Bread of Life
Traditional Easter foods are rife with symbolism, and even the most humble-looking loaves have a story to tell.
Symbolic of Christ rising from the dead, bread is a cherished part of the Easter celebration for several ethnic groups.
This week we look at baking traditions carried on by a Lyndora church, a Butler woman and a Penn Township bakery.
The kitchen at St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Church looks up-to-date with its brushed chrome countertops, convection ovens and industrial mixer.Despite the modern conveniences, the paska bread baked there by the Ladies Guild continues an age-old Easter tradition for those of Eastern European heritage.Church members gather one day each year to make paska for the annual bake sale and many families bake their own batches at home. They have been carrying on this tradition for the last 20 years.The paska bread is traditionally placed in a basket and blessed along with a host of other symbolic items."Tradition is so important, you don't want to lose it," said Helen Ligas Meader, 89, of Lyndora, a first-generation American.An assembly line of about 25 volunteers took on various jobs at the church last week, working from about 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and breaking only for a midday meal.The volunteers kept a steady pace weighing, rolling out and kneading dough, molding loaves into pans and transferring bread in and out of the oven. Several copies of the standardized recipe were taped to work surfaces, and the church's two gas ovens and one convection oven were in full swing.
The other convection oven broke that morning and set workers behind, but they didn't seem to mind. Most chatted as they worked, and many remembered their mothers and grandmothers using the same methods — without modern amenities or even written instructions.Mary Ann "Penny" Zulick of Renfrew remembers her mother waking early, making dough and placing it near the hot furnace to rise."My mother would sleep near the register until the bread rose," recalls Zulick. "They didn't use a recipe.""They judged," emphasized Flora Sapar of Butler, tapping her temple with a floured finger. "It was all up here."The bread is baked primarily in round pans and often decorated with a cross design on top. With the oven problem this year, various shaped pans were pressed into service. At St. John's, a curlicue design distinguishes the raisin bread from the plain loaves.During the day the volunteers make 15 batches of dough yielding eight or nine leaves each. When they're done, they have somewhere around 120 to 135 loaves.In addition to paska bread, the volunteers said decorated Easter eggs called pysanky are often part of a traditional Easter basket. The church doesn't offer the eggs for sale, but some members still make them a part of their celebration.
Holes are made with straight pins at either end and the insides are blown out, said Meader, who completed dozens of eggs this year.A stylus-like tool is used to create intricate designs of colorful melted wax, and then the eggs are shellacked to a glassy finish.Another component of a traditional basket is meat, often ham or kielbasa, which is meant to indicate God's generosity. Other items can include a bitter mixture of horseradish and grated red beets to remind churchgoers of Christ's suffering. A small amount of sugar is added in recognition of the Resurrection.The items are arranged in a wicker basket covered with an embroidered white cloth. A blessed candle is placed upright in the basket.Meader remembers packing her Easter basket with help from her parents."You always made sure to have paska in your basket, and you always had some of the things you gave up for Lent," she said.Along with the basket's other contents, the bread cannot be eaten until a priest blesses it on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter."It's more meaningful when you have the blessed food," Sapar said. "It's meaningful because it's blessed and because you worked hard on it."
Fran Draper's recipe for Italian Easter bread has been passed down through the generations and serves as an important family tradition.Draper, 76, of Butler still uses the exact recipe her mother did."I think it's about ready," Draper said at her home last week, checking to see how much her dough had risen.Pulling handfuls of dough from the floury mass, she reminisced about her family's Easter traditions. Draper rolled the dough into three chubby coils and rapidly braided the strands together to form a thick, textured loaf."Growing up in an Italian family, this is what my mother would do," said Draper, whose parents emigrated from Italy. "And it passed on to me."Her mother made bread that she called "baby dolls" for each of her seven children, arranging braided dough into a nest shape and topping the creation with a colored Easter egg.The egg is meant to be cracked open and eaten along with the bread on Easter morning. Hard-boiled or raw eggs can be used, since it will cook in the oven, Draper said.Like her mother, Draper loves to bake for the children in her family: her grandchildren, Tyler, 9, and Taylor, 7, the children of her son Randall Draper and his wife Val. The family lives in Cranberry Township.Each child has a favorite holiday recipe, Draper said.Tyler favors the Easter bread, while his sister Taylor loves chumbrellas, a type of Italian sugar cookie made on special occasions.The treats are so well loved that Draper finds herself baking them several times a year."My grandson asked, 'Why does (the bread) always have to be just for Easter?'" she said. "I said, 'It doesn't have to be!'"
Draper keeps busy during the season and bakes dozens of loaves for family and friends, including the staff at her church, St. Michael the Archangel Roman Catholic Church on Center Avenue."You have to make it four or five times," she said, pointing out the wrapped loaves stacked on her kitchen counter. "I started last week."Her grandmother used to add anise seeds or anise oil to the bread, which is more traditional, said Draper, although she usually omits it because of her family's preferences.The bread has been an Easter standby as long as Draper can remember. As a teenager, she often served the sweet, buttery bread to visiting friends.With or without the anise, it always went fast, she said."None of my American girlfriends had ever had it," she said. "We'd go through three or four loaves in one sitting."Draper has also added her own tradition to Easter supper and has served cheesecake with homemade raspberry sauce for more than 20 years.All of the recipes will stay in the family, Draper said.She is assembling a journal of family recipes for Taylor, and the Easter sweets were among the first included."She knows it's a tradition, so hopefully she'll keep it up," Draper said.The bread recipe serves as a connection between the generations, Draper said."I used the same recipe as my mother," Draper said. "So every time I make it, I look at it and thank her."BakeryBoldy's Homemade Goodies in Penn Township makes paska bread, nut rolls, apricot rolls and poppy seed rolls before Easter.In past years, at least a hundred loaves of paska and nut rolls were sold each year during the Easter season, estimates former owner Jim Boldy. Recipes from his Slovakian family and his late wife's Polish family were used in the bakery, he said.The bakery re-opened with new owners in November, but Boldy has stayed on to mentor the staff.Boldy guessed that customers may not have the time or inclination to bake, but are still interested in continuing Easter customs."I hope so; I don't know whether they all do," he said. "Some really like the tradition."The popularity of Easter bread is likely due to the large ethnic populations in the Butler County, Boldy said."I cherish it myself," he said of the food-related traditions. "It's just something we've been doing for years and years."
