mmmmazanec

Photo by Medhi

With Easter just around the corner, the number of articles trumpeting holiday dishes has skyrocketed: Easter pies in New Jersey, buckets of oranges and aquavit in Norway and Sweden, and a host of specialty button and braided breads from Greek to Polish.

I've had bread on the brain, so tomorrow I'm dusting off a recipe for mazanec, a Czech sweet Easter bread that a visiting scholar from Prague passed on to me many years ago. The version I was taught involves raisins, three braids coiled in a Dutch oven, an egg wash, and then dusted with toasted almonds just like the loaf photographed above.

My impatient streak means most bread recipes and I part ways when my eyes glaze over at the words, "Let the dough rise a second time..." I've perfected the "no need to knead" bread recipe that Mark Bittman wrote about in the New York Times five years ago--but even with this simplified version I cut out half the steps and just scrape the dough from bowl to dish and bake. Hasn't failed me yet.

But once a year (or once every five years or so) I'll willingly roll up my sleeves and take on a recipe that requires more ingredients than I can count on one hand and multiple risings. The flour will fly, I'll scrape at the bowl with vigor to introduce air into the dough, and we'll see how well I remember how to braid four strands (thankfully, I drew myself visual aids lo those many years ago). This cousin of the hot cross bun is worth the effort.

Veselé Velikonoce!