Montreal Gazette

Fresh from Easter ovens

Tsoureki, chorek, folar de Pascoa: Around Montreal this week, bakers are
creating special breads that symbolize the resurrection

SUSAN SEMENAK
The Gazette

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

When I was a little girl, there was no running, jumping or frolicking in the
house on Good Friday.

For Christians, it is the most solemn day of the year, marking the
anniversary of Christ’s death.

My mother’s Good Friday edicts, however, had more to do with the massive tub
of paska dough that was left to rise – like a baby swaddled in layers of
dishcloths, towels and woollen blankets – in a bedroom with the door closed
and a space heater cranked to full blast.

Mixing, kneading and baking the traditional Ukrainian Easter bread was an
all-day affair that called for 10 pounds of flour and a dozen eggs and
relied on a hand-scrawled, oil-stained recipe handed down over several
generations. The next day, the paskas, along with boiled eggs, horseradish,
butter, cheese, eggs and kielbasa sausage, would be transferred to decorated
baskets lined with embroidered linens, and brought to the church hall for
blessing.

In many Christian traditions, special Easter breads are baked to symbolize
Christ’s resurrection. Some cultures bake whole eggs, ancient symbols of
spring and fertility, into their breads. Others shape theirs into the form
of birds or animals.

The Greeks have their tsourekia – rich, brioche-like braided breads,
seasoned with the spices mahlepi and mastiha and with red-dyed, hard-boiled
eggs baked into them.

“You can’t have Easter without tsoureki,” said Christos Hatzimarkos, head
pastry chef at Afroditi, the Greek bakery and pastry shop in Park Extension.
In the old days, everybody made their own, but now they are just as likely
to order it from his bakery.

“After going through all of Lent without sweets, a slice of tsoureki is
delicious with coffee right after midnight mass or on Easter morning. And
then again after supper.”

Armenians have their own version, called chorek, also a spiced sweet-dough
bread braided around an egg. Khatchik Merdjanian, who owns Armenia Bakery in
north-end Montreal, likes his chorek for Easter brunch, along with a
traditional egg, onion and parsley omelette called ekee, and yogurt and
spinach.

In Portugal, they dream throughout Lent of folar de Pascoa, a fat,
pumpkin-shaped bread studded with coloured hard-boiled eggs. Sometimes it’s
flavoured with raisins and cinnamon, or anise.

Italians eat special breads at Easter, too, a savoury loaf called a corona
pasquale or a dove-shaped loaf called a colomba. And for Easter Monday, when
Italians in and around Rome head outdoors for a picnic, there’s torta salata
pasquale, Easter bread with prosciutto, olives and parmesan cheese.

For Montrealers without the time or inclination to bake their own Easter
bread, there is a wealth of bakeries whose shelves are filled with seasonal
sweets and savouries:

Afroditi Bakery has an assortment of Greek Easter treats. Tsourekia are
traditional brioche-like braided loaves with red-dyed eggs (from $7 to $25
depending on the size). Also try the koulourakia shortbread cookies for
Easter ($8 for a 500-gram box).

756 St. Roch St. in Park Extension. (514) 274-5302.