Slava bread or slavski kolac is an important part of the religious aspects of Krsna slava or the celebration of a Serbian family's patron saint day (that is St. George in my case or May 6th as Orthodox Serbs adhere ot the Gregorian calenderI.In many homes, parish priest comes to home to bless the bread before any festivites can begin. Alternatively the bread is taken to the church to be blessed in the mass.
Now, my mother is a woman of many skills and baking happens to be just one of them. All the breads in tihs post are made by her, two of us together. Only recently have I started baking witohut her strict guidance and supervision. Now that i do, I make sure she is not around to taste the end product for the fear she will find it subpar. Laugh all you want, but when it comes ot baked goods, my mother is able to detect even the slightest flaws. Take this slava bread for example.
The picture on the left is the unbaked bread, brushed with egg yok, resting before going in the oven. The crosses, braids etc. symbolize prayers for a good, fertile year, peace and stability in the family etc. Other decorations may be added like grapes, wheat crops etc.
The picture on the right is what it looked like when my mother took it out of the oven. She was furious that the bread creased a bit near the middle and blamed it on her oven's volatile nature.
That slava, and I think this was in 2010, we had a selectioon of other baked goods.The slava bread was made from white wheat flour so it was nice ot have some whole-grain varieties to choose from.
Like these whole-grain and white rolls baked together and smackfull of buttery goodness. You see there is an empty corner??? That's becuase I snatched a wholegrain roll as soon as it came out of the oven.
Here is one other Slava bread.
The 6-week-long Christmas fast is broken on Christmas morning, when the family gets together, exchanges Christmas wishes and gets together to eat. They next turns the bread three times (with every member of the family holding the bread like in this pic) and breaks it. Whevever there are children involved in the process, it's recommended to put a coin for each child to avoid fights and tantrums.
Ahh... the Flower Bread. Very soft and tasty as every section was separately stretched out, its numerous layers rolled out, then liberally buttered and flipped back and secured with toothpick during baking to resemble a flower. The centre is covered with poppy seeds and "the leaves" with white sesame flower. I could live on this bread alone.
The spinach makes them light as air and perfectly fluffy...
Rye breads....
No comments:
Post a Comment