Apr 2, 2010

Judases (Jidase)

 
Easter is coming and in my country almost everybody bakes these traditional buns - Jidase (transalted to English - Judases). They are baked on Maundy Thursday in the Czech Republic - that's where I live. This sweet pastry is supposed to symbolize the ropes the apostle Judas hanged himself on aftter betraying Jesus. That's the explanation for their name. They are eaten for breakfast, brunch or lunch in czech families. Traditionally they're served with honey and/or butter and, of course, they're the best when still hot and warm.
Well, truth to be said, I made them for the first time today, but they turned out to be just great. Next time I'd add more sugar though, and lemon rind, too - its flavour wasn't too strong.

And here comes the recipe:

You'll need for 12 Judases:
  • 60 g caster sugar
  • 500 g plain flour
  • 300 ml sweet cream (12% fat)
  • 40 g fresh yeast
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 150 g melted butter
  • lemon ring from 1 lemon
  • 2 tsp lemon juice
  • 20 g vanilla sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 egg for egg wash
  • honey and butter for serving

Directions:
1. For a leaven put into a bowl 1 tbsp sugar, 4 tbsp lukewarm sweet cream and yeast. Set aside for 15 minutes. It should get foamy and lightly brown as the yeast strarts working :) And it should be on a hot place (about 30C).
2. Now mix the leaven with the rest of sugar and flour and add egg yolks, butter, lemon rind and juice, vanilla sugar and salt. As the last thing add the rest of sweet cream.


3. Knead the dough. It's pretty tough work. In case it's too sticky sprinkle it with flour. In the end it should be bubbly, elastic but not separated dough.
4. Cover it with a tea towel and let the dough rise for about an hour on a warm place.
5. Place a baking paper into a baking sheet.
6. Make 12 balls from the dough and each ball form into a shape of snail or something that looks like a loop.
7. Place them on the baking sheet and let them rise for another 15 minutes. My advice: let at lest 5 cm space between each Judas - they will be much bigger after baking and they could paste together.


8. Preheat oven to 180C/356F.
9. To make the egg wash beat lightly the egg and then spread the egg wash all over the Judases.
10. Bake for about 25 minutes or until lightly golden brown.
11. Serve with lots of honey and butter.
Bon Appetite!

The Final Word:
The texture of them is very light and the surface is nicely crispy. As I wrote above I'd add more sugar, but with honey they're sweet enough. Try them, they're really super-tasty :)
Rating: *****/*****

1 comment:

  1. well done, I'm just making them now ( easter sunday)as I didn't know they were meant to be done on maundy thursday..

    ReplyDelete