Tsoureki—Braided Greek Easter Bread

If you asked child me what Easter was like, I would describe dye-stained fingers, construction-paper bunnies with lopsided ears, the thrill of finding a plastic egg full of (in retrospect, objectively terrible) candy, and singing Easter hymns in a chapel full of flowery dresses before running home to eat chocolate until my teeth hurt. While we compared baskets, my mother filled the whole house with the smell of baking rolls.

My first Easter outside of the United states looked and sounded different from those childhood memories, but smelled very similar. No matter the country or branch of Christianity, Easter often smells and tastes like bread. This year, we’re celebrating by exploring Easter breads from around the world.

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Pysanky (Ukrainian Easter Eggs)

Pysanky sculpture in downtown Kyiv

If you’re ever in Eastern Europe around Orthodox Easter, you should stop by Kyiv, Ukraine for the festivities. The whole city is full of flowers, people wear their traditional embroidered shirts, and everywhere you look you see pysanky (Easter eggs) and Easter bread (honestly, you should go to Ukraine for the bread alone). I have always wanted to make pysanky, but they seemed so much more difficult than the typical American version with stickers and cheap tablet dye.

This year, we decided to go for it. Gordon ordered a kit from bestpysanky.com that included the wax pens (kistki), wax, and dye in several different colors. Continue reading