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Gluten Free Easter Bread (Paska)

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Gluten Free Easter Bread, also known as Paska, has been a part of my family’s Easter tradition for years. A sweet bread, with orange and lemon zest, topped with icing. What’s not to love?

Gluten Free Easter Bread, also known as Paska, has been a part of my family's Easter tradition for years. A sweet bread, with orange and lemon zest, topped with icing. What's not to love?

Paska, a Ukrainian Easter Bread, is a sweetened bread filled with lemon and orange zest, topped with icing and sprinkles.

I remember my Grandma baking loaves and loaves of Paska at Easter when I was a kid. She would actually bake it in large, empty coffee tins, making a giant round loaf, with a huge domed end. My Mom often baked Paska into buns instead of bread, which I liked, because it meant more icing.

Gluten Free Easter Bread, also known as Paska, has been a part of my family's Easter tradition for years. A sweet bread, with orange and lemon zest, topped with icing. What's not to love?

When I was diagnosed with celiac disease 8 years ago, one of the first things I did was figure out how to make Gluten Free Easter Bread, and I shared a recipe for it too. But since then, I’ve changed the way I bake – I use different flours, and just do things differently now – and I felt it was time for this recipe to get revised.

I decided to bake these buns in muffin tins, because I knew they would hold their shape this way. I haven’t tried baking them in a 9×13-inch pan yet, but if you do, please let me know how it worked for you. I also think this would make a great loaf of bread, you would just need to increase the baking time.

I thought it would be a few tweaks to existing recipes, and I’d have a great gluten free Easter Bread. Little did I know!

The perfectionist in me came out, and now, five versions later, I’m proud to say I have a great Gluten Free Easter Bread recipe to share with you. This one also got the family’s thumbs up, which should say something, since none of them have to eat gluten free. I hope you enjoy it as well!

Gluten Free Easter Bread, also known as Paska, has been a part of my family's Easter tradition for years. A sweet bread, with orange and lemon zest, topped with icing. What's not to love?

Tools to help make this Gluten Free Easter Bread even easier:

Other Easter treats you may like:

Yield: 11 servings

Gluten Free Easter Bread

Gluten Free Easter Bread
Gluten Free Easter Bread, also known as Paska, has been a part of my family's Easter tradition for years. A sweet bread, with orange and lemon zest, topped with icing. What's not to love?
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 18 minutes
Total Time 33 minutes

Ingredients

Easter Bread:

  • Zest of 1 medium sized orange (about 2-3 teaspoons)
  • Zest of 1 medium sized lemon (about 1 1/2-2 teaspoons)
  • Juice of 1/2 an orange
  • Juice of 1/2 a lemon
  • Enough milk to make 1 cup (250 ml); see instructions
  • 3 large eggs, room temperature
  • 1/4 cup (60 ml) oil
  • 1 cup (160 g) brown rice flour
  • 1/2 cup (60 g) millet flour
  • 1/2 cup (63 g) tapioca starch
  • 1/3 cup (67 g) granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup (25 g) dry milk powder
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons (7.5 ml) rapid rise yeast
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons (7.5 ml) xanthan gum
  • 1/4 teaspoon (1.25 ml) salt

Frosting:

  • 1 cup (125 g) Confectioners' (icing) sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons (30 ml) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1-2 Tablespoons (15-30 ml) orange juice
  • Sprinkles or shredded coconut for topping (optional)

Instructions

Easter Bread:

  1. Zest the orange and lemon into a large glass measuring cup. Squeeze the juice from half of each fruit into the measuring cup as well. Add enough milk to make 1 cup (250 ml) total liquid. Heat in the microwave for 30 seconds, just to warm it up slightly. Stir. Add the oil and eggs and whisk to combine. Set aside.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment to whisk together the brown rice flour, millet flour, tapioca starch, sugar, powdered milk, yeast, xanthan gum, and salt.
  3. With the mixer running on low, pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Turn the mixer up to medium speed, and beat for 2 minutes.
  4. Grease a muffin tin with butter or oil. Scoop the dough into the prepared pan. I use my large cookie scoop, dipped in water, to do this easily. Divide the dough between the muffin cups, I got between 11 & 12, depending on how big I made the buns.
  5. Dip your finger in water to smooth the tops of the buns.
  6. Place the buns in a warm, draft-free area to rise for 30-45 minutes. I like to turn the oven on to the lowest temperature, just so it warms up in the oven, before turning the oven off, and placing the buns inside to rise.
  7. Bake the buns in a preheated 350 degree F (176 degree C) oven for 18-20 minutes. Because of the higher sugar content, the buns will brown quite a bit when baking. If you notice them browning too much, you can cover the top loosely with foil.
  8. Once buns are finished baking, remove them from the muffin tin and place them on a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Frost them before serving.

Frosting:

  1. Beat together the Confectioners' sugar, butter, and orange juice until smooth. Spread on top of the buns before topping with sprinkles or shredded coconut. (optional)
© Jeanine Friesen
Category: Breads

 

Gluten Free Easter Bread, also known as Paska, has been a part of my family's Easter tradition for years. A sweet bread, with orange and lemon zest, topped with icing. What's not to love?

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Comments

  1. I’ve never had this type of bread before, but my goodness the crumb on that one that’s cut in half is gorgeous! I’ll be trying this over the weekend.

    Reply

  2. Yay! I am so excited to see this recipe and can’t wait to try it! My husbands Italian family ALWAYS has Easter bread and I can’t have any of it 🙁 I will be making this immediately!

    Thanks!
    Amanda

    Reply

  3. Ooooh! YAY! Thanks for this recipe! I”ll be making this for Easter as well. I believe I made your original recipe awhile back, it was great! I am loving the idea of making mini Paska breads 🙂 Thanks so much, Jeanine!

    Reply

    • Personally, I think it would work because Jeanine made it muffin pans. The recipe is great either way. 🙂

      Reply

  7. Would it work to substitute 1/4 cup instant pudding mix for the dry milk powder and reduce the granulated sugar a bit?

    Reply

  8. Made these today. Easy recipe to follow, crumb, taste and smell were great, will add a touch more salt next time but a great recipe thanks!

    Reply

  9. Worked great! thanks so much! I changed the brown flour to a GF chapati flour mix and millet to sweet sorghum but otherwise kept the same. I made it in the coffee tin and was even able to get it out in one piece!

    Reply

    • So glad to hear that, Kara! Thanks for sharing the substitutions that worked for you! And Woot! Woot! Way to follow tradition the whole way and use a coffee tin! I’m beyond impressed!

      Reply

  10. Hi Jeanine,

    Sadly, I used Robin Hood All-Purpose gluten-free flour, instead of the flour blend in your recipe. BIG mistake! In part, I may have over-baked them a bit (though it less than your recommended time), but the muffins were very crumbly and dry. Not at all bread-like.

    Just wanted to mention the TYPE of gf flour aspect to everyone as a precaution. One ingredient in Robin Hood gf flour is pea flour, which may be the main culprit(?). I once used pea flour in another recipe with the same drying results. The baked item would basically dry out the tongue on contact! 🙁

    Reply

  11. Thanks so much for the recipe! I made a few modifications: almond flour instead of the dry milk powder, sweet sorghum flour instead of millet and I also used almond milk instead of normal milk. They had a really nice taste and texture.

    Reply

  12. Thank you for this recipe! It was delicious! The texture and flavor were excellent! Even my non-gf family members were impressed. It was the closest to my little Ukrainian baba’s recipe, but a lot easier!
    I did make some substitutions and I’m mentioning them in case it helps someone else:
    I had a lot of Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 Baking Flour on hand, so I used that instead of the brown rice, millet and tapioca flours and xantham gum. Per your recommendation on another comment, I subbed almond flour for the dry milk powder. I baked it in a 1.5L round, Corelle pan for about 40 minutes. It was really wonderful!

    Reply

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