|
Ritual Breads |
||||||||||
|
Christmas bread
Christmas Eve bread, Ivaylovgrad
Koledari bread, village of Svirachi, Ivaylovgrad area
Bread made for the ritual of koumichene, Biala Slatina, early 20th C
Ritual bread, Chiprovtzi |
There is no single festival in the Bulgarian folk tradition that can be celebrated without making ritual bread. Ritual bread is distinguished from ordinary bread in its form, preparation and decorative elements. It was made from the largest and purest wheat grains. The flour was sieved three times and the dough was mixed with "silent" water - one brought by a maiden in absolute silence - in which flowers and herbs had been soaked. The ritual bread used to be worked up by a young girl or a recently married young woman. The form of the ritual bread was round, but in some cases it could be oval or elongated. Different objects were represented on top - images ranging from suns to pens or gardens. Ritual breads were consecrated by incensing and were broken cross-wise. Several pieces were usually left as offering to God. People also used to bury pieces of the ritual bread near their pens or cornfields hoping that the year would be fruitful and rich. Nowadays the Bulgarian people are not accustomed to preparing ritual breads in their everyday life, but home-made round loaves are still widespread. The kneading of ritual bread is specific for each folk festival or family holiday. The songs that accompany ritual bread making are different too, as is the symbolic meaning of the ornaments modelled on top of the loaves. The bread prepared for Christmas is known as Bogova pita (Lord's bread); it is decorated with varied representations such as pens full of sheep, wine casks, etc. depending on the occupation of the master of the house. Wedding breads are abundantly decorated with spirals, rosettes and figures of doves meant to symbolize good luck and blessings. By way of wishing good health, the koledari are given specially made rolls of bread which they string up on the tops of their shepherd's crooks. In North-West Bulgaria, on the holiday of Mladentsi (the Day of the Holy Infants) the saint is venerated with a small loaf of bread shaped to represent a human figure.
|
Nowadays the Bulgarian people are not accustomed to preparing ritual breads in their everyday life, but making round loaves is still a widespread practice throughout the country.
Here follow several recipes for preparing round loaves that you could use on occasions of religious or official holidays.
|
BATHED ROUND LOAF | |
| Ingredients |
|
Directions:Dissolve the yeast in a small amount of tepid water and let it rise. Mix the flour, the milk, the egg whites, the vegetable oil, the sugar and the salt and then add the yeast. Shape a ball of the soft dough thus produced. Wrap it in a cheese-cloth and soak it in a large vessel full of water.
Take it out when it comes to float. Spread it in a baking dish buttered beforehand. Punch the loaf with a fork several times and spread the egg yolk on top.
Bake it on a medium oven. After taking the bread out, cover it with a moist cloth in order to prevent its crust from getting too hard.
HONEYED ROUND LOAF
| Ingredients |
|
Directions:
- Mix the flour with the salt and some tepid water to work up a smooth and elastic dough.
- 1 kg flour
- 3 tea cupfuls of crumbled cheese
- 500 g yoghourt
- 3 eggs
- 100 g butter
- 1 teaspoonful of baking soda
Spread it in a thin layer of 2-3 cm on a buttered baking dish.
Perforate it with a fork and bake it in a previously heated oven. When it gets ready, spread an abundant amount of honey on the loaf.
SMALL FLAT LOAVES WITH CHEESE
| Ingredients |
|
Directions:
- Add the eggs, the cheese and the yoghourt - in which the baking soda has been dissolved - to the flour.
Knead the mess and then divide it into 15 balls.
Make a flat loaf of each ball, shape a hole in its middle and put a small pat of butter in it.
Arrange the loaves in an oiled tin and bake them on a medium oven.
|
Ingredients |
|
Directions:Put the flour in a large baking tin, add the yeast dissolved in a little bit of water, the eggs (without one of the yolks which is used for spreading on the bread), water and some salt. Knead the mess and divide the dough into three pieces.
Spread, butter and roll up each one of them.
Plait the three rolls and then shape them into a circle on the bottom of a buttered baking dish. Let the scroll rise.
Spread the reserved yolk on the plaited bread and bake on medium oven.SAINT JOHN'S DAY /Ivanovden/
7 JANUARY
In the church calendar, this is the day celebrated in honour of Saint John the Baptist who baptized Jesus. It is also the holiday of all who bear the Saint's name. By old Bulgarian custom at early dawn - before sunrise - young women brought water from a river or a well. In a large caldron, referred to as "chebar", they bathed the children for health. The young couples, who had married in the winter before St. John's Day, were also given a bath in this "chebar". Then the lads went visiting all the houses and bathing all boys and men named John. St. John was believed to be the patron of sponsorship and sworn brotherhood. On St. John's Day everybody visits his sponsor, the young couples bring him a ring-shaped bun, cheese- or other pastry and wine, as well as blood-pudding and roasted pork.
In case you have been sponsor at some couple's wedding, or if your name is Ivan /John/, Ivanka, Iva, Ivelina or Ivana and you expect guests on St. John's Day, you really have to prepare a holiday feast to honour your visitors, as well as the Christian festival itself. Here we suggest some traditional Bulgarian Ivanovden dishes coming from different parts of Bulgaria.
The STUFFED LEG OF PORK is one of the dishes most often cooked for St. John's Day. This day does not require lenten fare, therefore the Bulgarian people gladly used to cook fresh pork.
STUFFED LEG OF PORK
- a boned leg of pork (weighing about 2 kg)
- 4 spoonfuls of butter
- 1 coffee-upful of vegetable oil
- 1 onion
- 2 carrots
- 2 boiled eggs
- 1 teaspoonful of red pepper
- 1 teaspoonful of ground savoury
- 1/2 teaspoonful of pounded pepper
- 2 pickled cucumbers
Directions:
The preparation of this meal demands patience and strict observance of the instructions.Pound the boned leg with a moistened wooden household hammer.
By a sharp knife make a deep cut in its middle and fill the hollow with a mixture prepared according to the following instructions:Filling:
In two spoonfuls of melted butter brown the minced onion and the finely cubed carrots.
Take the pan away from the cooking-plate and when the filling gets cool add the cubed pickled cucumbers and boiled eggs, spice with red pepper, pepper and savoury to your taste.Stuff the leg and sow up the opening with a scalded white thread.
Put the leg in a baking dish greased with the rest of the butter and roast in a quick oven at first. In about 20 minutes lower the temperature. Every ten minutes pour over the leg a coffee-cupful of warm water mixed with vegetable oil. When the meat turns brown, turn it over.
Finally, spread red pepper mixed with vegetable oil on the leg.
If you intend to visit your sponsors or someone whose patron is St. John, the best surprise for him will be a home-cooked BANITZA. The recipe offered here is from Plovdiv district - famous for its masters in cooking and its dishes of unique relish.
BANITZA /Cheese pastry/
- 1 kg of flour, a cube of yeast of match-box size
- 1 teaspoonful of salt
- 1/2 teaspoonful of sugar
- 1 1/2 teacupfuls of crumbled cheese
- 4 eggs
- 2 coffee-cupfuls of melted butter
- 2 spoonfuls of lard
Directions:
First mix yeast with a small quantity of tepid water and add the sugar. Make a smooth pastry of the risen yeast, flour, 1 beaten egg and salt.
Divide the well-kneaded pastry into three parts and make balls of them.
Lard the balls and cover them with a cloth. Let the dough rise for half an hour in a warm place. Roll out each ball to a thick sheet measuring the size of baking dish bottom.
Make the filling out of the other three beaten eggs and the cheese.Spread the first sheet in the buttered baking dish and sprinkle it with melted butter. Then lay it with half of the filling.
Repeat this with the second sheet.
Soak the uppermost, third sheet with butter.Bake the pastry at moderately hot oven.
When made ready, do not forget to cover it with a cotton or linen cloth to keep its crust soft.
The sweet course on St. John's Day you could prepare is an APPLE PIE. Here follows an universal recipe practised in many places in Bulgaria in the winter season. In this period the Bulgarian diet makes use of the apples gathered in autumn. They may be dried, preserved in compotes or jams, or kept fresh in a dark and cool place available in every Bulgarian house in old times.
APPLE PIE
- 6 eggs
- 1 teacupful of sugar
- 2 teacupfuls of flour
- 1 packet of baking powder
- 1 packet of vanilla powder
- 1/2 teaspoonful of baking soda
- 7-8 apples
Directions:
Beat the egg yolks with the sugar.
Remove the stems and seeds of apples and peel them, Cut them in cubes. Add 2 spoonfuls of water to the beaten yolks and then - the flour and the apples.
Bake in quick oven at first. When the pastry begins to turn red, reduce temperature.
Beat up the egg whites together with three spoonfuls of granulated sugar, grated lemon peel and a pinch of baking powder. Spread this cream on the pie. Bake for 1-2 minutes in the well-heated oven and serve pastry cut in rhombi.
