Lauren always wanted to hear stories about "Baby Nama and Granny." (Scroll down below the bread recipe for the "Baby Nama and Granny at Easter'' story.) As a little girl in the 1930s, Nama (my mom) liked to help Granny knead the pyragas (raisin bread) she baked for family celebrations.
Granny didn't learn to bake as a girl and according to my mom Nama, she was never much of a baker. She'd taught herself to be "a good plain cook." She used a recipe from the original Purity Cookbook for her first attempts at raisin bread and mom said Granny didn't think it was as good as her friend Mrs. Daukas' bread. Mrs. Daukus gave Granny the recipe.
When Granny grew older and was 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 her homemade raisin bread, (Mrs. Daukas' recipe for velykos pyragas), wrapped in a clean cotton dish towel.
Granny passed away at age eighty-four, about thirty-five years ago. My mom started to make the pyragas 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 when proofing the yeast, they'd test the temperature of the milk by putting a drop on the wrist.
Mom had a convenient way of cooling hot pots of milk or sauces at winter holiday times when the fridge was full. Our 1960 bungalow had a milk box, a wooden receptacle with a small door in the side of the house where the milkman would leave a glass bottle of milk, delivered in the morning. When household milk delivery was stopped, the milk box was where the mailman put our Canada Post deliveries. And later in the day, or on winter weekends, my mom put hot pots of pudding there to cool, or the butter and milk mixture for pyragas.
Until recently, mom gave my sisters and I a loaf of homemade pyragas every Christmas. I liked having a slice with butter on Christmas morning. Well, more than one slice. Now that I'm an old grandma, I'm hoping that that one of my children will invite me for Christmas dinner at their house and I'll bring a loaf made from Granny's friend Mrs. Daukas' recipe, wrapped in a nice new cotton dishtowel.
Update: 92-year-old Nama now stays home on Christmas Day and other holidays. She says it's too much trouble to leave her house. I took her a loaf of her grandmother's raisin bread, in a cotton bread bag. She said it tasted exactly like the bread she used to make as a little girl with her Granny. If you like it, feel free to share the recipe with a friend and maybe they'll start their own family tradition.
Granny's (and Mrs. Daukas') Pyragas
Makes 3 loaves baked in 8" bread pans. If you use two 9" pans the bread will mushroom over the top of the pans as it bakes.
- 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 5 tsp) 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.
Mrs. Samalavicius' Pyragas
This recipe is from another Lithuanian friend of Granny's, Mrs. Samalavicius, who with her husband built a small house next door to Pop and Granny's cottage up the road from Lake Simcoe.
1. Mix 3/4 cup warm water with 1 Tbsp white granulated sugar. Sprinkle on 2 Tbsp traditional dry yeast. Let stand 10 minutes.
2. In a saucepan, scald 2 cups milk. Add 1 cup butter, stir till melted. Take off heat and leave to cool.
3. In a large bowl, beat 3 large eggs, 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. vanilla.
4. Stir yeast mixture into egg mixture.
5. With a wooden spoon, stir in 4 cups flour.
6. Stir in 1 to 2 cups raisins.
7. Add more a little more flour if necessary to make a soft dough. Knead 10-15 minutes.
8. Cover and let rise until doubled.
9. Punch down dough, shape into loaves in greased and floured loaf pans, then let rise again.
10. Bake bread in a preheated 375 degree F oven for 20 minutes or more until done.
Kaledu Pyragas (Christmas Bread)
This recipe is from a page torn from my mom's Lithuanian recipe book. She has never made it but she gave it to me to try.
- 1 yeast cake or 1 pkg (2-1/2 tsp) traditional dry yeast
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1-1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 cup scalded milk
- 1/4 cup cold water
- 1 large egg
- 1-1/2 cups white raisins
- 1/4 cup poppy seeds + more for sprinkling
- 3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
- honey
1. Dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup lukewarm water.
2. Combine butter, sugar, salt, milk and cold water.
3. To the butter mixture add: egg, raisins, poppy seeds and dissolved yeast.
4. Add sifted flour and mix well until blended thoroughly.
5. Grease a 9x5x3 inch pan and pour mixture into it.
6. Cover mixture with a clean dish towel and let rise in a warm 85 degree F place for about 1-1/2 hours until risen.
7. Bake in a moderate oven 50-60 minutes.
8. In last 5 minutes of baking remove from oven, brush with slightly warmed honey and sprinkle with poppy seeds.
9. Return loaf to oven and bake about 5 minutes more, being careful not to let the honey get too dark.
The Story of Baby Nama and Granny at Easter
Nama remembers that every Easter morning, she'd wake up to find that the Easter bunny had left her a big, beautifully decorated chocolate Easter egg, nestled in a box of shredded pastel-coloured paper.
Granny didn't let anything go to waste, so after Nama finished the egg, Granny set the box out on the back porch, thinking she would use the shredded paper as mulch in her flower garden. But when Granny 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, after telling Nama to wait in the kitchen, she carried the box with the mice inside and upstairs to the second floor.
When Granny returned with the empty box, Nama asked her where she'd put the cute little mice. Granny finally admitted that she'd flushed the tiny mice 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 baby animals on Easter Sunday, she told me the story about Granny and the mice again. She wondered why Granny had waited to dispose of the baby mice until after she'd seen them.
She thought that she must have begged to keep them as pets, and Granny probably regretted waiting to show them to her, and just did what she felt had to be done. Yesterday, my mother said, she didn't hesitate to eliminate a very long centipede she found in her sink. "Sometimes," she said, "you just do what you have to do and you can't think too much about it."
