Livance/Czech Yeasted Pancakes

You might have noticed that am running this week's blogging marathon with Cook by Capital as theme. And i picked 'P', obviously after Paris, today's capital i have picked is Prague Prague is Czech Republic's capital and i seriously want to visit this beautiful capital atleast once in my lifetime. And i have been looking for an opportunity to visit this place though its not far from France. Since i picked Prague, i googled for some interesting dishes from this amazing country, many Czech dishes are loaded with meats. However i looked for something different, definitely a hassle free dish from this cuisine. While googling, i crossed Livance, a fabulous Czech yeasted pancakes. Livance may sounds as much as like American Pancakes but trust me these pancakes are dangerously delicious.

Vánočka/Vanocka - Czech Christmas Bread

Vanocka/Vánočka is a Czech Republic and Slovakia Christmas bread which is often baked during Christmas time. This bread calls for a rich bread dough prepared with eggs, butter and this bread dough sounds almost like Brioche. Usually this bread have raisins and almonds though sometime you can add some lemon rind or orange rinds just to give some flavor. Braided like Challa, this bread calls for three progressively braids stacked on top of each other. This is sometimes interpreted as a rough sculpture of Baby Jesus wrapped in cloth laying in a manger (manger is a structure used to hold food to feed animals). Manger is also a Christian symbol. Earlier people felt like saying that this bread is very difficult to prepare at home and so many superstitions and special customs are followed while baking this bread. When making Vánočka some says that the person who bakes this bread should jump up and down while the dough rises, another custom says that to avoid touching silver or metal to the Vánočka.