Italian Easter Bread - Daring Bakers April 2014 Challenge

Italian Easter Bread

The April Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Wolf of Wolf’s Den . She challenged us to Spring into our kitchens and make Easter breads reflecting cultures around the world.

Making bread is my "thing." I have loved to bake bread since I was young. So this month's challenge (ok, technically last month's!) was right up my alley. I had never made Easter bread before and was pleased to find out it was easy to do and tasted delicious!! Mt braids ended up HUGE, and they wer a little underbaked.... same for the eggs. BTW I dyed them using Kool Aid, since they were touching something edible.

Italian Easter Bread
recipe from The Italian Dish
makes 6 individual loaves

Ingredients:

• 1 package Rapid Rise yeast
• 1.25 cups scalded milk, cooled to room temperature
• pinch of salt
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3.5 cups flour (approximate)
• 1 egg, beaten with 1 teaspoon of water
• 6 dyed Easter eggs (raw - do NOT hard boil them first!)
• sprinkles

Instructions:
 1. In a large mixer bowl, combine yeast, warm (not hot) milk, salt, butter, eggs and sugar. Add about half the flour and beat until smooth with dough hook.   Slowly add the remaining flour to form a stiff dough. Add flour until the dough is not sticky anymore.  Knead until smooth with either dough hook attachment or turn out on floured board and knead.

2. Place in a greased bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about an hour.

fat little braided dough circles

3. Punch dough down, divide into 12 pieces. Roll each piece to form a 1 inch thick rope about 14 inches long and, taking two pieces, twist to form a "braid", pinching the ends. Loop into a circle.

4. Place on a greased baking sheet or line your baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat. Cover and let rise until double, about an hour again.

and the eggs were nestled all snug in their braids

5. Brush each bread with beaten egg wash. Put on the sprinkles. In the middle of each bread ring, gently place an Easter egg, making an indentation with the egg.

6. Bake at 350 degrees until golden - about 20 - 25 minutes. Cool on rack.

Italian Easter Bread - Halloween style!!

My Favorite Thing About Easter!

Easter has always been one of my most favorite holidays! After the hustle and bustle and family gatherings of Christmas, I love having another reason a few months later for the whole extended family to gather together. I love how Easter is like a calmer Christmas. Which, it should be, considering that Christmas is about Christ's birth and Easter is about his death and resurrection.

First, instead of presents you hunt Easter eggs and Easter baskets. As a kid, it was soooo much fun. And I find that as an adult, it is just as fun watching the kids hunt the eggs (and you can get your fill of candy while you prepare the baskets ;) ) Dying the eggs was always a lot of fun too. Deciding which patterns to make or what colors to layer on. I always loved to put one egg in the blue color and let it sit as long as I could to get really, really dark.  Of course, candy is a huge part of the hunt. You can't beat Cadbury Cream eggs and Reese's peanut butter eggs. Jelly beans are another favorite, and every year I buy as many different kinds of them as I can. I love how now there are so many different brands and flavors. Brach's will always be my favorite. (the red ones)

Then, after the hunt, you meet up with the family for the main meal. Easter is always ham and mashed potatoes. Always. It was the only time we ever had a big ham, and I loved it. Mashed potatoes have always been a favorite of mine as well. For dessert, my mom would usually make a 3-d lamb cake, complete with coconut wool and green coconut grass. The best part, though, was family. I love any excuse for us all to get together. We talk, laugh, swap stories and sometimes play board games. Even though I rarely spend it with my family, I still love gathering with Jeff's family. They don't have ham, though, but there is usually mashed potatoes.

In college, I started attending  sunrise services on Easter.  Kinda the opposite of the midnight Christmas Eve service.:D The bonding and celebration are things I will always cherish. We still go to church on Easter, but getting up before the sun doesn't really happen lol I do think that church is a very important part of the day, though.

Of course, sometimes Easter falls near my birthday, and THAT was always extra special!

This year, Easter will be my child's first holiday. We won't be able to spend it with the extended family (though we ARE going to have a scaled down Easter meal with my parents) or even go to church, but I think it will be special just the same. It will be a different version of Easter, but it will be OUR version of Easter. And there will still be mashed potatoes next year ;)



I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Hop blogging program, for a gift card worth $25. For more information on how you can participate, click here.” (make sure you link to http://hopthemovie.socialmoms.com/about)

Dyeing Easter Eggs!

Happy Easter!!!

Last night Jeff and I dyed eggs! Neither of us had done it in a loooooong time, but we gthought it would be fun! And it was.

We bought both the regular Paas dye kit and an off brand that had a white crayon, extra dye and sponges and other fun stuff. Guess which one worked better? lol

See the middle white tray? The greenish egg is one I used the speckle sponge on... didn't turn out so great lol But it is unique, right????

All of the eggs ended up looking unique. That is one thing I love - they are always random colors from the dyes.

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Easter/Spring Cookie Recipies?

Does anyone have any good spring or Easter cookie recipes? I will be doing cut outs for Mother's Day. I was thinking something light and airy - like with lemon or lime cookies, but J doesn't think his family will like those. So maybe something with chocolate instead? I still might just make some lemon crinkles though lol

Please LMK if you have any suggestions!!