Sweet Easter Bread Recipe (Mazanec)

Traditional Czech sweet Easter bread called Mazanec, made with dried fruit, almonds and cream. Usually baked for Easter and eaten for breakfast, but you can see different versions of Mazanec in the traditional bakery shops in Prague all year round.

I love baking round Mazanec for Easter, but also bake it sometimes in a loaf bread tins during the rest of the year. Somehow making the bread in a different shape makes me think it’s fine to bake it any other time of the year.

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MORE TRADITIONAL CZECH RECIPES

• Breakfast Pancakes with Yeast (Livance) >>
• Potato Pancakes (Bramboraky) >>
• Beehive Cookies (Vceli Uly) >>

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Why make this recipe?

• Great alternative to other breakfast sweet bakes
• Light enriched dough
• Make it your way with different dried fruits

What exactly is Mazanec

Mazanec is made with enriched dough and risen with yeast.

It’s a type of light and not too sweet dough that’s very similar in taste to challah (minus the dried fruits and almonds), panettone and of course, traditional Czech Christmas Bread called Vanocka.

Infact many Czech recipe books (including the one I’ve used from 1883) use exactly the same recipe ingredients for Christmas Vanocka and Easter Mazanec. It’s the same dough, just differently shaped.

The Story of Mazanec recipe

Mazanec is traditionally baked for Easter and eaten usually for breakfast.

In the olden days, Mazanec would be made with a cross cut on the top and blessed by a local priest. Any crumbs that would remain on the table (or on the floor) after eating would be thrown into the open fire to burn (I guess so that nothing is wasted)

Mazanec would be baked on Easter Saturday, which was considered the last day of when you should fast and eaten as a sweet after the main lunch course meal.

The reason why there are so many different variations of this recipe, is that from very early on, the Mazanec dough was different based on who it was for.

If you were baking Mazanec for your farm’s employees you would use a basic recipe with no dried fruit (these were quite expensive), less sugar, whole eggs and leftovers of thinned down milk.

If you were baking Mazanec for your guests and you wanted to impress them, you would use full-fat cream, butter, dried fruits, almonds and more sugar.

The oldest Czech recipes are from 15 and 16 century, when the recipe didn’t have any sugar (as it wasn’t as known around the country and was also very expensive) – only used thick cream (which is naturally quite sweet) or cream cheese (tvaroh) if you were fairly well off family. People also used safron or ground cloves as the spice in the dough.

This original recipe is from a handwritten collection consisting of about fifty pages, that were attached to another document (as in not even kept separately as a cookery book).

If you were a well to do family each member would get their own Mazanec, but if you were poor, you’d only have enough ingredients to make one loaf and then share it.

My top tips on making this recipe successfully the first time round

• Don’t rush the rising of the dough, it might take a while
• Warm up milk & butter before mixing the dough to help the dough to rise well
• Bake at lower temperature than regular bread (high temperature will only burn the almonds and could make the dough dry)

What makes this recipe so special

There are a lot of variations of Mazanec recipe available, but this one is my favourite one. It has that perfect thickness, bite and taste (its’ not that too fluffy, no taste kind of dough you get when you buy the supermarket version).

What makes the difference is using double cream (full fat or heavy cream), salt, egg yolks only and ground mace.

Any specialist equipment needed?

You don’t need any specialist equipment for this recipe.

Plastic mixing bowls (lined with teatowels and dusted with flour are useful if you want the dough to rise is something that will help them to hold shape. I usually just shape them tightly and let the to prove (for the second time) on the baking tray.

Time saving tip

You can’t really rush this recipe, but you can fit it around your busy schedule. Each rising can take up to 8-9 hrs in the fridge, so if only have the time to mix the dough (and knead it) in the morning, you can put the dough in the fridge to rise during the day (or at night).

Ingredients

Flour – I like to use plain or cake (all purpose) fine flour, because it makes this recipe extra light.

Yeast – I use dry, fast action yeast, that don’t need any preparation (and can go straight in to the dough). If you are using fresh yeast, use double the quantity and prepare the yeast by frothing them up with a little bit of water or milk and teaspoon of sugar. Leave for 15-20 minutes until they start to bubble and then carry on with the recipe.

Cream – use single or double – full fat (heavy) cream to achieve the right consistency and flavour for this recipe.

Egg yolks – using only egg yolks makes this Mazanec recipe extra tasty and it also helps with colours. I know that this makes the recipe rather extravagant, but you can use the egg whites for breakfast omelette or add them into a soup.

Salt – salt always helps to bring the flavours together and sharpen the flavours. If you are using salted butter, use much less (or no) extra salt

Butter – butter is traditionally sold unsalted in Czech Republic, which is why I add extra salt in. You can use salted butter and leave out the extra salt.

Sugar – white fine (caster) sugar is the one I used for this recipe. You can reduce the amount of sugar by few tablespoons if you like, but do keep some in.

Vanilla extract – the original recipe didn’t have vanilla as it wouldn’t be widely available at the time, but it does make it extra flavoursome if you use it.

Some people use rum extract or real rum, which is probably more traditional than the vanilla extract. Rum used to be made cheaply from potatoes and would be much more available (and cheaper) than vanilla spice.

Lemon zest – use a fresh zest from one (non-treated organic) lemon

Almond – use whole chopped up almonds for the dough and almond flakes for topping

Dried fruit – traditionally you would only use raisins, but you can also use any other type of dried fruit or orange or lemon peel

The method – Instructions, How to make this recipe

Measure and add most of the dry ingredients together – flour, yeast, sugar, salt, lemon zest, ground mace (at this stage leave out the dry fruits and almonds).

In a separate bowl add the cream, egg yolks, vanilla extract (or rum extract or rum) and melted butter (make sure it’s not hot only warm).

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spatula.

Take out the dough mixture from the bowl and place on the work and start kneading (or use a mixer with a kneading hook if you want). Knead for about 10-15 minutes until the dough becomes elastic and smooth. The dough might be sticky, but try to avoid adding any more flour if you can. The dough could also feel oily, but that’s exactly how it should be.

When you finished the kneading the dough will feel less sticky, smooth and elastic.

Leave the dough to rise in a bowl, covered by a plastic bag or damp tea towel. Leave it to double in size – this can take up to 1-3 hrs depending on how cold your kitchen is.

When the dough is ready either keep it whole for one large loaf or cut it in half to get two smaller loaves (which is what I do).

Deflate the dough and add half of the dry fruits and almonds to each part of the dough. I add them in when I’m shaping the dough, but you can also knead them in. If you think that they look a bit sparse, add more, but don’t overdo it otherwise the sweet bread won’t rise as much as it should in the next stage.

Shape the dough into two smaller rounds and leave to prove again either upside down in a lined bowl or if you are good with your shaping (as in know how to shape your dough tightly) leave it on a baking tray (the right way up) loosely covered with a oiled plastic or upside down plastic bowl.

Leave the ‘Mazanec’ sweet bread to double in size again. This can easily take further 1-2 hours, but don’t try to rush it by putting the sweet dough into too warm place. The cream, butter, eggs, sugar and everything else beyond the flour, water and yeast is ‘weighting’ the dough down and because of that it can take a very long time for the dough to start rising.

When the dough has doubled in size, gently brush with egg white, add some extra flaked or chopped almonds on the top

Bake in preheated oven on a fairly low temperatue of about 160C – 180C (electric fan assisted oven) or 320 Fahrenheit to 350 F. Lower the temperature further if the dough looks like it’s browning too quickly at the beginning.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, but check after about 30 minutes with a wooden skewer. If it comes out dry – the mazanec sweet bread is ready.

Leave the mazanec to cool down on a cooling rack before cutting and serving on it’s own or with an unsalted butter (and perhaps a jam).

Possible Substitutions

There are of course way to replace and substitute some elements of this recipe, but please bear in mind that with each substitution you will get a slightly different flavour and you are getting steps away from the original recipe.

Saying that, this recipe for traditional sweet Czech Easter bread works perfectly well if you replace the following:

Flour – use 50% white bread flour and 50% plain flour if you want to achieve a firmer texture

Cream – use any kind of milk or dairy free plant based milk

Spices & Flavourings – use other flavourings such as mixed spice or leave it out completely

Lemon Zest – use lemon essence or leave it out altogether

Dried Fruit – use any dried fruits that you have or swap them for chocolate chips. You can also leave them out altogether (no need to change the other recipe ingredients proportions)

Almonds – use other nuts or leave them out altogether and add more dried fruits

How else you can make this recipe? Variation on this recipe, Allergies, dietary requirements

Dairy free – use dairy free or plant based milks. Almond milk would work with this recipe well as we are using some almonds in the recipe itself.

Gluten Free – Use gluten free flours mix with xanthan gum to ensure you get a similar results as with regular flour.

Recipe batch size

This recipe is for one large round loaf or two smaller loaves.

can I scale up or down this recipe?

Yes, absolutely. This recipe can be halved if you prefer just to make one small loaf. The rising and baking time might be slightly less, but not by half.

You can also double or triple the recipe. The rising and baking will take about the same time as the standard recipe, providing that you make 1-2 loaves from each standard recipe.

A regular oven should be able to hold 2 large trays, which means you can make comfortably double the amount (e.i. from 100 grams of flour).

I have trays that are the width of my oven and can fit 3 in (one is resting on the bottom of the oven) and I make up to 6 smaller loaves (e.i. 3 times the amount of standard recipe – 1500 grams of flour). If I see that some are getting browner quicker I swap around the trays in the oven to make sure they bake evenly.

How to eat Mazanec

Simply eat it as it is with a hot coffee, chicory coffee or hot chocolate in your hand. Or try adding a bit of unsalted butter for extra taste. You can also use any jams or marmalades to spread on sliced mazanec.

Can this recipe be made in advance?

This enriched sweet dough bread is amazing when it’s eaten on the first day. However, because it’s quite heavy with cream and fat, the difference between second and third day is not that much. The bread is soft, but firm from day 2-5 with each day being slightly drier, but not harder.

This means that you can easily bake this sweet bread recipe 1-2 days in advance and it will still taste delicious.

You can also bake it and freeze it on the same day and then keep it for up to 3 months in the freezer before using it.

How to store this recipe if there are any leftovers

Keep wrapped in a plastic or paper bag or teatowel in a bread bin or just in another plastic bag.

Can I freeze Mazanec?

Yes, this sweet bread is perfect for freezing. Either freeze it as a whole loaf or cut into slices and freeze separate slices (with a baking parchment in between the slices). The bread should be fine for 1-3 months.

Defrost overnight (or on microwave or oven ‘defrost’ setting) and lightly warm up (on 180C or 350 F) in the oven for 5 minutes if you like.