Humble Easter Baking

When I bake for Easter and Christmas, I always think about my great-grandmothers from my mother's side. They lived during some hard times, the war even, and despite the lack of so many things their cooking and especially baking became legendary and the whole extended family still remembers and keeps using their recipes.

This time I want to bake things I usually do for Easter, however, I am going to use only ingredients my great-grandmothers had at their disposal in the village. I like to returning to their ways of baking because their recipes make me realize we have so many things to use in the kitchen and often don't appreciate them properly, while they could do so many things manually, we stuff ourselves with sugar while they could make delicious cakes sweetened with dried pear powder and, sometimes, with a little honey.

So let me show you how I made Easter gingerbread cookies and two kinds of fruit muffins using what my great-grandmothers would usually bake with.

When measurements are given in "cups", I use standard 250ml mugs.

- muffin baking tray

- cookie cutters - at Easter we use spring motifs like animals and plants

- baking paper

- muffin paper cups

- rolling pin and mat

- pastry brush

PEAR MUFFINS (8 pieces)

- 250g of ripe pear puree (or fresh pears or steamed pears blended)

- 1/2 cup of of softened unsalted butter

- 2 tbsp of honey

- 2 large eggs

- 1/4 cup of buttermilk (can be substituted with yoghurt)

- 2 cups of spelt flour

- 1 tsp of baking soda

- 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts

- pinch of salt

PEAR AND POPPY SEED MUFFINS (8 pieces)

- 125 g of ground poppy seeds

- 150 g of apples

- 125 g of fresh unsalted quark (can be substituted with cottage cheese)

- 2 tbsp of honey

- 1 tsp of baking soda

- 2 eggs

- pinch of salt

GINGERBREAD COOKIES

- 150 g of spelt flour

- 75 g of warm honey

- 1/2 tsp of baking soda

- 35 g of unsalted butter

- 1 egg + 1 to brush

- 3 tbsp of spice mixture (ground cinnamon, star anise, clove and dried grated lemon zest)

1. As meantioned, the pure can be made from fresh pears as well as steam-cooked pears, well blended. Make sure your pure is not too watery, it's easier to achieve with the fresh pears passing them through a sieve.

2. Mix the pure with softened butter, eggs, honey and buttermilk.

3. In another bowl, combine the flour, soda and salt.

4. Add the dry ingredients little by little to the wet ingredients and mix well.

5. Add the chopped walnuts.

6. Place the paper cups in the baking tray and fill them with the mixture.

7. Preheat the oven on 180 °C and bake the muffins for 25 minutes or until done.

1. Separate egg yolks from egg whites and beat the egg whites until they turn into solid snow. Leave them in the fridge.

2. In a bowl, combine the egg yolks, ground poppy seeds and quark.

3. Add the honey, soda and salt.

4. Peel the apples and grate them coarsely. Add them to them mixture.

5. Slowly incorporate the egg white snow into the mixture.

6. Place the paper cups in the baking tray and fill them with the mixture.
7. Preheat the oven on 180 °C and bake the muffins for 25 minutes or until done.

1.Combine all the ingrediences except 1 egg in a bowl - the butter has to be softened but not liquid and the honey should be a little warm.

2. Stir the dough first with a wooden spoon and then knead it for at least 5 minutes. The perfect dough shouldnt be sticky, it should have no lumps and should have a unified color.

3. Wrap it in a clean cloth or a beeswax wrap and let the dough set in a cold place (fridge, cellar) for at least 2 hours, however, I recommend 1 whole day or over night.

4. Take the dough out, let it stand at room temperature for 1 hour, then put a little flour on your mat and pin and roll the dough to be about 5 mm thick.

5. Use the cookie cutters to cut out the shapes and place those on the baking paper and a tray.

6. In a small bowl, whisk the other egg with a fork. Brush the cookies with it. If the egg seems too dense for that, whisk in 1-2 tbsp of milk.

7. Preheat the oven on 170 °C and bake the cookies for 8 minutes.

1. The muffins are served cold but should be eaten fresh.

2. The gingerbread cookies can be eaten right after they cool down but they stay good for a long time so you can keep them in a dry place for several weeks.

I really hope you enjoyed this recipe and maybe you get some inspiration out of it!