This Easter Bread Kulich-Cruffin is a modern take on traditional Orthodox Easter Bread. Flaky dough of croissant meets moist muffin meets flavourful Kulich! This Easter Bread will surely impress!
It’s been more than 24 hours since I took this Easter Bread Kulich-Cruffin out of the oven, but my kitchen still smells like vanilla, orange, almond and nutmeg. The smell that reminds me of Easter and family gatherings.
Orthodox Easter is this coming Sunday. It is a holiday of love, life and hope for all Greek Orthodox Christians. On Sunday, after a heartfelt church service, we will enjoy a festive lunch with our family to celebrate and praise the Lord. “Christ is Risen” and “Truly, He is Risen” are the most said and heard words during Easter day. It’s the greeting and the prayer before meal time.
Meal time is always a feast on Easter day. From simple appetizers, breads, main dishes to desserts. And this traditional Easter Bread – Kulich that I made a few years ago is one of the most delicious and fragrant treats that we prepare on this special day.
This recipe is where flaky croissant enriched with butter meets moist muffin and meets flavourful Kulich!
Hybrid food seems to be the trend these days and it usually involves some type of dough. Creme Brulee Doughnuts, cronuts (doughnut + croissant), doughnuts cupcakes, and doughnut sandwiches are all examples that have popped up on our social media feeds. And the new trend Cruffin is now on the rise as well.
So when I heard about the idea of adding Kulich bread to croissant-muffin combo I really wanted to try and recreate the recipe of my own Easter Bread Kulich-Cruffin. Everything about this bread is wonderful! From the way it smells while baking to the festiveness of the flaky dough, this bread will please. It is also a great treat for the family, as you can make smaller individual pastries or form the dough into one large bread for your family to pull apart!
How to Prepare Easter Bread Kulich-Cruffin:
So how difficult is this recipe? If I’m being completely honest with you, it’s not easy. Like most yeast breads it takes some time to make but is well worth the effort. Waiting is the hardest part, so take a deep breath and relax while the yeast works its bubbly magic.
I find it helpful to bring the dough together using the stand mixer, helping with a spatula just to get things going. Then it’s about 10-12 minutes on the mixer with a dough hook attachment to knead. If you prefer kneading by hand, the dough will feel very soft and wet. It will feel like you need to add more flour, but don’t. We want to achieve a very stretchy consistency that doesn’t stick to your hands, so a mixer is really helpful. Keep kneading until the dough is soft, elastic and stretchy. If you try pulling on it slightly, it should not break.
Then it’s rising time until it doubles in size – about 2 hours. After that, the dough is divided in half. And each half gets rolled out to about 1/8” thick sheet. Smear it with butter, sprinkle with raisins, cranberries, almonds and ground nutmeg.
After that, the dough gets rolled into a log, which we will cut in half to split into 2 strands, leaving them attached at one end. Now it’s time to form our Easter Bread Kulich-Cruffin by carefully bringing the first strand curling it around itself to form the base. Then curl the second strand around the first one going upwards. Cut side always should be facing out, so we can see all the beautiful layers on the finished product. Hide the end of the second strand inside the formed dome.
Carefully transfer the bread into panettone springform. I used two 12 cm diameter panettone springforms
Bake at 355 F for 35 to 40 minutes. Let rest 10 minutes in the form then transfer to a wire rack to cool. Dust cooled bread with powdered sugar and serve.
Easter Bread Kulich-Cruffin
Ingredients
Dough
- 1 1 large egg + 2 egg yolks at room temperature
- 80 g sugar
- 350 g flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 8 g instant dry yeast
- 80 ml warm milk
- 40 g butter melted
- 30 ml orange juice
- zest from 1/2 orange
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
Filling
- 100 g butter room temperature
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 25 g raisins
- 25 g dried cranberry
- 25 g sliced almonds roasted and slightly crushed
- powdered Sugar for dusting
Instructions
Dough
- Beat the eggs with sugar on high speed until light, fluffy and doubled in size.
- In a mixing bowl whisk together the flour, yeast and salt. Add the beaten eggs into the flour mixture together with the remaining ingredients.
- I find it helpful to bring the dough together using the stand mixer, helping with a spatula just to get things going. Then it’s about 10-12 minutes on the mixer with a dough hook to knead. If you prefer kneading by hand, the dough will feel very soft and wet. It will feel like you need to add more flour, but don’t. We want to achieve a very stretchy consistency that doesn’t stick to your hands, so a mixer is really helpful. Keep kneading until the dough is soft, elastic and stretchy. If you try pulling on it slightly, it should not break.
- Place the dough into the mixing bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size, about 2 hours.
- Once the dough has risen transfer it onto a working surface slightly dusted with flour. Divide in the dough half if you want to bake two smaller breads. Or leave as is for one bigger bread
- Working with one half at a time, roll out the dough into 1/8” thick sheet. Smear it with butter, sprinkle with raisins, cranberries, almonds and ground nutmeg.
- Roll the dough into a log and using a sharp knife cut it in half to split it into 2 strands, leaving them attached at one end.
- Carefully bring the first strand curling it around itself to form the base of the bread. Then curl the second strand around the first one going upwards. Cut side always should be facing out, so we can see all the beautiful layers on the finished product. Hide the end of the second strand inside the formed dome.
- Carefully transfer the bread into panettone springform. I used two 12 cm diameter springforms. This will make 2 medium breads or one large bread, if you want to use one springform. Cover the bread with plastic wrap and let rise for another hour or so. Wrap some foil around the base of the springform and place on the baking sheet to avoid the butter leakage.
- Bake at 355 F for 35 to 40 minutes for smaller breads. And for larger one bake first 10 minutes at 390 F, the reduce heat to 375 F and bake for 20-25 minutes more. If you see the top starting to burn cover it with foil and continue baking. Let the breads rest for 10 minutes in the form then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
- Dust cooled breads with powdered sugar and serve.
Looking For More Traditional Easter Recipes?
- Easter Bread Kulich – traditional Orthodox Easter Bread
- Easter Cheese Paskha – no cheesecake can compare to the smell of this delicious dessert
- Easter Bunny Coconut Cupcakes – great for family gathering or school party
Have you made my recipe? Let me know by leaving a comment and rating the recipe below! Don’t forget to take a picture and tag @gastrosenses and use #gastrosenses on Instagram so I can see your beautiful creations! Happy eating!
This looks amazing!! Must try it!
Thanks Joyce! Hope you like it!
My goodness, this is so pretty!!! I bet it’s delicious too, but I just can’t get over how cute this is 🙂 I love layered baked goods.
Me too! Thanks so much Gabrielle!
This sounds divine and looks amazing! I love all those swirly layers!
Agree! Thanks so much!
These cruffins are absolutely stunning! I’ve never heard of the muffin/croissant combo trend, but I’m definitely all over these beauties! And that shot at the end when you pull the bread apart is brilliant! Pinning for sure!
Thank you so much Leanne! I am so happy you love it!
At first I was like “what is cruffin?” It took me a while to realize that it was croissant+muffin! Haha! But OMG!!! These cruffins look incredible! I can’t believe how thin you were able to roll the dough. I cannot ever roll my dough this paper thin. These cruffins look like works of art!
Thank you so much Julia! I was on the mission for the ruffles with this dough 🙂
This is spectacular, Lily and Dmitriy! Both the large version and individual pastries are so thrilling for me to see. I am looking forward to trying your creation.
Thank you so much Denise! Good luck and I hope you love it!
Absolutely gorgeous!
Thank you so much!
Oh my goodness. I just saw this on Tumblr. While I’ll never tire of my traditional kulich I’ve got to try this. Will definitely need to start practicing well before Lent 2019. Say, next week?
An you confirm what type of flour is required fir this recipe? Ta sx💖