Italian Easter Bread

Continued from our Easter Bread series:

Another Easter bread for you to consider serving at your family gathering.

I'm partial to this mostly because the ingredients are easy to find and the pastel colors are much closer to the way I decorate for Easter!  The color of the bread is paler because the egg wash is white-based, not yolk-based, but it still has that classic chewy crust!




Italian Easter Bread

1 cups milk, lukewarm
1 packages active dry yeast
4 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 tsp orange zest
1 tsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg white
1 tsp sugar
Pastel-dyed hard boiled eggs
Sprinkles (pastel-colored)

Combine milk, yeast and sugar to a bowl.  Allow mixture to proof and look for small bubbles forming.

In a large mixer, combine butter, salt and sugar until light and fluffy.  Alternate adding the flour and yeast mixtures in small increments, mixing until thoroughly combined.  Stir in lemon zest, orange zest and vanilla extract.

Knead dough into a ball.  Place each loaf in a greased container covered with a towel.  Let rise for 1 hour.  Punch dough down and cut dough into two halves.  Set one aside. 

Take dough and again divide, this time into thirds.  Roll out each piece into a long, thick rope.  The length and thickness depends on what design you want to shape your bread loaf into. 

Place each rope next to each other and braid together.  Place a couple hard-boiled eggs in the braid as you go.  Cover the dough with a towel and let rise for an additional hour.

Repeat with the second half of the dough mixture. 

Preheat oven 425F.  

Mix the egg white and sugar in a bowl.  Brush over the top of each loaf.  Dust with a layer of sprinkles.

Bake each loaf for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350F and bake an additional 20-25 minutes, or until the top of each loaf is shiny and brown.