. Bake for another 10 minutes. Watch it, as the egg whites tend to burn very fast! Bake until the top becomes slightly brown. Take it out and cut into desired size squares. You have to do that now, while hot, because the egg whites once cooled will become harder, making extremely difficult to cut.
This cake has to be refrigerated after two days! Can be easily frozen.
Since I like to come up with different fillings, I came up with one for this cake, too. For New Years, I made it with the new filling, the result was great. Instead of apples, mix 1-2 blocks (packages of 250 gr) of cream cheese ( light version is good) with half a cup of sugar. On top of cream cheese, layer any jam you like or have at the time. Proceed with crumbs. everything else is the same.
Come up with your own favorite filling and share.

Braided bread

This is for you, Kristina! By a popular demand, here is the very first desert, a must have with tea of coffee when your friends or family come over.
At first glance difficult to make, this sweet bread-cake is quite easy to make.
It has a filling. I created several different fillings over time. Some of my favorites are cream cheese-raisin-raspberry jam filling, apple pie filling, cottage cheese-jam filling. The possibilities are endless, fill it with whatever you like. That is what I did. And it keeps on changing depending on the event. For example, for Christmas, I did poppy seed-raisin filling, as it's custom in Lithuania to bake with poppy seed for this time of year.


This dough recipe is made in steps.
You will need:
Flour
sugar
instant east
warm water
sour cream
butter
2 large eggs
vanilla extract
cream cheese
raisins
jam (I like raspberry)
Pearl sugar for sprinkling (optional)
This is what you need to buy or to have in order to make this cake.

Sponge
6 tbsp. warm water
1 tsp. sugar
1 1/2 tsp instant east
1/4 cup unbleached flour (just regular flour you use for baking)
To make a sponge. In a small bowl combine the sponge ingredients, stir well, loosely cover with plastic cover (let it breath), and set aside to proof for 15-20 minutes, depending on how warm your kitchen is. After some time, you will notice, the sponge has risen, is light and fluffy.

Dough
sponge
6 tbsp sour cream
1/4 cup (about 4 tbsp) softened unsalted butter
3 large eggs (1 for the dough, 1 for the cream cheese filling, 1 beaten with 1 tbsp of water for brushing at the end)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour (don't put all at once, this is just a guide, but depending on your products, you may need more or less)
pearl sugar, if you have any, optional
To make dough. Whisk together sour cream, butter, egg, sugar, salt, vanilla in a large bowl. Stir in sponge. Add the flour and mix with wooden spoon. Finish with hands. Kneed on the counter, for about 5-10 minutes. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl (I just wash the one my dough was at the beginning), cover with plastic loosely and allow to rise 60-90 minutes, until it is quite puffy and nearly doubled in size.

Filling: Take one brick of cream cheese, add one egg and 1/3 of cup of sugar and beat it with the mixer. Add raisins (also optional)

To prepare the bread
Gently deflate the dough and roll out on a parchment paper on the counter.This is very important, otherwise you won't be able to transfer your finished product to the baking pan! Make a rectangle that the width you could easily divide in three, like 12 inches, 15 inches. No need to make any bigger. The length orientate on how long your baking dish is. I do it about 18-20 inches. So my rectangle is 12 by 18 inches. Divide your rectangle in three horizontally, or the 12 inches side. Cut in at the top, then proceed barely making a mark 'till the end. The outer sides, not touching the middle part, cut into stripes. About finger or so thick. Refer to the picture, as it may seem confusing at first. Cut into stripes both sides, making sure you have an even number. You will have to fold them later, like a braid.
Once you have your bread ready, on the parchment paper, add the filling in the middle part of it. Add jam, if using. Now, fold the middle part and start braiding one by one your strips. Before you finish with the last one, fold the middle little piece and then put the last strips on top. It will look nicer. Brush with egg and sprinkle with pearl sugar.
Once the strips are ready and braided, carefully transfer with parchment paper to the baking sheet. Let rise for 50-60 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for 15-20 minutes.
To freeze. When the braid is braided, with the parchment paper, wrap well and freeze for up to a week. It also can be refrigerated (for a day). If freezing, put in the fridge before letting it rise for the last time. When ready to bake, take it out and let it rise then. This recipe can be easily doubled.