Name: Bread Maker Paska (Ukrainian Easter Bread)
Prep time: 155 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 180 min
Yield: 8 people
Ingredients: 1 egg; 1 cup water, approximately; 2 Tbsp milk powder; 3 1/2 Tbsp white sugar; 1 Tbsp vegetable oil; 2 Tbsp butter (melted); 1 tsp salt; 4 cups all-purpose flour; 1 tsp breadmaker/breadmachine yeast (regular)

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It was a beautiful summer day when I got the call from my Mom asking me to come home. She didn’t want to tell me over the phone.

I was over at a friend’s house watching “The Shining.” I already knew what she was going to say, so I stayed and watched the rest of the movie. l didn’t want to hear it because then it would be real.

Baba never seemed to care about being fat or losing weight. And if she did, I never heard her talk about it. From my grandkid perspective, she was just perfect and exactly like a Baba should be – round, pudgy and huggable. She was also an amazing baker.

Ukrainian Easter Bread

Every Easter Baba made Ukrainian Easter Bread and that Easter was no exception. It was something I ate with abandon and without the remorse of middle age.

I often hear people talk about bread being a weakness; that was never the case for me. Don’t get me wrong, I have many weaknesses when it comes to food (and let’s not forget wine) but bread isn’t up there at the top of that list. Except when Easter rolled around and the Ukrainian Paska came out. Then everything changed….

Bread Machine Paska

This is the only homemade bread I have ever made. And the amount of work that went into it was exhausting! It’s really a lot of unnecessary punching down and waiting and kneading and waiting and well, you get the picture. Since I discovered bread machine Paska, I don’t plan on making it by hand ever again. Why do all that labor and waste all that time when the bread maker can do it on your behalf? I’m guessing Baba would have done the same, given the opportunity.

Baba never made it to the annual Mother’s Day Brunch that year. Then she spent what felt like an eternity in the hospital in a coma. She was 66. I was 12.

That call I received from my Mom on that beautiful sunny summer day fundamentally altered me. It altered me in a way that only losing someone you love can, as you desperately try to pack the wound, then spend the rest of your life trying to fill that scarred and hollow space with something that gives you even an inkling of pleasure. But I didn’t know how to fill it because I was just a kid. So I floundered.

Ukrainian Bread Maker Easter Bread

Had I known that Easter would have been my last Easter eating her Ukrainian Easter bread, I would have eaten even more, I would have savored every bite, but most importantly, I would have hugged her even that much tighter and longer.

There are obvious disadvantages to being a great baker.

I later found out that she had a stroke and was not in the greatest of health for quite some time leading up to it. She was an uncontrolled Type 2 diabetic, likely never exercised a day in her life and loved to eat the naughty and delicious things she created. And although I know my family history, the importance of exercise and healthy eating, have my own concerns about my weight, it still takes a lot of will power to practice moderation and not indulge in too much of my own baking.

That hollow, scarred space still aches and echoes at times, but I have learned how to fill it with some pleasurable things, like making this Easter bread every year and sharing it with my kids. And each and every time those flaky Paska morsels meet my taste buds, they wrap around me in a really long, tight Baba hug. And for that moment in time, I put aside the worry about weight, indulge in too much Ukrainian Easter bread and savor every last bite.