Kulich for Easter, Two Ways
Kulich (cool-ich) is an Easter bread that is scented and colored with saffron threads and topped with a sweet layer of icing. It is often made with St. Lucia Bun dough, but we took a favorite no-knead brioche dough from The New Artisan Bread in Five book and added a little saffron to it to make this version. If you scroll down, there’s also a recipe for ‘Cinnamon Roll Kulich’ – which is this same dough made with a cinnamon swirl center and baked in a popover pan to help keep its tall shape. Icing and sprinkles are also included, of course.
Kulich
2 pounds Brioche dough (page 300 of The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, or the recipe here on the website), with 1/2 teaspoon saffron threads mixed into the wet ingredients
All-purpose flour, for dusting
Egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water), for brushing the dough
Icing
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons cream (or more as needed for a thick but pourable consistency
To bake: Generously grease a panettone mold with butter (the mold I use in the photos is currently unavailable but it is a 6 x 6 inch panettone pan with a removable bottom. Many people also bake them in large, empty, parchment lined coffee cans to achieve the high domed loaf.) Dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off a 2-pound (cantaloupe-size) piece. Dust the piece with more flour and quickly shape it into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go. Place the ball in the greased panettone mold, seam-side down.
Cover loosely with plastic wrap and allow to rest at room temperature for 90 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350F, with a rack placed in the center of the oven. Brush the dough with egg wash. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow the bread to cool on a wire rack.
Make the icing: Mix the confectioner’s sugar and heavy cream together until smooth and thick enough to cling to the cake. You don’t want it to drip off the sides (like the very first photo shows) but if it does (like the one directly above) it will still taste good. Drizzle the icing over the cake and cover with colorful sprinkles.
Cinnamon Roll Kulich
1 1/2 pounds Brioche dough (page 300 of The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, or the recipe here on the website), with 1/2 teaspoon saffron threads mixed into the wet ingredients
All-purpose flour for dusting
Filling
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
Pinch salt
Icing
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons cream (or more as needed for a pourable consistency)
Grease a 12 cup (or two 6 cup) large popover pans. (If you don’t have popover pans, you can use a greased 9×13 inch baking pan.)
Roll the dough into 1/4-inch thick rectangle. Brush the entire surface with the melted butter. In a small bowl mix together the sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Spread the mixture over the butter topped dough. Use your hands to make sure you have an even coat of the sugar. Then roll the dough up, starting at the long end.
Use a Bread Knife, Kitchen Scissors or floss to cut the log into 12 equal pieces.
Loosely cover the buns and let them rest between 1 1/2 to 2 hours. The long rest will insure that you have a fluffy bun. (You can set these up the night before and let them rest overnight in the refrigerator. In the morning take them out and let them sit on the counter for about 45 minutes to an hour.) You may get away with slightly shorter rise, but the buns will not be quite as soft.
Preheat the oven to 350°F and place the rack in the middle of the oven.
Bake for about 20 to 30 minutes, just until the centers are set when poked with your finger (they should be caramel colored). Turn the buns out of the pan (if using the popover pans). Let them cool on a wire rack.
Make the icing: Mix the confectioners’ sugar and heavy cream together until smooth and thick enough to cling to the cinnamon rolls. Drizzle the icing over each roll and cover with colorful sprinkles.
Note: BreadIn5.com is reader supported–when you buy through links on the site, BreadIn5 LLC earns commissions.
Back into bread baking (and eating) after 1.25 yr on a low carb way of eating. I mostly mostly make fairly involved rye breads with a sourdough starter, but I gift one of your books to every friend who takes up bread baking for the first time. And I pull your books out when I have to bake for a large #, because your recipes are so straightforward and the method is so magical.
I’m glad this weird situation has eryone baking, but it means i can’t find any yeast anywhere!
Yum!
Brioche with saffron and icing, looks delicious!
♡♡♡♡♡ You could be driving more traffic here if you had links in each of your youtube vid descriptions and the channel’s about info, to here and your instagram. I should not have had to work so hard to find them, and surely many many others do not make this much of an effort, but would be happy customers. I love what few videos I have seen there and wish you would post more! ♡♡♡♡♡
Lovely loaf! This gives me a fun project to work on!
Can’t wait to try the new recipes!
Yumm!!! Will definitely have to try this! This is when being Persian and always having saffron on hand comes in handy
Baking bread is my therapy, especially right now.
I’ve been coaxing a natural leaven because I have plenty of flour and time, but yeast is so hard to find! Pondering what Easter goodies I’ll whip up for the kids. They’d love this!
These recipes look absolutely delicious! I would live to try them!
I want to get back into bread baking. Life just got crazy and stressful.
Love this, looks so good! I’ve been dying to get my hands on one of your books ❤️
This self-quarantine period has been great because I have finally mastered cinnamon rolls and dinner rolls!
Of course for a lovely loaf of bread to go with pasta I always make the original 5 minute bread. It is so easy and good!
This easter loaf looks interesting. Thank you for sharing!
What a beautiful Easter bread. My kids would love this since we’ve been reading “Rechenka’s Eggs!”
Thanks for the giveaway! I love all your books and have been baking bread from them for years!
These look great! Will have to check the conversion chart for instant yeast bc that’s the only kind I have. (Had to get on the “black market“, lol!)
Thanks for the recipes.
No conversion, it’ll work just as what we do here.
I would love the pizza book!
I’m not a baker but this inspires me to do more!
Ooh I already use the yeasted cornbread with cranberries and orange zest from the first book every Thanksgiving, but would love to see what other holiday delights await in the holiday-specific book!
Probably my favorite Easter bread I’ve ever made was a pistachio filling (I don’t know if it’s in the book or I made it up) with challah from Healthy Bread in 5. It was like baklava filling in bread form. Delicious.
Looking forward to this Easter recipe. I already have brioche in my fridge ready to bake.
I make the bread from your cookbook every few weeks, loving how easy it is! And thank you for these emailed recipes!
how i just wish wish wish i could find yeast!
i got one instant sour dough packet as a sample, but have never seen it in the stores!
WHY DOES”T RED STAR sell in on line thru their site
unscramble this puzzle for me.
THANK YOU
Sadly, we can’t unscramble it either. They focus on supermarkets…
I just ordered your first book after trying a recipe from your website and getting the best bread ever! And I still can’t believe how easy it was! Thank you!
I love how the popover pan makes the cinnamon rolls tall!
I love the tall cinnamon rolls!
Would love to win this!!
This recipe looks delish! Would love to be a winner!!!!
I’m just learning how to bake with yeast! I’m very excited to learn something new!
Too funny! The pictures are beautiful and make me want to bake right now!
This looks delicious, and perfect for Easter morning! I just used my last bit of yeast yesterday, so I’d love to have some more!
Drool! These look amazing. It would be so exciting to win!
I love Easter Bread! Will have to try this!
Ok need to make this recipe ASAP. I don’t usually make breads (of any sort) but I’m thinking I should start now! 🙂
I’d love any of your cookbooks! They are all on my wish list
This looks absolutely DIVINE! I love this account and all that y’all do! I would be SO excited to win one of your lovely cookbooks so I can build confidence and new skills in baking!!
Need to get better at yeast raised doughs!
I would love a chance to win your book and try wonderful bread and dough recipes!
These look amazing and perfect for the holiday!
These look so cute and delicious!
Yeast! You may as well be giving away GOLD!
OH MY goodness! Get in my belly! Thank you so much for sharing all of your tips and tricks! I love being inspired to try new baking adventures!
These look gorgeous!
These are beautiful!!
Can’t wait to try these delicious treats while stuck at home!!
I got your Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day book for Christmas and have been making delicious bread weekly this year! Can’t wait to try out some of the other recipes! Love watching the Instagram tv/stories of you making baked goods too!
Yummy! Looking forward to trying this for Easter.
My mom always baked bread when I was little so I started to have interest and now that I’m in high school I bake more now. But I would always do pastry but after finding Mrs.Zoe’s Instagram I’ve been wanting to bake more bread.:)
I’m new to bread making but you make it seem so approachable that I’m going to try. Have my sourdough starter bubbling right now!!
My mom always baked bread when I was little so I started to have interest and now that I’m I’m high school I bake more now. But I would always do pastry but after finding Mrs.Zoe’s Instagram I’ve been wanting to bake more bread.:)