Bread Bird-Trosity

Breads are the items I give the most reverence to in an Easter Basket. Paska bread was the one food item in our Easter basket that was only around at Easter, and I've been pretty nervous to attempt making one. So I thought I would ease my way into bread making for Easter with some cute little bread birds. I remember these enchanting little creatures being in my Easter basket when I was a kid, one of our aunts gave them to us as an Easter gift, and we would freeze them for reuse year after year.

The thing about your everyday western style bread is that it isn't made to be shaped into detailed intracate objects. It is created to rise and have a soft fluffy texture. I have a vivid memory of biting into a bread bird when I was a kid and it was a pretty dry experience.... I'm pretty sure I spit it out and didn't eat it. A good recipe for making bread birds I'm learning is one that is more decorative and less focused on texture and taste.

Have you ever heard of the Bunny Bun? The Bunny Bun is a  recipe from a pupular photo sharing site that "teaches" you how to make delightful bread bunnies. In reality this is what happens when you follow the instructions.

-The Recipe Everyone wants (Pintrest)         - What the recipe actually makes (Pintrosity)

The bunnies above, in all their cuteness, are actually Chinese cookies that are baked in a cookie mold shaped specially to produce them. Cookie dough (depending to a degree on the recipe) tends not to rise as much a bread and hold its shape better. For example German Springerle cookies are capable of holding highly detailed shapes.

-Image Credit Farmhouse Gardens

Bread can be detailed as well but it is a matter of getting a recipe that is very very specific to shaping and not rising. Anyone who has ever seen a korovai (Ukrainian: коровай, Polish: korowaj) at a Ukrainian wedding. Knows just how detailed Ukrainian bread can get, but you also notice the ornamental elements of the bread are made using a different type of bread than the edible parts. See below photo.

 -Image credit Interesting Fact about Ukraine

While bread birds and Paska are not quite this advanced, they both require a little shaping of the bread for dramatic and decorative flare. I had a heck of a time finding a recipe for any kind of bread that looked like it would shape into anything. I decided to kind of wing it using a modified one. I cut the yeast to half the suggested and subbed the honey for sugar in hopes of making the dough dry.

The only actual recipe I found for actual bread birds that looked like they would work was in a different language, and Google Translate wasn`t enough of a help to get me through it. In the end while I am not entirely happy with my result what I can say is these taste wonderful... unlike the traditional ones so we ate most of the birds that looked like they had awful genetic defects, which was hilarious and delicious. Here is the image of what I was going for and what I actually got.

 

                           -Image credit dimitranas                      My Bread Bird 2014

Here is the actual method of creating a bread bird. Sadly you are on your own for the recipe unless you want to make 24 birds and get about 3 of them that just by chance turn out alright. The methhod for shaping them isn`t as complicated as you might first think. 

My Dough and tray of bread birds

 

 

-Image Credit Pintrest for the steps of making a bird (no source found)

For a video on how to shape them visit here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gbldXpEIZkM

What have I learned from this experience.

1. Pintrest is the worst place on the internet to get bread recipies this is about my 4th attempt using pintrest to make bread and so far I`m not impressed.

2. I`m pretty sure the eyes are bits of rasins not cloves as shown in many tutorials. I found the cloves difficult to push into the dough and they also misshaped the head of the bird. If you do insist on using cloves push them in, after the bread is baked, because even when you do place the cloves in the dough before cooking the bread rises and it`s almost impossible to get eyes lined up where they should be.

3. The shaping method is easy and works very well be agressive with your cuts on the tail or the bread will just rise up so the tail becomes a lump even if you just scored it.

If I have time I might try this again with a different recipe.I have also heard pillsbury bread sticks will work. Till then enjoy these hilarious fail shots of some of the birds that turned out the worst.

 My other Bread birds meet fail bird and Quasimodo Hunch Back Bird

 

A Tisket A Tasket, A Wicker Easter Basket

My Mother has always had a bit of a basket fetish, and because it is natural for kids to come to the conclusion your parents are just crazy because they are, no explanation needed, I never gave it much thought. However maybe it is just some expression of a latent Ukrainian gene that she is a bit of a "basket case" literally.

I have memories of baskets hanging from the ceiling of our storage room in my childhood home, and my Dad stomping up the steps of the basement in a huff because he had knocked a bunch of them down on his head. My Mother has an entire room dedicated to baskets and holiday decorations, so I plan on borrowing one for my Easter Basket... the adventure will be digging it out of her sizable stash.

 

Mom's Basket Collection 2014

While this blog only plans to cover Easter Baskets my Mother has invented a basket for every occasion of the year! If you can come up with a holiday she hasn't heard of I'm quite certain that upon informing her of the occasion you'll be getting a basket for it. I used to think leaving baskets on people's door steps was just something country people did, but it turns out my mom tends to be a little over the top with it. I generally find a Basket dropped off in my inner-city condo several times a year to mark an occasion. See photo - The St. Patrick's Day Basket that magically appeared last year complete with Ukrainian Beer.

 

St Patrick's Day Basket 2013 from Mom

Also if you ever need to get into a place you are not supposed to be? Carrying a basket seems to be the way to do it. My Mother has bypassed, hotel security, hospital security, school security, and managed to get into every apartment and condo complex that I have lived in (which has been many) or place I have worked at without a key, or clearance simply by carrying a basket of goodies, and claiming that she is allowed to be where she is, which as I have just pointed out by the security mentioned above hasn't always been true.

Traditional Easter Baskets are wicker baskets, the Easter basket is usually reserved specifically to be used at that time of year, and only at that time of year. The baskets at our house are used often and redecorated for special occasions as needed.

 Image Credit: Natalka Marko Etsy Shop

Another thing I will be borrowing from my mother is a basket cover. A Ukrainian Easter Basket Cover. Not to be confused with a Rushnyk [рушник] ritual cloth, although both a Rushnyk and an Easter Basket cover tend to be hand made even in the modern world of today when most of the traditional Ukrainian clothing is embroidered by machine. Easter basket covers tend to still be made lovingly by hand and, often feature religious figures, symbols, or eggs. These images are hand embroidered or cross stitched to a cloth with a fringe or lace border. Sadly I do not have anything as fine as a Rushnyk, and my family has never used a traditional Easter Basket cover, we tend to use embroidered or woven Ukrainian cloth that features traditional Ukrainian patterns without religious symbols. We do not do our own embroidery so we make do with what we have been able to obtain from our community. The cloths we currently own were obtained when we were in Ukrainian dancing and are treated with the greatest respect, used only at Easter time unless someone requests to borrow them for use at a wedding.

 one of Mom's basket Covers

Ukrainian Embroidery is as lovely a form of art, as Egg decorating, I have great respect for the craft, if you are making a nontraditional Easter Basket put some thought into the cloth your food will be sitting on and/or covered with it. The cloth that covers an Easter Basket is a special part of the tradition, and you would honor that by choosing a cloth that has meaning to you, or you created yourself. 

 Ukrainian Embroidery Image Credit - Via Pintrest undetermined source

If you are attending a traditional basket blessing there is some Etiquette surrounding covers to note. When you are attending a blessing in a church, and the basket is placed at the foot of the alter or beside your pew (wooden church bench) you should uncover your basket when you leave it there as the holy water from the blessing should be able to touch the food. If you are attending a blessing outdoors or where the basket is in front of you do as the other people are doing and remove the cover when they do. Outdoors some blessings will expect the cover to be left on till the Priest walks down the isle of people to protect the food from wind, rain, hot sun or birds. Indoors for the most part taking off the cover of the basket once it has been placed is a fairly safe thing to do you may place the cover under the basket, beside it or hold onto it if you are outdoors.

Additional here is a note for modern plastic covering. Easter Breads are prepared with love and care, many people use plastic wrap to keep the bread fresh. While I have founds some people are a little plastic wrap crazy I would suggest if you are attending a blessing to keep the plastic wrap at a minimum as you are expected to open the wrap just enough to expose the food before the blessing. Fiddling with plastic wrap in a stone silent church is never a fun experience, and the Mass isn't long enough I find to justify wrapping more than your bread or items that would spill without wrap. Also note that any jars or containers should be opened prior to the blessing. I tend to leave my Wine corked but I have seen people who have uncorked their wine as well prior to the service, and just pull the cork out before the blessing when placing their basket.

Note here all items are uncovered and ready to receive blessing. The cover has been placed beside the basket.

Image Credit - whatimcookingnow.blogspot.com