PASKA, THE CLASSIC EASTER BREAD

• Paska is a special milk bread that a friendly neighbor once served me. It's sweet and tastes wonderfully of lemon and orange, and today it's one of my favorite breads that I bake all year round.

• Set the KA Twelix oven to special functions

• Bowl 200 g flour, the yeast, 1 tablespoon sugar, the milk and the water. Cover the mixture with a damp kitchen towel and place the bowl in the oven to rise for 30 minutes.

• Now, in the mixing bowl of the KA Artisan Stand Mixer with a whisk, beat 4 eggs and 2 egg yolks with the sugar for 5 minutes. Add the leavened dough, citrus peel, salt, butter and oil. Then swap the whisk for the dough hook and slowly add the remaining kilogram of bread flour to the mixture. Knead the dough on a low speed for 6 minutes. Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface and knead gently with your hands for 2 minutes. Then put it back in the bowl that you lightly greased earlier and cover it with the cloth. Place the bowl back into the KitchenAid Twelix Oven, still set on Special Functions/Proving, and allow the dough to rise for 60 minutes.

• Then divide the dough into 3 equal pieces and cover them with a damp kitchen towel until ready to work with.

• Grease two baking tins with a circumference of about 15 cm and line the edge of each with strips of baking paper about 10 cm high. Shape two of the pieces of dough into large balls and place one in each pan. Divide the third piece of dough in two and use it after you have brushed each loaf with the egg white to make decorations such as braids, spirals, crosses or other things on top of the two loaves of bread. Place the two decorated loaves in the KA Twelix oven, still set on Special Functions/Proving, and allow the loaves to rise again for 30 minutes.

• Beat the two remaining egg yolks with a teaspoon of water. Remove the loaves of paska bread from the oven, place on Professional / Bakery / Conventional 180° with the rack on shelf level 2. Brush the loaves with the egg yolk, place back in the oven and bake for 45 to 45 minutes 50 minutes. Leave to cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes before removing the loaves from the tins.