EntranceWe prepare the table for Easter with our own hands. Easter table: traditions, customs, recipes with photos
One of the richest and most generous treats was and is still considered to be a festive meal on the bright day of the Resurrection of Christ. Our article is about the traditions and customs of serving the Easter table, about ritual dishes and their diversity. This is the main celebration of the entire Christian world, a holiday that has always been celebrated widely, hospitably and cheerfully.
Easter traditions
Easter is the great day of the church calendar, which reveals the main meaning of the Christian faith. After a long and strict Great Lent, real fun and rejoicing from the Resurrection of Jesus Christ begins. This week of active celebration is called Bright Week and is accompanied by a continuous meal, with a special table setting for Easter.
They begin to prepare for the celebration on Maundy Thursday, but the day before Easter, on Good Friday, nothing can be done - neither at home nor preparing treats. Pure Thursday is intended for cleaning the house, for baking Easter cakes and cooking paska, dyeing eggs.
In addition to preparing dishes for the festive table, believers attend divine services, donate a lot in church, give each other Easter gifts and participate in festivities. Moreover, it is customary until the Ascension itself (and this is a full 40 days!) to greet everyone with the words “Christ is Risen!” and expect in response “Truly Risen!”, Not forgetting the triple kisses.
A real tradition, but not currently supported by everyone, is to “be christened”, i.e. to exchange at a meeting krashenka, already consecrated in the church. Modern customs of christening mean beating with the sharp ends of eggs and making wishes - in case of victory, they must come true.
For the celebration of the bright Resurrection of Christ, in all houses, long before the start of Bright Week, they bought the necessary provisions, which is observed even today. After all, Easter is not so much a family holiday as a national holiday, when it is customary to distribute gifts not only within the family, but also to all friends and neighbors. Therefore, housewives should bake Easter cakes and gingerbread in quantities that take into account the numerous gifts to everyone who happens to be in the family circle.
All Easter baking- very colorful, with bright color patterns and glaze, and therefore pleasing to the eye and not ashamed to present them as a gift.
It was very rightly believed that if the Easter bread turned out to be tasteless, did not fit well, or turned out to be unbaked or overdried, i.e. the hostess failed, then the whole family is in for trouble and trouble. If the Easter cake was perfect, then the whole next year the family will be happy and prosperous. Therefore, you need to bake Easter cakes, gingerbread cookies and pies in good health and mood, in a clean kitchen and without fuss.
Easter table - traditions and customs
But these are common Orthodox customs, but the main traditions of table setting for Easter are more stable and strictly observed in almost all families. Even if the hostess does not bake Easter cakes with her own hands, she buys them on the side, and almost every family paints eggs!
Easter cakes, Easter cakes and krashenka, as a rule, occupy the center stage of the Easter meal. Ritual pastry is served in beautiful dish, surrounded by dyes. There is a special dish for serving the main Easter dish - a plate with a recess for Easter cake and recesses for eggs around the circumference.
According to ancient pagan customs, eggs should be laid on a separate dish covered with sprouted grains of oats, rye and wheat, which also symbolizes the rebirth of life. But this condition for serving eggs was preserved only in the villages, and often simply forgotten.
In addition to pastries and eggs, the Easter table menu includes all kinds of sausages, ham, poultry and a variety of meat dishes. In past centuries, it was a stable tradition to serve a roasted suckling pig to the refectory feast, which testified to the generosity of the owners and their piety. We can replace this meat dish with more modest dishes: baked chicken, products from minced meat, homemade pork rolls, etc., but definitely baked. But fish is not served on Easter!
On Easter Day everyone is served Cahors and other red wines consecrated in temples. Typically, such wines are sold in church shops, but closer to the bright date, wines in shops rise in price, and therefore we recommend buying it in advance.
Throughout Bright Week, the table is not removed, but only supplemented with new treats. Each housewife has her own signature recipes for especially noble treats, and therefore material resources are usually set aside for the celebrations of Bright Week for a long time. It is traditionally believed that the financial situation of the family for the whole next year depends on the wealth and variety of the table.
Table setting for Easter
Christians around the world celebrate their main holiday solemnly, not skimping on decorating the meal. Tabletops are covered with the best tablecloth in the house, fresh flowers, a candle and Easter cakes are placed in the center - everything that we bring from the church consecrated. The room where the treat is served requires special decor and decoration - they paint and hang it Easter eggs, in a conspicuous place is a basket with Easter cakes.
According to folk customs, the Easter table, the traditions and customs of which we have described in detail, should be plentiful so that you can feed every person entering the house on this great holiday.
Abundance and happiness to your home!
And cottage cheese Easter - traditional Easter treats. On holiday, they will be on the table in almost every home. But, if you want to diversify the feast, we will help you. We have prepared for you a selection of original thematic recipes that will decorate the Easter table, surprise and delight your loved ones.
ice cream egg
The egg is the main symbol and the main food of Easter. Every year we figure out how to decorate eggs so that it is not just elegant, but festive. Here are some ideas from Lifehacker:
Dishes from chicken eggs will not surprise anyone, but fruit ice in the shape of an egg.
Ingredients:
500 ml of water;
250 ml fruit juice with pulp;
200 g of sugar;
1 st. l. freshly squeezed lemon juice;
gelatin sachet.
Cooking
To do fruit ice at home, dissolve gelatin in water: soak for 5 minutes, and then heat with sugar over low heat until completely dissolved. Then slowly pour in the juice. Stir and remove from heat after a minute. Strain the mixture through a sieve, and when cool, add lemon juice.
flickr.com Use the big ones as the fill shape. plastic eggs(they are sold in children's stores). Make small holes in the bottoms (where a real egg has an air chamber) and use a small funnel to pour the cooked juice into the eggs.
flickr.com Insert plastic sticks into the holes and send the eggs to the freezer for 2 hours. Popsicles are ready!
chocolate eggs
flickr.com Slavs traditionally paint eggs red, but, for example, in Italy, chocolate eggs are exchanged instead of chicken eggs. We suggest you go ahead and prepare such an unusual dessert.
Ingredients:
chocolate eggs no toy inside.
For "protein":
150 g cream cheese;
130 g of heavy cream;
30 g of powdered sugar;
0.5 tsp lemon juice;
0.5 tsp vanilla extract.
For the "yolk":
20 g butter;
2 tsp freshly squeezed orange juice;
1 st. l. apricot jam.
Cooking
Using a small nail file, remove the top of the chocolate egg. Let the edge be uneven, like a broken shell. Keep the eggs in the fridge while you make the filling so they don't melt. Connect cream cheese, powdered sugar, lemon juice and vanilla extract and beat until smooth. Separately, whip the cream (it is better if it is chilled), then carefully combine the resulting mixtures, whisk them together. Using a spoon, fill the chocolate eggs with a creamy mass and send them to the refrigerator for 30-40 minutes to make the cream harden.
flickr.com At this time, prepare the syrup for the "yolk". Mix in a saucepan butter, Orange juice and jam. Heat over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is smooth. Make in creamy filling a small indentation and pour in some of the cooled syrup.
flickr.com Keep the eggs in the refrigerator until serving.
fruit pizza
There are several versions of when and where the tradition of decorating, giving and eating eggs for Easter came from. One thing is clear: the custom is ancient, and the symbol is bright. This colorful open pie with fruit, made in the shape of an egg, will become the star of the festive table. It will especially appeal to children.
Ingredients
For the crust:
450 g flour;
170 g butter;
100 g of sugar;
2 chicken eggs;
2 tbsp. l. cream;
2 tbsp. l. lemon peel;
2 tsp lemon extract;
0.5 tsp salt;
0.5 tsp baking powder.
For cream:
250 g cream cheese;
70 g strawberry jam.
For filling:
fresh or canned berries and fruits (strawberries, blueberries, grapes, pineapples, kiwis, peaches, tangerines, and so on);
water;
gelatin sachet.
Cooking
Let's bake the cake first. To do this, mix flour, baking powder and salt. Combine softened butter with sugar and lemon zest beat with a mixer until smooth. Then add one egg, beat again; then the second, beat again. Whisking constantly, add the lemon extract and cream. Turn off mixer and add dry ingredients. Whip a little again with a mixer or whisk, and then knead the dough with your hands. Send it to the refrigerator for a couple of hours. After that, roll out in the shape of an egg about 1.5 cm thick and bake the cake at a temperature of 180 ºС for 15–20 minutes.
To prepare the cream, beat the jam and cream cheese. If desired, the mixture can be sweetened a little more. Spread the resulting cream on the cooled cake. Cut the fruit and put it on top of the cake: combine, play with colors to make a colorful pattern. Dissolve the gelatin in water following the instructions on the package: usually the powder is first infused in cold water and then slightly heated. Using a brush, cover the fruit on top with gelatin.
This will give them a glossy sheen and protect them from weathering.
"Chickens"
Where there are eggs, there are chickens. It symbolizes prosperity, family comfort and fertility. Images of chickens also often appear in Easter symbolism. Therefore, such an appetizer in the form of cute, barely hatched chickens will appeal to many.
Ingredients:
6 chicken eggs;
2 tbsp. l. mayonnaise;
2 tsp mustard;
1 small carrot;
a pinch of salt and black peppercorns.
Cooking
Boil the eggs. Clean and cut off the "hat".
Carefully remove the yolk.
Mash the yolk and mix with mayonnaise and mustard with a blender. Season the resulting mixture with salt and place in a pastry bag. Start her protein with a slide.
Top with a "hat" of protein. From boiled carrots, make legs and a nose for a chicken, and peppercorns will serve as eyes.
Variants of the design of "chickens".
Easter nests
These savory sweet buns, woven in the form of nests, personify home comfort and are perfect for the Easter table. Even a novice cook can cook them.
Ingredients:
500 g flour;
300 ml of milk;
100 g butter;
2 chicken eggs;
2 tbsp. l. Sahara;
1.5 tsp salt;
2.5 tsp dry yeast;
painted chicken eggs;
decorative Easter sprinkles.
Cooking
Combine the yeast, warm milk and half the flour, using a whisk, knead the dough, like for pancakes. Let him stand. When it rises, add sugar, salt, break two eggs, add butter and the rest of the flour. Knead a stiff dough. Leave for a couple of hours, knead again and leave again for a few hours. The dough should double in size. After that, roll out the dough with a sausage 2–3 cm thick and 30–35 cm long. Fold it in half and overlap it, as shown in the photo.
Connect the resulting braid into a ring. Lay the buns on a baking sheet lined with baking paper.
Brush with egg yolk and sprinkle with Easter sprinkles, and place a small colored egg in the center. (Eggs can be uncooked - will cook hard-boiled in the oven.)
Bake at 180°C for 25 minutes.
Sweet mini nests
If you don't like to bake or just don't have time for it, make these miniature nests. Children will appreciate the taste, and adults will also appreciate the simplicity of the recipe.
Ingredients:
a pack of round cookies;
multi-colored dragee candies;
liquid food coloring.
For cream:
250 ml of fat (30%) cream;
100 g of powdered sugar;
a bag of gelatin;
water.
Cooking
You can use ready-made whipped cream (just mix it with dye), or you can whip it into a thick foam yourself. To do this, the cream must be fat and cold. You can even keep the whisk of the mixer in the refrigerator to speed up the whipping process. When the cream begins to acquire the consistency of a mousse, add a little powdered sugar and continue beating. Gelatin pre-diluted in water (soaked and then heated) is introduced into the cream, without stopping whipping it. At the end of whipping, add green food color.
Pour the cream into a pastry syringe or bag and apply to the leaf-shaped cookies (use the appropriate nozzle). Lay two or three dragees on top.
Easter Bunnies
The hare (or rabbit) is a traditional Easter symbol in Western European culture. This animal is associated with fertility and abundance. Houses are decorated with figurines, it is painted on postcards, and in Munich there is even a museum of the Easter Bunny. Chocolate or marmalade bunnies are given to children for Easter.
For the festive table, you can bake buns in the shape of a hare. The recipe is simple.
Ingredients:
400 g flour;
200 g sour cream;
200 ml of water;
40 g butter;
2 tbsp. l. powdered sugar;
1 tsp salt;
1 egg;
1 sachet of dry yeast.
Cooking
Mix butter, sour cream and water, heat them in a small saucepan over low heat. Don't let it boil. Make a hole in a hill of flour, break an egg into it, pour in the cooled sour cream and butter mass, add powdered sugar and yeast, salt. Knead the dough (until it stops sticking to your hands). Let the dough rest. Then divide into small pieces and shape into oval buns.
flickr.com Use scissors to make ears, and use toothpicks to make eyes.
So that the eyes of the hares do not “swim” during baking, toothpicks can be left in the dough and removed after cooking. Bake the buns in the oven at 180°C for 15-20 minutes.
Stuffed "carrot"
Hares love carrots, and therefore this symbol is also actively used during the celebration of Easter. In many countries, carrot-shaped bags are made and filled with sweets to treat children. Adults will surely enjoy it hearty snack, stylized as a carrot.
Ingredients:
yeast dough;
salad with crab sticks;
gel food coloring;
greens.
Cooking
For simplicity, buy ready-made yeast dough. Salad (it can be any salad of your choice) can be made independently or also bought at the store. The amount of ingredients depends on how many carrots you plan to make. Roll out the dough thinly and cut into strips. Roll these strips into bundles and wrap around the baking cone.
Lubricate the resulting curls with a brush with diluted orange food coloring. Bake at a temperature of 180 ºС until done. Remove the cones and stuff the resulting tubes with salad.
Easter is a great Christian holiday that gathers parishioners under church domes in common prayer, and family, friends, and neighbors at the Easter table. Each housewife tries to cook many delicious dishes so that the whole Easter week (bright week) the table is bursting with dishes in order to break the fast and not offend the guests. In this article we will discuss what to cook for the Easter table.
Our ancestors thoroughly approached the celebration of Easter. Wealthy families put on the table in addition to painted eggs and Easter cakes:
- aspic and jelly
- baked poultry meat
- ham and sausages
- vegetable salads
- pickles
- pies with a variety of fillings
- house wines
- sbitney
Those who did not have such an opportunity prepared simple recipes on the Easter table, but of course, Easter cake, curd Easter and colored eggs.
After the night service, the family returned from the church, the host with a bowl of consecrated food passed around the table three times, and then the family began to eat. The first thing everyone tried was pieces of food sprinkled with holy water.
Easter table menu recipes for cooking holiday dishes
A modern family carefully prepares for a bright holiday, products are purchased in advance, the hostess takes out a cookbook or a cooking notebook, chooses best recipes on the Easter table, which are passed down from generation to generation.
Easter table: recipes for cooking Easter cakes
Easter cake is at the head of the table; it is baked from custard or rich yeast dough, less often from rich unleavened.
Who cooked Easter cake, he knows what it is complex dish, the preparation of which must be approached responsibly. Bake Easter cakes during the week Thursday before Easter, in extreme cases - on Saturday, but not on Good Friday, if you stick to traditions.
For Easter cakes we buy only fresh and quality products. Before starting work, the hostess is baptized so that God will give a blessing. In the room where we prepare the dough and bake Easter cakes, it should be clean, quiet, warm, without drafts.
Easter cake products :
- Peasant butter with a high percentage of fat content - 400 g
- Yolks - 15 pcs (only from domestic eggs)
- Village milk - half a liter
- Flour - 1 kg of the highest grade
- Sugar - 500 g
- Semolina - half a cup
- Vanillin or vanilla sugar
- Candied fruits 50 g, raisins 200 g, half a lemon with a thick skin
- 80 g wet yeast
- We breed yeast in 250 g of warm milk and mix with a glass of flour sifted through a sieve.
- We wrap it with a warm scarf or blanket and put it in heat, to the stove or battery.
- As soon as the dough rises, we will similar it and add the remaining milk (after dissolving sugar in it), then flour, yolks. After that, again in heat - under a fur coat for three hours.
- As soon as the dough is suitable, we begin to actively knead, adding butter, vanilla, raisins and lemon zest. Knead the dough until it starts to squeak and easily separates from the walls of the dishes and hands.
We bake Easter cake
Lubricate the baking dish from the inside with margarine and sprinkle with semolina, it is even better to use special paper that protects from burning and decorates pastries. Slightly batter put in the form a little less than half, cover and let go.
- We turn on the oven in advance at 180º, as soon as the cake has doubled in size, very carefully set it to bake for 30 minutes.
- We check the readiness with a thin wooden stick, piercing the cake - it should remain dry.
- Carefully remove the cake and after 10 minutes gently shake it out of the mold.
Easter cake decoration
Traditionally, Easter cake was smeared sugar syrup and sprinkled with dyed millet. Now housewives mainly use icing sugar, buy it, or make it yourself. The preparation of glaze does not require significant effort:
- Take one protein and one glass of sugar
- Beat with a mixer until a homogeneous thick mass retains its shape when transferred to the product
- Sprinkle with colored powder
Easter table: Easter cottage cheese recipes with photos
Curd Easter- fragrant and very tasty dish, which quickly disappears from the festive table and is eaten with pleasure. Curd Easter happens:
- raw
- custard
- boiled
- baked in the oven
Cottage cheese Easter raw is made, or rather, takes the form of a special stepson in the form of a pyramid, on which a convex drawing of a cross or other church symbols is squeezed out.
- We make the main dish of the Sunday table from mashed to homogeneous mass cottage cheese with the addition of cream, powdered sugar, vanillin, cardamom, egg yolks.
- It is better not to add raisins to cottage cheese if you are going to store it for several days so that it does not turn sour.
Custard Easter
- Brewing the yolk-cream mass
- We mix cottage cheese and sugar, cream or butter into it.
- At the end, we introduce vanillin, raisins, candied fruits (preferably multi-colored), walnuts(finely ground)
Baked Easter is different from cooking traditional easter, but no less appetizing and beautiful. Cottage cheese Easter cooked in the oven will require more effort than the previous options. For it, you need to take a detachable form with a large diameter.
Products for easter easter baked in the oven:
- Fatty, dry, grated cottage cheese 1.5 kg
- Sugar 400 g
- A packet of vanilla and lemon zest
- Raisins 200 g
- Country cream 200 g
- Butter 50 g
- Peasant eggs 6 pieces
- Semolina 100 g
The process of preparing cottage cheese Easter baked in the oven:
- Separate the yolks from the whites, beat separately into foam.
- We mix the yolks into the cottage cheese and add the cream, in which we put it beforehand. semolina for swelling.
- Then pour in the melted butter and sprinkle with powdered sugar.
- At the very end, gently stir in the raisins, vanilla and lemon zest, and lastly add the proteins.
- Lubricate the form with margarine and sprinkle with semolina.
- We shift the curd mass into a mold and put it in the oven, preheated to 180º, leave to bake for 20 minutes.
- Carefully remove the finished Easter from the detachable form.
Easter decoration:
- whipped cream with powdered sugar
- fresh berries
- caramel
- powder
You can use other decorations for the festive dish - it all depends on the flight of your imagination.
Easter table: meat recipes
Not bypassed festive table without rich jelly, which is served at the table with seasonings: horseradish and mustard.
Poultry jelly
Products for chicken jelly:
- Rooster carcass
- Homemade chicken carcass
- Chicken or turkey breast 1 kg
- Gelatin - 3 packs of 25 g
- Garlic, onion, carrot, pepper, salt
The process of preparing jellied poultry:
- On Wednesday, the week before Easter, we soak the meat in a large saucepan overnight.
- In the morning, on a clean Thursday, we drain the water, rinse the carcasses well, fill it with new water and start cooking.
- The first water, after it boils, drain, collect new water, bring to a boil.
- We make a very small fire so that the meat languishes.
- Add bay leaf, carrot, 2 large peeled onions.
- Cook until the bones begin to separate from the carcass.
- Turn off the heat and leave to cool, and then take out the meat with a slotted spoon and cut it, removing the skin and bones.
- We chop, salt, pepper and arrange on plates.
- Soak two bags for an hour instant gelatin and pour into a saucepan, heat to 90º.
- Squeeze the garlic, previously squeezed through the garlic maker, into the water through gauze and pour it into plates, put it in the cold.
We decorate aspic
We take out the finished jelly, laid out on plates, to cool, decorate from above:
- sprigs of greenery
- figurines of boiled carrots
- pickled cucumber slices
- egg pieces
Easter table: recipes for meat dishes with photos
In addition to jelly, they serve a variety of meat snacks for the Easter table:
- smoked hams
- bird
- brawn
- meat rolls
- sausages
- Black pudding was especially popular in the old days.
All this can be bought in the store, on the market or cook yourself.
Pork or young beef
- We take a ham or even better a loin and soak in water.
- Marinate in brine with spices (garlic, onion, juniper leaves, bay leaf, allspice, paprika), the more time, the better.
- We put in foil and in the oven until cooked at 200º.
Chops fried in a pan
- Chopped meat (loin) mode in portions for cutlets
- We beat off, salt, pepper
- Roll on each side in flour and egg
- Fry in a pan in vegetable oil or pork fat
Dish - you will lick your fingers!
Liver cake made from beef or chicken liver
Salads for the Easter table recipes
On the festive table on Easter Sunday, there are many flour and meat dishes that are high-calorie and heavy. Therefore, it is best if there are light vegetable salads on the table. Now vegetables in stores all year round and you can afford to indulge in light healthy salads.
Salads on the Easter table: recipes with photos
Lightweight and delicious salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes and herbs. As a dressing can be olive or vegetable oil
spring salad great addition to meat dishes. Delicate and vitamin with radish, the first spring greens, dressed olive oil and sprinkled with vinegar - it will decorate the festive table with bright colors.
Perfectly combined black Eyed Peas, green pea, egg and greens, and if we add hard cheese and decorate with lettuce leaves - this will be an original festive dish.
boiled salad young potatoes with herbs, seasoned with garlic, mustard and unrefined odorous vegetable oil.
Easter egg wreath
An important place on the Easter table is occupied by colored eggs - without them it is impossible to imagine bright Sunday. Each hostess chooses her own way of coloring and creative decoration of eggs: onion peel, greens, food colorings, decals, beads, balls and flowers.
In order for the eggs to look beautiful on the table, a wreath is specially baked from rich yeast dough. It is convenient to place eggs in such a kalach, besides, it will decorate the Easter table with dignity.
Easter is a big, bright holiday with the All-night Liturgy, blessed ringing of bells and the divine aromas of Easter dishes, with which bright Sunday is celebrated in every home.
Video: Easter table recipes from Yulia Vysotskaya
Lena Strebkova
Easter table according to tradition, it should be generous and varied, and the number of dishes, according to legend, is equal to the number of days of Great Lent. Unfortunately (although, perhaps, fortunately, too), these days the assortment of gastronomic delights of the Easter meal has been considerably reduced, because we are always so busy that we hardly find time to dip eggs in onion skins. And even more so, not every one of us gets around to baking Easter cakes and preparing a sweet cottage cheese Easter ... But if there is time and mood on the coming Sunday, you can decorate the Easter table not only with delicious dishes, but also with interesting thematic decor. And the confectioner and food stylist Elena Mino (@mino_bakery ) will help us with this.
pastry chef and food stylist When serving the Easter meal, first of all, you should not forget that it is spring now (even if it is raining from the sky) and very soon everything will be in bloom.
The main elements of the festive decor:
Textile
Try to pick up a bright tablecloth and napkins. Now shops for each holiday offer a wide range of table textiles. A tablecloth in delicate pastel colors (pink, blue, green, yellow, purple) will be emphasized by a long narrow strip of fabric laid on top along the table. 
Tableware
If you opted for a light tablecloth, then it is advisable to choose the dishes a few shades darker. It can be plain or with elements of floral decor. On each plate you can put a painted egg, a small flower or other element. I chose a lamb-shaped cookie with white icing, because the lamb is a symbol of the sacrifice of Jesus, who gave his life to save people. Bake egg-shaped cookies and paint them with colored icing. These cookie eggs can be put on guests' plates or put in the center of the table on fresh greens. If you don’t have time to bake and decorate yourself, then just google a little and order your unique cookies in some private pastry shop.
Candles and figurines
A few small candles neatly placed among dishes and plates will add Easter serving a bit of solemnity, and unobtrusive decorative chickens, rabbits and wreaths of wooden dyes will look appropriate.
Flowers
Fresh flowers will enliven our festive decor. They can be used individually as an element of individual serving, or you can collect a spring bouquet and place it in the center of the table in a transparent or white glass vase. Multi-colored hyacinths in pots, tulips or ranunculus will look advantageous. Willow twigs, probably left at home after Palm Sunday, will also be an excellent addition to flower arrangements.
colored eggs
Today, stores offer various sets of dyes for eggs, and for those who are especially busy, ready-made sets are already cooked and dyed. I suggest you spend a little time and paint eggs at home in a much more environmentally friendly way. onion peel- this, of course, is always a win-win option for "egg" painting, but the red-terracotta classic looks pretty monotonous.
Therefore, this time for painting eggs, I suggest using a decoction of the leaves. red cabbage(I emphasized the smooth transition from dark blue to pale blue and blue-white by placing the eggs in a cardboard container, which, with its simplicity, only enhances the resulting gradient). I chose the blue range of shades because it symbolizes the bright and clear spring sky.
Pink and burgundy eggs can be obtained with a decoction of beets, green - thanks to a decoction of spinach, and yellow eggs will give turmeric. Dark chocolate color will be obtained by boiling eggs with the addition of ground coffee.
If there is no time to color the eggs, then you can simply tie up boiled white eggs with multi-colored satin ribbons or stick stickers on them. This will give them an even more festive look.
Easter and Easter
Easter cake and Easter are the main decoration of the Easter table, so it is always customary to put them in the center. On the eve of the holiday, dishes, of course, can be purchased at any supermarket, temple or monastery. But it's better to cook it yourself. In this case, the decoration will depend only on your imagination.
Usually Easter cakes are decorated with protein glaze, on top of which various confectionery sprinkles are applied. Also, Easter cake can be decorated with almond petals, dried fruits, cinnamon sticks and cloves flowers, sprinkled with colored sugar, or left without icing at all. Such minimalism is in vogue today.
We thank the salon of unusual bouquets "Kruzhovnik" for help in filming
From ancient times in Russia solemnly prepared for the Holy Day. From Monday of the last - Holy - week of Great Lent, a general cleaning of the entire house began, which ended on Maundy Thursday. After that, they began to prepare the Easter festive table. According to tradition, ritual dishes must have been present on the Easter table: cottage cheese Easter, Easter cake, Easter lamb and painted eggs. These dishes are deeply symbolic. For example, Easter cake symbolizes the presence of God in the world and in human life. Sweetness and beauty Easter cake express the care of the Lord for every human being. Cottage cheese Easter traditionally has the shape of a truncated pyramid. And this is not accidental: this form symbolizes the Holy Sepulcher. Easter lamb(lamb) is a reminder of the sacrificial death of Christ to atone for the sins of all mankind. Colored eggs are always red! - a symbol of the blood of Christ and His Resurrection. But even in pre-Christian times, the egg has always been a symbol of peace and the triumph of life.
An especially rich festive Easter table was always prepared for Easter. In wealthy families, the number festive dishes reached 48 - according to the number of days of the past post. The basis of the meal these days was meat: baked ham, lamb or ham, stuffed geese, ducks, turkeys, suckling pigs and homemade sausage. Moreover, all Easter dishes were served cold. More precisely, they did this: the first meal took place at night, upon arrival from the church. First they drank a spoon vegetable oil, then ate oatmeal jelly, broke the fast with a piece of Easter, a slice of Easter cake and an egg. And in the morning they decorated the table, put out pre-prepared dishes and did not clear the table all day, since these days it was customary to visit without an invitation and try everything your heart desires.
In the center of the Easter table was a dish with sprouted grains of wheat, oats or watercress. You need to germinate grains and seeds about a week before Easter: pour some earth and well-moistened seeds on a flat dish, mix and leave in a warm place. By Easter the grass will grow. Just don't forget to water. Put the colored eggs in the grass and put in the center of the table.
Eggs can still be laid in a special one.
Ingredients:
500 g flour
10 g pressed yeast
2 tbsp. l. Sahara,
100 ml milk
½ st. l. salt,
1 tsp citric acid,
75 g melted plums. oils,
2 eggs,
poppy, raisins, dried apricots, nuts - a handful.
Cooking:
Sift flour, make a well in the middle. Put the crumbled 
yeast, add a little sugar and warm milk, knead the dough. Cover and put in a warm place for 15-20 minutes, until the dough begins to bubble. Add to it the remaining milk, sugar, salt, citric acid, butter, 1 whole egg and 1 protein (leave the yolk for lubrication). Knead elastic dough. Roll into a ball and leave for 30-40 minutes. come up. When the dough has doubled in size, knead it thoroughly. Divide into three parts and roll out each in the form of long strips 10-15 cm wide. Spread the filling on each strip: poppy seeds mixed with sugar, finely chopped dried apricots, chopped nuts or washed and dried raisins - if desired, and wrap in rolls-tows (by lenght). The main thing is that you get three rolls with different fillings. Weave a braid from the bundles and put on a baking sheet in the form of a wreath (around). Let go, grease with yolk and put in the oven. Cool the baked wreath, put it on a flat dish, put the colored eggs in the center.
Eggs are usually eaten with mayonnaise. This is fundamentally wrong, and it’s not even about the dubious benefits of mayonnaise. Traditionally eggs and all easter dishes ate, sprinkling with Thursday salt - this is salt burned in an oven with kvass wort, herbs or cabbage leaves. Thursday salt, prepared only on Maundy Thursday in Holy Week, p 
healing and even magical properties were found. Putting magic aside, we can say that such salt is indeed very useful product. It is enriched with potassium, calcium, magnesium ions, selenium elements. Besides, thursday salt
is an "absorber" of all kinds of toxins. This salt was prepared only once a year - on Maundy Thursday, before sunset, and brought to consecrate together in Easter cakes, eggs and Easter. By the way, this salt is still prepared in Kostroma.
Mix 1 kg of coarse (precisely coarse!) salt with 5 kg of soaked black Borodino bread. Place the mixture in an oven heated to 250ºС and bake until the bread turns black. Grind the resulting mixture and sift through a sieve. Pour the remaining salt in the sieve into a jar and use instead of regular salt.
Easter was prepared from fresh, dry cottage cheese. To do this, the cottage cheese was laid out in advance in gauze and placed under a slight oppression so that the whey was glass. There is an opinion that in ancient times, Easter was prepared not from cottage cheese, but from settled yogurt, so it was very tender, airy and fragrant. But you can also cook a wonderful Easter from cottage cheese. Only cottage cheese should never be passed through a meat grinder. Only through a sieve! So the recipe Easter with pistachios.
Ingredients:
1.2 kg of cottage cheese,
1 liter of heavy cream (at least 33%),
200 g sugar (preferably powdered sugar),
4 eggs,
200 g butter,
250 g pistachios,
Vanilla to taste.
Cooking:
Rub cottage cheese through a sieve, mix with sugar, vanilla and eggs. Add softened butter and chopped pistachios. Grind the whole mass as best as possible, gradually adding cream. Put in a pasochnik, covered with slightly damp gauze, put under oppression and leave in the cold. In a day or two Easter will be ready. If you don't have a bean bag, then you can use a plastic bucket, in which you first make holes with a hot nail (so that the whey can drain).
An indispensable attribute of the Easter table is a lamb made of dough. In the old days, it was baked in special forms, and in our time, housewives have come up with a new original way cooking Easter lamb.
Ingredients:
Opara:
3 art. spoons of flour
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of pressed yeast (or a bag of dry ones),
½ glass of water.
Dough:
6 cups flour
1 glass of milk
1 teaspoon salt
5 st. spoons of sugar
2 eggs,
150 g butter.
Filling: poppy, dried apricots, thick jam(taste).
Cooking:
Mix the products for the dough, stir until smooth, leave in a warm place. When it bubbles, pour in the melted butter, milk, eggs, sugar and salt. Mix well, add 4 cups of flour, mix thoroughly. Gradually adding flour, stir until it becomes impossible to stir the dough with a spoon. Then pour flour on the table, lay out the dough and knead, adding a little flour until it becomes smooth and soft. Place in a bowl, cover and leave in a warm place until doubled in size. Punch down and leave until re-rise.
In the meantime, draw and cut out a lamb on paper. Ready dough roll out, apply a template, cut a lamb on it and put it on a baking sheet. Leave a piece of dough for the ear. Fold the remaining dough, roll it into a layer, put the filling on it and roll it up. Cut the roll into pieces 1-1.5 cm wide, grease the lamb with water, lay out the pieces of the roll in the form of a skin. Form an ear out of the dough and glue it to the head. Lubricate the lamb with sweet tea and bake in the oven at 200-220ºС.
And finally, the cake. It was prepared only for Easter and the Easter table, and they did not spare butter, sugar and eggs in the dough. The dough for the cake is very sweet. Therefore, it was kneaded for a long time, at least an hour. It was believed that you need to hit the dough 300 times in order for the guests to praise the cake 300 times. Of course, a recipe that uses 40-60 egg yolks is very fatty even for a non-hungry modern ... Especially since old recipes designed for a large number of Easter cakes. After all, Easter cakes were shared not only with relatives and friends, they were distributed to the poor, taken to shelters and hospitals ... Modern recipes Easter cakes are not so plentiful. But no less delicious. For example, kulich "Citric".
Ingredients:
Opara:
40 g pressed yeast
1 hour a spoonful of sugar,
½ cup warm water
2 tbsp. spoons of flour.
Dough:
4 eggs,
¾ cup sugar 
150 g butter,
3 cups flour
1 cup raisins
½ cup nuts
2 tbsp. spoons of cognac
zest of 1 lemon,
1 teaspoon turmeric
vanillin,
salt.
glaze:
1 protein
100 g of powdered sugar.
Cooking:
Prepare the raisins (wash thoroughly and pour cognac), nuts (grind with a rolling pin), wipe the zest from the lemon. Brew turmeric 2 tsp. boiling water. Separate the yolk from one egg. Set aside the white for icing. Prepare the dough, leave in a warm place for fermentation. Beat the yolk, eggs and sugar with a mixer in a fluffy foam. Add 1 cup flour and stir. Stir in softened butter, zest, vanilla, turmeric, a pinch of salt. Whisk well until evenly colored. Pour in the broth, stir. Add 1.5 cups of flour, beat well with a mixer. The dough will be runny and sticky. Cover the bowl and leave to rise in a warm place. The dough should rise at least 2 times.
Put the raisins and nuts into the dough. Grease your hand with vegetable oil and mix the dough. Add ½ cup of flour and fold it into the dough, using your hands in a circle in one direction until all the flour is distributed in the dough. Put in oiled and sprinkled with breadcrumbs forms (put an oiled circle of paper on the bottom). Put on proofing in a warm place. Bake as usual. Beat the protein with powdered sugar and pour over the cakes with the resulting icing.
On our website you can always find step by step Easter recipes with photos.
Bright joy to you, fun, hope and truly Christian love!
Larisa Shuftaykina