Buona Pasqua, with Italian Easter Bread

Please pardon me for my lack of writings! With the amount of garden space we're challenging ourselves with this year (3 roughly 20'x20' spaces!), the plethora of springtime events going on, plus 9 chickens, and two jobs, things are just too hectic around here to even finish a thought. I do have a few posts up my sleeves though....

This one is extremely appropriate for this weekend! This traditional Italian Easter bread is sweet, simple, and fun to make, especially if you have kids (there is egg dyeing involved!) No plants are involved, but fresh eggs sure are.

Growing up in an food-traditional Italian family, I thought I would have come across this one before, but today was the first time I have seen/heard of/made this beautiful, festive, sweet bread. My mom, who grew up in an upstate NY town with a large Italian community, recalls that every year, someone would make this bread, whether it be an aunt, an friend's aunt, or an aunt's friend...it would always show up on the Easter table, along with copius amount of other breads, cakes, or pies, to celebrate the end of Lent. Since Lent is a time of sacrifice, when it's over, it sure is over! Though there's no digging in until after Easter Mass.


Italian Easter Bread
The bread can be made as one large "wreath" to colorfully adorn the center of the table, or it can be made into six small breads, to be given away as presents. This recipe came from the blog, The Italian Dish, with me and my mom's own added input, comments, and suggestions that we came up with while actually making it. Buona fortuna!

For the dough:
1 package Rapid Rise (instant) yeast, about 2-1/4 teaspoons
1 1/4 cups milk
1/3 cup butter
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup sugar
3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp anise - we added this according to my mom's childhood memory. it can be left out.. but you may be  missing out :)
pinch of salt

You will also need:
1 egg, beaten with 1 teaspoon of water
6 dyed Easter eggs *
sprinkles or pearl sugar

*You can dye the eggs first, or dye them while you are waiting for the dought to rise. The traditional way is not to hardboil them, though...they are supposed to cook in the oven along with the bread. However, I did boil them for a few seconds (don't tell Grandma!). We were afraid they would crack when being dyed, going from refridgerator-cold to dye-hot water (dyeing them works best in very hot water). Have fun dyeing them! Be creative, mix the dyes, make new colors!

Take them out of the dye and pat them to remove excess liquid, and let them sit out to dry. Admire them :) 

Making the dough:

In a small saucepan, warm the milk and butter together, just till butter melts.    In a large mixer bowl, combine yeast, salt, eggs and sugar.  Add the warm (not hot - it will kill the yeast) milk and butter. Add about half the flour and the anise and beat until smooth with dough hook (or just use any utensils you feel necessary to slowly incorporate the flour - wooden spoon or fork).   Slowly add the remaining flour to form a stiff dough.  Don't worry about how much flour it ends up being, just keep adding until the dough is not sticky anymore - we added about another 1/2 cup to a cup.  Knead until smooth with either dough hook attachment or turn out on floured board and knead.  Place in a greased bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about an hour.

Punch dough down, divide into 2 pieces (or 12 if you are making 6 breads).  Roll each piece to form a 1 inch thick rope about 24 inches (14 inches if you're making 6 breads) long and, taking two pieces, twist to form a "braid", pinching the ends, and loop into a circle. If at any point things are getting sticky, just sprinkle flour onto your work surface. Place the finish twisted product on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

(Mom held while I twisted)

and....

Good enough! right?

Now, tuck the eggs into the folds. Cover again and let it rise for another hour.

When it's done rising, brush it with the beaten egg/water mixture, and cover with sprinkles!

Bake at 350 for 40 minutes if you are making one bread, or for 20 minutes if you are making the 6 breads. You can eat the eggs, but if you leave the bread sitting out for a few hours, don't eat them. Duh.

In case you were wondering, the egg mixture that you brush over the bread causes it to brown. Some people desire the brown color, some don't. If you don't like it this brown, just beat the egg white with the water(separate the yolk out).

Happy Easter from us....eat well!!!!

Buona Pasqua da noi ... mangiare bene!