Happy Easter! Or should I say Buona Pasqua everyone! This weeks Menu Monday will be featured on Sunday instead to celebrate the Easter holiday! 🙂
This Italian Easter bread is a cultural tradition which symbolizes “the bread of life”. Italian Easter Bread is braided with eggs, which also hold incredible Easter significance as signs from nature of new life, just as we are celebrating new life in the risen Christ. Due to the ending of the fast of Lent, where households would traditionally refrain from rich and sweet dishes, Easter breads are often rich, eggy breads that can range in sweetness, and sometimes are studded with dried fruit (which at one time was a luxury item). These are truly celebration breads that each household adapts to their own definition and means of celebrating.
I love this bread and I get so excited every year for it! This year its my first time making and trying out this recipe for myself. It is such a sweet tasting bread and tastes even better warmed up in the oven before served. My grandmother loved it. She is such a traditional woman and loves her traditional pastries from back home. I was pretty nervous because I had never made bread before, and I am really happy that this one turned out awesome!
When I went about asking my grandmother for her recipe her answer was ” put a little bit of this, and a little bit of that”. I laughed and slapped my forehead because it was no help at all! Back then in little villages of Italy, there was no such thing as a measuring cup. They just went about their recipes by pure experimentation and hopefully getting it right every time! I tried to get help from my mom to see if she remembered how my grandmother made the bread growing up. Together we formed this recipe. It doesn’t taste the same, BUT it is pretty darn close. But no matter how hard we try, we can NEVER make our food taste as good as my grandmothers. She is truly a magician in the kitchen!
A little tip for this recipe, do not boil the eggs before hand while dyeing them. Keep them raw as they will cook under the oven with the bread.
Enjoy! 🙂
- 4 Cups Flour
- 1/2 Cup Sugar
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1/2 tsp Yeast
- 1/3 Cup Butter
- 7 Eggs
- 1 1/2 Cup Whole Milk
- Vinegar
- Water
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- Sprinkles
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Preheat the oven to 375 °F. In a mixer combine the milk, sugar, vanilla, 2 eggs, salt, yeast, and butter together until smooth.
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Mix in the flour slowly until the mixture is not sticky anymore.
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Let the dough sit in a warm environment covered with a cloth for about 1- 1.5 hours.
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Once the dough has risen, break it into four pieces. Roll out each of the four pieces into thin logs. Once its rolled out and even, pinch the middle and braid the two parts together and join each end of the braid together into a circle.
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Take 4 separate bowls of boiling water and add food dye. Put all four eggs into the different colour food dye of your choice. Add in 1 tsp of vinegar to the water. Leave the eggs in the dye for about 10-15 minutes.
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Once the eggs are dry, place them into the middle of each of the rolled dough.
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Beat an egg and brush it on top of each of the pastries and then add sprinkles all around the dough.
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Place the bread under the oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.
