Back in the 1930s, when Granny (Isabel Jurcius) baked, she'd let her granddaughter, Marilyn, help knead the pyrogas (bread) she made in the small kitchen at the back of the house Granny and her husband "Pop" had built on Aldwych Avenue in Toronto.
When Granny was eighty years old and no longer hosting family dinners, my dad Arthur would drive Granny to our bungalow in Don Mills for holiday meals made by my mom. Granny always brought a gift of raisin bread, velykos pyrogas, wrapped in a clean cotton dish towel.
When Granny passed away, about thirty-five years ago, my mom Marilyn started to bake Granny's velykos pyrogas every Christmas and Easter. She adapted the recipe to use dry traditional yeast instead of the fresh cake yeast Granny used.
Granny and my mom didn't have baking thermometers, so they'd test the temperature of liquids by putting a drop on their wrist.
Mom had a convenient, quick way of cooling hot pots of milk or sauces at winter holiday times when the fridge was full. Her 1950's bungalow had a milk box, a wooden receptacle with a small door in the side of the house. The milkman would leave a glass bottle of milk in the box when he delivered it in the morning. When household milk delivery was stopped, the milk box was used for mail--and for cooling hot pots of pudding, or the butter and milk mixture for pyrogas.
Until recently, mom gave my sisters and I a loaf of her homemade pyrogas every Christmas. I liked having a slice with butter on Christmas morning. Well, more than one slice.
Granny's Pyrogas
Makes 2 large loaves (spills over a 9" loaf pan) or 3 8" loaves.
- 2 cups milk
- 1/2 lb. butter
- 2 cups raisins
- 2 packages traditional active dry yeast (4-1/2 tsp)
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 3 large eggs, beaten
- 1 cup white granulated sugar
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 tsp salt
- 4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1. Prepare Raisins
Rinse 2 cups dark brown raisins in a colander first with very hot water, then cold. Drain and leave in a dishcloth to dry.
2. Prepare Milk
In a small pot, scald 2 cups milk.
Remove from heat.
Stir in 1/2 lb. butter to melt.
Let mixture stand to cool to lukewarm.
3. Proof Yeast
In a small bowl, stir 1 Tbsp sugar in 1/2 cup hot water until sugar dissolves.
Let cool to lukewarm.
Sprinkle 2 pkgs (or 2 Tbsp) traditional dry yeast on top.
Push down any loose yeast sprinkles into the water.
Let stand 10-15 minutes to proof the yeast.
4. Sift Flour
Measure out 4 cups.
Measure out 3 more cups.
5. Prepare the Egg Mixture
In a small mixing bowl, beat 3 large eggs.
Add 1 cup sugar, beat slightly.
6. Mix the Dough
In a large bowl, mix the egg mixture, lukewarm milk mixture, and the yeast mixture.
Stir in 1 tsp vanilla and 1 tsp salt.
Beating with a wooden spoon until smooth after each addition, gradually stir in the 4 cups sifted flour.
Add the raisins and then stir enough flour to make a stiff dough, about 3 more cups.
7. Knead the Dough by Hand
On a lightly floured board, knead the dough by hand for 30 minutes.
Lightly grease a large bowl with butter.
Place kneaded dough in the bowl to rise. Cover.
(Granny used a cloth but using greased plastic wrap is easier.)
8. Double-Rise the Dough
Let rise in a warm place at 76 degrees F until doubled, about 1-1/2 hours.
My mom would preheat her oven to warm (80 degrees F) then turn off the oven. She'd let the bread rise in the warm oven with the door closed and the light on to maintain the temperature. Use an oven thermometer to check the temperature.
Punch down the dough, divide and shape into loaves.
Put in greased and floured loaf pans.
Let the dough rise again in the pans (about 1/2 hour.)
Remove the loaves from the warm oven if they have been rising in the oven.
9. Bake the Bread
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Bake the loaves at 350 degree F. oven for about 35-40 minutes.
Smaller loaves will take less time to bake.
If more than 40 minutes baking time is needed, cover the top with aluminum foil so any raisins on the top do not burn.
Remove baked loaves from the oven to cool in pans on a wire rack.
Baby Nama and Granny at Easter
Nama remembers that at Easter time, the Easter bunny would leave her a big, beautifully decorated chocolate Easter egg, nestled in a box of shredded paper. Granny didn't let anything go to waste, so after Nama finished the egg, Granny set the box out on the back porch, probably thinking she would use the shredded paper as mulch for her flower garden. But when Granny later went to empty the box, she found a nest of baby mice inside.
Granny waited until Nama came home from school to show her the little mice. Then, inexplicably, she carried the box with the mice inside and upstairs to the second floor, telling Nama to wait in the kitchen. When Granny returned with the empty box, Nama asked her where she had put the mice. Granny finally admitted the tiny mice had been flushed down the toilet.
When I told my now 91-year-old mom (Nama) that I was going with my two-year-old grandson to a farm for an egg hunt and to see the baby animals on Easter Sunday, she told me the story about Granny and the mice again.
It had left a lifelong impression. I suppose it taught her to do what she believed had to be done. Yesterday, she said, she didn't hesitate to eliminate a very long centipede she found in her sink.
