The Magical Ingredients for a Wholesome Life From the Heart of my Home: Koledna Pitka - Bulgarian Christmas Eve Bread

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

Koledna Pitka - Bulgarian Christmas Eve Bread - Eggless Version #BreadBakers

Baking bread is therapeutic. That's what I consider it to be. It helps me relax and forget everything. All the other problems melt away. Though new ones may crop up, like...why the bread is under-proved, did it bake well, is it cooked in the middle, why is it burning......hahaha. Well, these can be solved.

The theme for this month's BreadBakers: Tear and Share Holiday Bread. The immediate choice my kids said was tear and share garlic rolls. But, I wanted to try something different and more perfect for the holidays (though garlic rolls are super perfect too!). I decided to bake Koledna Pitka, a Bulgarian Christmas eve tear and share bread. What can be more perfect than this?

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our lovely bread by following our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated after each event on the #BreadBakers home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. This month the Bread Bakers are making Tear & Share Holiday Breads, a theme chosen by Felice from All That's Left Are The Crumbs.

Koledna Pitka is eaten on Christmas eve and throughout the holidays too. It requires only a single rise. They stuff a silver coin in one of the rolls and they believe that whoever gets the coin is going to be lucky the following year. That's super cool. They serve this bread with bean stew. In my research, I found that the recipe used eggs. I wanted to make an eggless version. My recipe is a blend of this and this. Initial work gave some unsatisfactory results. Finally, landed on one version, slowly adjusting for the eggs with milk, greek yogurt, and flaxseed. I tried the individual crescent rolling techniques from a couple of websites. The dough is divided into three portions, and each portion is rolled thin, which is further cut into triangles. I cut each rolled portion of dough into 8 or 12 triangles and rolled them. But, either the bread was burning or it was slightly undercooked in the middle. I decided to make smaller divisions of the dough that is, make it into 16 or 18. That's when I landed on Amy's page where she divided into 16 pieces. I tried and that gave great results. This bread browns very quickly and hence it is must to cover it with a foil for 35 minutes. Then bake uncovered to get the even browning. I used different pans too and finally, the 9-in springform pan worked better. Bread flour gave better results than all-purpose flour.

Ingredients

Makes 16 rolls

Prep time: 20 min
Proving: 1 hour
Baking - 45 minutes
Cooling - 25 minutes

Bread flour - 3 cups
Salt - 1.5 tsp
Sugar - 1 tbsp
Yeast - 1.25 tsp
Greek yogurt - 1 cup

Flaxseed - 1 tbsp in 1/4 cup milk
Milk - 1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp
Butter - 4 tbsp, melted

Milk and butter (2 tbsp) for brushing

Method

Activate the yeast by adding sugar, warm milk, and yeast. Add the flour, salt, greek yogurt, flaxseed mixture, melted butter to a bowl, make a well and add the activated yeast. Knead into a smooth dough. Divide the dough into three portions.

Butter a 9-in springform pan and dust with flour. Roll each portion to 1/8-in thick 14-15 inch circle. Divide it into 16 pieces. Stack three triangular pieces and roll like a crescent roll. Arrange them on the pan. Repeat the same with the other two dough portions. Arrange all of the pieces in the pan, cover and let it rise for an hour in a warm place or until it doubles in size.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Brush with milk. Cover the pan with aluminum foil. Bake for 35 minutes. remove the foil and bake for a further 10-12 minutes or till it browns evenly. Take it out and brush with butter. Cool completely and serve. The leftovers can be warmed and served.